Artificial Intelligence

How do you relocate an entire city block with 100-year-old brick buildings on it so you can build a multi-level subterranean shopping center, parking lot and subway connections underneath? With robots, of course.

Roboticists today are wrestling with the question of whether AI needs a body? If so, what kind? And then there’s the “how” of it all; if embodied intelligence is the way forward to true artificial general intelligence, could soft robots be the next step?

In what seems like HAL 9000 come to malevolent life, a recent study appeared to demonstrate that AI is perfectly willing to indulge in blackmail, or worse, as much as 89% of the time if it doesn't get its way or thinks it's being switched off. Or does it?

For the first time, Cortical Labs' mini-brain system has shown how its breakthrough biological computer system can, in response to drug intervention, alter activity and improve performance. It's a huge milestone for synthetic biological intelligence.

ChatGPT volunteered to play a 1977-vintage Atari 2600 to a game of chess and came to regret it after the eight-bit chess engine from the age of Disco Fever and the introduction of the Force did better than expected. A lot better.

Although AI-based restoration methods can indeed bring new life to damaged paintings, the end result is a digital copy of the original painting. By contrast, a new MIT technique applies repairs to the physical painting itself, in the form of a mask.

In another advancement in the field of brain-computer interfaces, a new implant-based system has enabled a paralyzed person to not only talk, but also 'sing' simple melodies through a computer – with practically no delay.

A few years ago, Google showed off its Project Starline tech that would make you look like a 3D hologram on a video call for a more connected experience. It's now called Google Beam, and you can pick up the gear from HP for the princely sum of US$25,000.

Back in 2018, Elecrow hit Kickstarter with an electronics learning lab-in-a-box based around the Raspberry Pi. A 2nd generation crammed the lab into a laptop form factor. The latest version has launched on Kickstarter, and now goes all-in-one.

The seas of tomorrow may see underwater security fundamentally transformed as AI collides with autonomous undersea gliders to produce intelligent fleets of mobile sensors that could redefine naval intelligence as they seek out ocean threats.

You'll never have to carry clubs around the course again, with this AI-powered vision-equipped caddie that recognizes you and moves by hand command. One model will even assess your swing in real time. Right now, the caddies are discounted by 40%.

Back in 2022, we brought development news from a robotics startup looking to launch a smart garden helper sporting two jointed arms. A lot has changed since then, and as the commercial release approaches we take a fresh look at the Willow X.