Future Timeline

(Science Alert) The art of speaking to AI chatbots is continuing to frustrate and baffle people.

A study attempting to fine-tune prompts fed into a chatbot model found that, in one instance, asking it to speak as if it were on Star Trek dramatically improved its ability to solve grade-school-level math problems.

"It's both surprising and irritating that trivial modifications to the prompt can exhibit such dramatic swings in performance," the study authors Rick Battle and Teja Gollapudi at software firm VMware in California said in their paper.

The study, first reported by New Scientist, was published on February 9 on arXiv, a server where scientists can share preliminary findings before they have been validated by careful scrutiny from peers.

Using AI to speak with AI

Machine learning engineers Battle and Gallapudi didn't set out to expose the AI model as a Trekkie. Instead, they were trying to figure out if they could capitalize on the "positive thinking" trend.

https://newatlas.com/robotics/humanoid- ... rk-amazon/
Tall, capable, and vaguely insectoid looking, a series of Digit robots are now moving around empty bins at an Amazon research and development facility. The trial run is the first step towards using the bots to automate repetitive warehouse processes.

The robots were provided for the test program by Agility Robotics, an Amazon-backed tech company whose flagship product is the humanoid Digit robot. Measuring 5.7 ft (175 cm) tall, the robot has grasshopper-like legs that the company refers to as "backwards legs," which allow it to crouch to pick up items off the floor and lift them to nearly six feet high. Digit can lift packages weighing up to 35 lb (16 kg) and it can walk in nearly all directions, handle stairs and uneven terrain, and even walk while in a crouched position.

Amazon, which says it now has over 750,000 robots working for it, indicates that Digit isn't meant to take jobs away but rather, to "work collaboratively with employees." The company says the bots will be tasked with the repetitive process of recycling empty totes that no longer have inventory in them.

This isn't Digit's first foray into the working world where it is certainly never going to replace human workers (yes, that is meant to be read dripping in sarcasm). In 2019 a creepier, headless version of the bot was trialed in a partnership with Ford for the autonomous delivery of packages to homes. And just last year, Digit began doing its thing at the warehouse that handles fulfillment for the women's wear brand, Spanx, as you can see in the following video.

The perception of softness can be taken for granted, but it plays a crucial role in many actions and interactions—from judging the ripeness of an avocado to conducting a medical exam, or holding the hand of a loved one. But understanding and reproducing softness perception is challenging because it involves so many sensory and cognitive processes.

Robotics researchers have tried to address this challenge with haptic devices, but previous attempts have not distinguished between two primary elements of softness perception: cutaneous cues (sensory feedback from the skin of the fingertip), and kinesthetic cues (feedback about the amount of force on the finger joint).

"If you press on a marshmallow with your fingertip, it's easy to tell that it's soft. But if you place a hard biscuit on top of that marshmallow and press again, you can still tell that the soft marshmallow is underneath, even though your fingertip is touching a hard surface," explains Mustafa Mete, a Ph.D. student in the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab in the School of Engineering. "We wanted to see if we could create a robotic platform that can do the same."

Lenovo decided that its initial Daystar robot simply wasn't creepy enough. The company's new creation, the Daystar Bot GS, ditches the old version's wheels in favor of not four but six legs. Lenovo appears to have quietly developed the GS model for businesses, the public sector, and government entities, but now the cat—or robot dog—is out of the bag.

An iF Design Award page published Monday offers a peek at the bot's new design. The GS's "face" appears to contain at least three cameras or other sensors, while a rotating piece on top of the body might hide additional visualization tech. iF photos also show that accessories can be attached to the robot's body, enabling it to grab objects and conduct enhanced surveillance. The robot is reportedly IP66 rated, meaning it's dustproof and waterproof to the point of withstanding high-pressure water jets.

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The European Parliament has approved the world's first comprehensive framework for constraining the risks of artificial intelligence (AI).

The sector has seen explosive growth - driving huge profits but also stoking fears about bias, privacy and even the future of humanity.

The AI Act works by classifying products according to risk and adjusting scrutiny accordingly.

The law's creators said it would make the tech more "human-centric."

"The AI act is not the end of the journey but the starting point for new governance built around technology," MEP Dragos Tudorache added.