Sep 23, 2024 05:04 PM
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024...-homes-yet
EXCERPT: . . . As the DeepMind robotics team writes: “A large language model could tell you how to tighten a bolt or tie your shoes, but even if it was embodied in a robot, it wouldn’t be able to perform those tasks itself.”
Martins goes a step further. He believes robotics is critical to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), the broad, human-equivalent intelligence many AI researchers dream of. He reasons that an AI can only really understand our world if it has a physical form. “To me, AGI doesn’t exist without an embodiment, much in the same way that human intelligence doesn’t exist without us having our own bodies,” he says.
[...] A major challenge in bringing robots out of labs and industrial environments and into homes or public spaces is safety. In June, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) launched a study group to explore standards specifically for humanoid robots. Aaron Prather, the group’s chair, explains that a humanoid in a shared space is a different proposition to an industrial robot encased in protective caging.
“It’s one thing for them to interact with a fellow worker at an Amazon facility or a Ford factory, because that’s a trained worker working with that robot,” he says. “[But if] I put that robot out in the public park, how’s it going to interact with kids? How’s it going to interact with folks that don’t understand what’s going on?”
Hurst envisages robots in the retail sector as a next step, stocking shelves or working in back rooms. Prather believes we’ll soon see robots waiting tables. For many applications, however, it may not make financial sense to use a robot. Walker gives the example of a delivery robot. “It’s got to be cost-effective [compared] with someone on a minimum-wage, zero-hours contract on an e-scooter,” he says.
Most of the roboticists I spoke with said a multipurpose home robot – the kind that can do your dishes, wash your laundry and walk your dog – is a way off. “The era of a useful humanoid is here, but the path to a truly general-purpose humanoid robot will be long and hard and is many years away,” says Boston Dynamics. Care robots, often hyped as the solution to ageing populations, will be a particularly tough prospect, says Read... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: . . . As the DeepMind robotics team writes: “A large language model could tell you how to tighten a bolt or tie your shoes, but even if it was embodied in a robot, it wouldn’t be able to perform those tasks itself.”
Martins goes a step further. He believes robotics is critical to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), the broad, human-equivalent intelligence many AI researchers dream of. He reasons that an AI can only really understand our world if it has a physical form. “To me, AGI doesn’t exist without an embodiment, much in the same way that human intelligence doesn’t exist without us having our own bodies,” he says.
[...] A major challenge in bringing robots out of labs and industrial environments and into homes or public spaces is safety. In June, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) launched a study group to explore standards specifically for humanoid robots. Aaron Prather, the group’s chair, explains that a humanoid in a shared space is a different proposition to an industrial robot encased in protective caging.
“It’s one thing for them to interact with a fellow worker at an Amazon facility or a Ford factory, because that’s a trained worker working with that robot,” he says. “[But if] I put that robot out in the public park, how’s it going to interact with kids? How’s it going to interact with folks that don’t understand what’s going on?”
Hurst envisages robots in the retail sector as a next step, stocking shelves or working in back rooms. Prather believes we’ll soon see robots waiting tables. For many applications, however, it may not make financial sense to use a robot. Walker gives the example of a delivery robot. “It’s got to be cost-effective [compared] with someone on a minimum-wage, zero-hours contract on an e-scooter,” he says.
Most of the roboticists I spoke with said a multipurpose home robot – the kind that can do your dishes, wash your laundry and walk your dog – is a way off. “The era of a useful humanoid is here, but the path to a truly general-purpose humanoid robot will be long and hard and is many years away,” says Boston Dynamics. Care robots, often hyped as the solution to ageing populations, will be a particularly tough prospect, says Read... (MORE - missing details)