robots

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Robot Emerges From Fukushima With a First Clue

Removal of tiny fuel debris sample is first step toward much bigger cleanup at Japanese plant

(Newser) - A robot that has spent months inside the ruins of a nuclear reactor at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant delivered a tiny sample of melted nuclear fuel on Thursday, in what plant officials said was a step toward beginning the cleanup of hundreds of tons of melted fuel debris. The...

Robot Artist's Painting Could Fetch Big Dough

Ai-Da's portrait of Alan Turing is expected to sell for up to $180K at Sotheby's auction next month

(Newser) - At just 5 years old, she's already given a Ted Talk , served as an artist in residence at the 2022 Glastonbury Festival, and seen her artwork displayed at the United Nations. Now, the artist known as Ai-Da will make history at Sotheby's with the auction house's first...

Hackers Make Robot Vacuums Go Rogue Inside Houses

Ecovacs devices hurled racial slurs at US customers

(Newser) - Those robot vacuums are handy devices—until they allow strangers to watch your family, hurl racial slurs, and torment the dog. ABC News of Australia reports that hackers gained control of Chinese-made Ecovacs Deebot X2s in the homes of US customers. It's not clear how many devices were compromised,...

University's Commencement Speaker Was AI Robot

Some students at D'Youville felt 'disrespected'

(Newser) - At D'Youville University in Buffalo, graduates were given life advice from a commencement speaker that wasn't alive. Sophia, a humanoid artificial intelligence robot, addressed the crowd in what the New York Times calls "a bold decision that drew mixed reactions." Like human speakers, the robot received...

Airport Robot Will Be Disguised as Coyote or Fox

Alaska authorities plan use Aurora to scare wildlife away from runways

(Newser) - A headless robot about the size of a labrador retriever will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Alaska's second-largest airport. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities said its "new hire" Aurora will be based at the...

Robot Dog Shot in the Line of Duty
Robot Dog Shot
in the Line of Duty
Mar 27, 2024 6:10 PM CDT

Robot Dog Shot in the Line of Duty

'Roscoe' took 3 bullets in search for suspect in Massachusetts home

(Newser) - Boston Dynamics says a four-legged Spot robot that took three bullets during a standoff on Cape Cod earlier this month is the first of the robots to be shot while on duty. In a Facebook post , Massachusetts State Police said the robot dog, nicknamed Roscoe, was used to search a...

Actual Warning From Oregon State: 'Avoid All Robots'

Threat involving food delivery robots was later determined to be a hoax, company says

(Newser) - Authorities say an Oregon State University student has been arrested in connection with a hoax bomb threat that led to this alert on X from the university Tuesday afternoon: "Bomb Threat in Starship food delivery robots. Do not open robots. Avoid all robots until further notice. Public Safety is...

Meet the Robots That Will Be Making Our Food

Chains such as Sweetgreen are turning to automation to cut costs and speed up service

(Newser) - The new workers at restaurant chains like Sweetgreen require an entirely different type of employee training, and definitely won't fit in the typical uniforms. The company is going fully in on automating their salad prep, the Wall Street Journal reports, and while depending on machines to handle soft and...

San Francisco Pulls a 180 on Killer Robots Plan

Police had said robots would be deployed only to 'save or prevent further loss of innocent lives'

(Newser) - San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to put the brakes on a controversial policy that would let police use robots for deadly force, the AP reports. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to explicitly ban the use of robots in such fashion for now. But they sent the issue back to...

This Chatbot Wows Users, but There Are Concerns

1 million users have signed up with OpenAI's ChatGPT since Wednesday

(Newser) - Need to write a history essay? Or need instructions on how to remove a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR written in the style of the King James Bible? It's now made easy thanks to OpenAI's ChatGPT , an AI-powered chatbot that's taking the internet by storm. It'...

