Thursday, November 09, 2023

China Says It Will Roll Out Humanoid Robots by 2025

Rachel Cormack
Tue, November 7, 2023 



China is hoping to welcome robotkind in just two years’ time.

The country plans to produce its first humanoid robots by 2025, according to an ambitious blueprint published by the Ministry of Industry and Information (MITT) Technology last week. The MITT says the advanced bipedal droids have the power to reshape the world, carrying out menial, repetitive tasks in farms, factories, and houses to alleviate our workload.

“They are expected to become disruptive products after computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles,” the document states.

The government will accelerate the development of the robots by funding more young companies in the field, as reported by BloombergFourier Intelligence is one such Chinese startup hoping to start mass-producing general-purpose humanoid robots by the end of this year. The Fourier GR-1 measures five feet and four inches and weighs around 121 pounds. With 40 joints, the bot reportedly has “unparalleled agility” human-like movement. It can also walk at roughly 3 mph and complete basic tasks.


The Fourier GR-1.

China isn’t the only country working on our future robot helpers, of course. In the U.S., Tesla is continuing to refine Optimus. The bipedal humanoid robot has progressed rapidly since the first shaky prototype was revealed at the marque’s AI day in 2022. It can now do yoga, in fact. Tesla has yet to announce a firm timetable for when Optimus will hit the market, but CEO Elon Musk has previously said that the $20,000 robot could be ready in three to five years.

Agility Robotics is another U.S. company with “building robots for good.” It opened a robot manufacturing facility in Oregon earlier this year that can produce more than 10,000 Digit droids per year. It also recently announced that Amazon will begin testing Digit for use in their operations.

Meanwhile, Boston Dynamics—makers of Spot, the $75,000 robotic dog—has built another decidedly agile bipedal robot. Atlas showed it could move various obstacles earlier this year, after nailing a parkour course in 2021. Boston Dynamic’s Atlas is a research platform and not available for purchase, but the robot does show the U.S. is on par with China in terms of droid design.





OPTIMUS NOT YET PRIME
Tesla is hiring a bunch of designers so it can start selling humanoid robots by 2027

Jyoti Mann
Updated Tue, November 7, 2023 


Elon Musk's desire to launch Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, by 2027 may be closer to reality.


Tesla's website shows more than 50 adverts for roles with Tesla Bot in the title.


With some competitors testing bots in pilot studies, Tesla is seemingly ramping up its own efforts.


Elon Musk has high aspirations for Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus.

The Tesla CEO said at its annual AI Day last year that it could be ready to take orders in three to five years, per Reuters, and that it's "expected to cost much less than a car," and "probably less than $20,000."

It seems that the billionaire is hiring more people to work on the project and make his vision a reality. Tesla's careers page shows there are more than 50 jobs advertised that have "Tesla Bot," also known as Optimus, in the job title, as EV news site Electrek reported.

Some of the roles listed, which are to be based in Palo Alto, California, include "Humanoid Controls Engineer, Tesla Bot," "Systems Design & Integration Engineer, Tesla Bot," and various other Tesla Bot engineers.

Musk said in May that the "Optimus Team is making excellent progress" in an X post. Tesla then posted a progress update of Optimus in a YouTube video last month with accompanying text saying it's "now capable of self-calibrating its arms and legs."

The video shows the robot sorting building blocks by color using its hands, vision, and Tesla's on-board neural net. The clip ends with Optimus doing some yoga stretches.

But with some US-based competitors already testing humanoid robots in warehouses, Tesla may have some catching up to do.

Texas-based Apptronik launched its robot Apollo in August, which is more than feet high and can carry up to 55 pounds.

Jeff Cardenas, cofounder and CEO of Apptronik, told Insider that it had deployed one or two units of Apollo at each customer site. He added that the company, which signed a partnership with NASA last year, was focused on "improving the technology and then we'll move beyond that."

"We're not ready to make public announcements yet, but our customers are in retail, manufacturing, and pure-play third-party logistics groups," he said.

Similarly, Agility Robotics is building a factory in Oregon and its robot Digit is being tested in an Amazon research-and-development center near Seattle.

Tesla didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside of normal working hours.


Elon Musk says AI will create ‘universal high income’ and eliminate the need for jobs

Joshua Hawkins
Tue, November 7, 2023 


AI could make us all rich, or at least that seems to be what Elon Musk is suggesting. While speaking at the U.K.’s AI Safety Summit last week, Elon Musk told U.K. Prime Minister that he believes AI will replace the need for all jobs. While some have latched on to this idea from a doomer perspective, Musk says it will introduce a “universal high income” (via Fortune).

But what does that mean? Well, chances are you’ve heard of universal basic income or UBI. This essentially means that everyone gets a standard payment as a resident of the government, regardless of their employment. It’s an idea that has been touted several times over the years and has even gained some traction in a few places.

But what Musk proposes here is that AI won’t steal our jobs and make us all really poor. Instead, it’ll take our jobs and make us all better off with an AI-driven universal high income. Instead of simply redistributing some wealth through basic income for everyone, Musk’s idea sounds like it would see us all living in an “age of abundance.”


Elon Musk

But how does that work? Well, that’s unclear. Exactly what Musk means by universal high income is impossible to know unless he clarifies the idea. We know that it won’t be the same as universal basic income, but if Musk’s idea gives people more money, then it might meet more resistance than UBI currently does – which sees a lot of arguments against it because it would make people lazy because they wouldn’t have to work.

There are, of course, a lot of people who see the pros and cons of universal income all over the world, and while more people are warming up to it, the idea that we’ll jump to a universal high income because of AI is kind of strange to hear from Musk, especially after he joined others in signing a letter to pause development of powerful AI.

If we are indeed going to reach a point where universal income is enacted, and AI has taken all our jobs, that means we’ll need AI more powerful than ChatGPT to do it. How exactly this new stance lines up with Musk’s previous stance is unclear. Maybe he’s changed his mind.








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