US DoE wants to use AI to build world’s first autonomous energy grid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to fully automate the American energy grid could reduce regulatory burden, improve resilience and reliability, and make it more efficient. The US Department of Energy, whose supercomputers are already building their own AI’s, has announced it will explore a first of a...
Daimler hires Soul Machine’s lifelike Avatar to answer customer queries
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bots are evolving and increasingly it’s going to get more difficult to tell bots from real people, whether they’re just text bots or, in this case, life like looking avatars. New Zealand based company Soul Machines, the company behind a sophisticated high definition digital...
AI drones will soon be controlling autonomous vehicles on building sites
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Automation is a fact of life within every industry now, but as technology advances more tasks will be able to be automated, and in the construction industry this is one of the first, major steps to full automation. Some mining operations are already 100...
Blackberry’s AI Robo-hacker gets to work finding bugs in connected cars code
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As more products become reliant on software to function, and as programs get increasingly complex, human developers are finding it increasingly difficult to find and patch all the bugs and vulnerabilities. As cars, especially self-driving ones, become more reliant on software it’s critical automakers...
World’s first crystal robot goes for a walk
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Our ability to turn almost any material, seemingly, into a robotic device, including crystals, will help us open the door to new drug delivery and healthcare applications as well as ones we haven’t discovered yet. All of a sudden I’m seeing a new glut...
World’s first DNA robots successfully move and deliver molecule sized cargo
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots are getting smaller, and our mastery over biology is increasing, so it’s inevitable that we will continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible and create a new breed of smaller, intelligent micro-machines. In the classic 1966 American science fiction film Fantastic Voyage, a...
Ingenious new bot discovers hacks companies haven’t told their users about
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many of your online accounts have already likely been compromised but very few companies own up to the fact, putting you and your data at risk,but now a bot can tell you which companies have been hacked – even if they don’t want you to...
Researchers have taught robots to predict the consequences of their future actions
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to predict the consequences of our actions is a vital human ability, and until now it’s one that robots have sorely lacked. We tell our children all the time that their actions have consequences, and today, as you’d more and more robots are capable...
Researchers use Biohybrid Robots made from algae to treat Cancer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to identify the earliest stages of disease and treat it with ultimate precision will help doctors treat patients better and help patients recover faster. Over the past year scientists have developed 3D printed enzyme powered nanobots that can surf through the body’s bloodstream...
Dubai rolls out autonomous police cars to go alongside its robot police officers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Technology is changing the world of law enforcement and it’s important to experiment with new ideas that provide low visibility but highly effective policing. A couple of weeks ago, and following on from the deployment of the regions first robot police officer at the Dubai...
The world’s most advanced robot just learnt Parkour
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Humans evolve at a biological rate, technology evolves at an exponential rate, and ATLAS is improving all the time. The majority of people like to assume that one day we will live, work and eat alongside robots in perfect harmony in the happy knowledge...
Lockheed will build America’s next generation of autonomous submarines
WHY THIS MATTERS It is inevitable that more of the world’s military platforms will become autonomous, and America’s submarines are about to get a huge upgrade. As part of its plan to turn undersea drones from remote controlled tools and toys into fully enrolled members of the fleet, last...
World first as drones and robots plant, tend and harvest their own crops
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It was only a matter of time before robots autonomously grew and harvested their own crops, and now it’s happened. The Agricultural industry is going through a revolution, whether it’s thanks to organisations like DARPA who are formulating new genetic solutions that can re-vitalise...
Robo-evolution in action, researchers unveil self-healing transformer robots
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF This could be a revolutionary breakthrough that guides the future of robotic evolution and design and its impact shouldn’t be under estimated. Like we humans every robot on Earth, and off Earth, like, for example, the anti-gravity robots on the International Space Station (ISS)...
World’s first autonomous robot Dentist implants two teeth into a patient
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Globally there’s a huge shortage of qualified dentists, but in the future that might not be a problem now that robots are on the case… We’ve all volunteered for weird things in our lives, whether it’s something we want to do or not and...
New synthetic muscle breakthrough will create better, nimbler robots
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We know robots are strong, but now a new synthetic muscle breakthrough means that one day they’ll be dexterous too, and that means another set of jobs could be automated. This week a group of researchers from the Columbia University announced that they’ve managed to...
San Fransisco mulls introducing America’s first “Robot Tax”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the level of automation around the world increases governments are increasingly considering taxing robots, and, more specifically, machines that “automate” human jobs. Artificial Intelligence (AI), robots and other Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools are now handling more and more of the work that...
This new sewing robot will put 168 million children out of work
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Making a robot that can sew, and complete an entire garment, is hard, but inventors are now cracking the code and one day they’ll help put illegal sweatshops out of business. The first robot that can sew together a complete item of clothing could put an end to sweatshop...
Farmers in the future will “shepherd herds of robots”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots sat in the doldrums for years without much happening but now, fuelled by AI and advance Machine vision capabilities they’re suddenly coming on leaps and bounds. The farmworker toiling in a field in Lincolnshire on a recent morning is happy to work nights...
South Korea introduces the world’s first “Robot Tax”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Experts and governments are predicting that a rising tide of automation will have a dramatic impact on today’s workforce and lower tax receipts, and taxing the machines and robots driving the revolution is becoming an increasingly popular idea. South Korea has introduced what is...