San Francisco Debates Use of Killer Robots

Police want to keep the option open

(Newser) - San Francisco has long been known as one of America's most liberal cities—but that doesn't mean its police force is opposed to using killer robots. The San Francisco Police Department has proposed authorizing robots to use deadly force in certain situations, the Verge reports. According to a...

Chess Robot Breaks Finger of 7-Year-Old Opponent

'This is, of course, bad,' says head of Moscow Chess Federation

(Newser) - It might be a first in the annals of chess: After one player makes a move his opponent doesn't like, the opponent breaks his finger. As the Guardian reports, it actually happened last week at the Moscow Open, under unusual circumstances: One player was a robot, the other a...

Restaurant's New Hire Talks, Plays Music, and Works for Free

Faced with worker shortage, Tin Lizzie's in Deadwood, SD, recruited a robot server

(Newser) - At the Tin Lizzie Gaming Resort in Deadwood, SD, a labor shortage left management scrambling to figure out a way to alleviate current workers' stresses. "We thought outside the box," Assistant General Manager Josh Thurmes tells Local 12 in introducing the casino eatery's newest staffer: a robot...

Is Mark Zuckerberg a Robot? Traffic Lights Reveal the Truth

Podcaster asks Zuckerberg to prove he's not 'Zuckerborg'

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg has long known that he comes across as, well ... not quite human, acknowledging in a 2019 interview that "historically, I've had a very hard time expressing myself. ... I just come across as robotic." One computer scientist and AI researcher recently decided to carry out a...

MLB Hiring Humans to Run Robot Umpires
Robot Umpires
Reach Triple A
Jan 20, 2022 7:30 PM CST

Robot Umpires Reach Triple A

MLB is hiring humans to help run the technology

(Newser) - Robo-umps are making the jump to Triple A, a phone call away from the majors, and baseball needs somebody to assist them. MLB has posted an ad on its site looking for ABS techs, Axios reports. The employee will "physically support the plate umpire including his device, its functionality,...

Umpires Aren't Robots—Yet
Blown Call Makes
Case for Robot
Umpires
opinion
Oct 16, 2021 4:00 PM CDT

Blown Call Makes Case for Robot Umpires

Technology has stepped in after human error before, David Von Drehle writes

(Newser) - After the Dodgers-Giants playoff game Thursday night, Gabe Morales was able to watch replays of his call that ended San Francisco's season. The umpire had ruled that the Giants' Wilmer Flores had gone around while trying to check his swing. That was the third strike, the last out of...

Elon Musk's Humanoid Bots Are Headed Our Way

Prototype for the 'Tesla Bot' is due out 'sometime next year,' says CEO

(Newser) - Will Elon Musk soon have his own Westworld-style theme park ? Things probably won't get that far, but you can't blame the thought from arising after an announcement this week from the Tesla CEO. That reveal, made at Thursday's AI Day in California, per CNBC : The company...

Robots Arrive to Help Search for Survivors

But if the throwable machines become stuck, they can hinder rescue crews

(Newser) - Crews now have small robots they can enlist in the search of the rubble at the Florida condominium collapse, but the decision to use them isn't as clear-cut as it might sound. The Teledyne Flir machines are small—one the size of a brick, the other the size of...

Couple Hears 'Prowler,' Calls 911, Ends Up Embarrassed

It was their new robotic vacuum

(Newser) - A North Carolina couple called 911 on their own vacuum. As WGHP-TV explains, the couple in Forsyth County was awakened on Christmas night by what they thought was a prowler downstairs. As it turns out, their new robot vacuum had somehow started up, then proceeded to get stuck and start...

Got a 'Kind and Friendly Face'? It Could Make You $127K

You just need to sell the rights to it in perpetuity, no big deal

(Newser) - If you are in need of money and happen to possess a "kind and friendly face," one company has a proposition for you. Geomiq, a London-based engineering startup, is helping its client, an unnamed robot company, to develop a "virtual friend" for elderly people. That's where...

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