Robotics, AI and Other Tech

Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift'

Discord is testing face scanning to verify some users' ages in the UK and Australia.

The social platform, which says it has over 200 million monthly users around the world, was initially used by gamers but now has communities on a wide range of topics including p*rnography.

The UK's online safety laws mean platforms with adult content will need to have "robust" age verification in place by July.

And social media expert Matt Navarra told the BBC "this isn't a one-off - it's the start of a bigger shift".

"Regulators want real proof, and facial recognition might be the fastest route there," he said.

But campaigners have said these types of checks are ineffective and could lead to privacy issues.

"Age assurance is becoming the new seatbelt for the internet," said Mr Navarra.

"Will it become the norm in the UK? Honestly, yes, probably."

He said he believed the incoming changes in online safety laws mean online platforms would beef up their age verification processes.

"The era of 'click here to confirm you're 13' is dead," he said.

"Get age verification wrong now, and you don't just lose users - you could lose a courtroom battle or incur fines."

Firms which do not comply with the Online Safety Act could be fined up to 10% of their global turnover.

Instagram previously brought in age checks using facial analysis in 2022 for users who want to change their profile settings to be over 18.

The social media company requires users to take a selfie video on their phone and uses AI to estimate the person's age.

Like Discord, they can alternatively upload a picture of their photo ID.

The US-based platform says the verification - which it describes as "an experiment" - will be a one-time check.

It will apply the first time a user comes across content which it has flagged as sensitive, or if they change their settings on viewing sensitive media.

Users can either use the face scanner or upload a photo of their ID to confirm their age.

It says information used for age checks will not be stored by Discord or the verification company.

Face scans will stay on the device and not be collected, and ID uploads will be deleted after the verification is complete, according to the company.

Content which is flagged as sensitive is already automatically blocked or blurred for teenagers.

'No silver bullet'

Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch says age check technology "shouldn't be seen as a silver bullet solution".

Senior advocacy officer Madeleine Stone says they can pose a risk to users, "including security breaches, privacy intrusion, errors, digital exclusion and censorship".

While industry group the Age Verification Providers Association says there is a "wide range of convenient, privacy-preserving methods".

Their executive director Iain Corby told the BBC the latest technology can estimate age "within one to two years based on a selfie or how you move your hands".

But he also said platforms have a choice on how to use age verification.

"They can remove the harmful content altogether, apply age checks to access the whole site, or just check ages before allowing access to high-risk pages and posts," he said.

Australia is planning to bring in a social media ban for all under-16s this year.

Recent research found more than 80% of Australian children aged eight to 12 use social media or messaging services that are only meant to be for over-13s

New Jersey attorney general Matthew J. Platkin said on Thursday that his office was suing Discord, alleging the company had misled parents about its safety controls and the risks faced by children on the app...

 

Cyborg 1.0: Thai Robocop patrols streets with 360° eyes, live face-tracking power

Thailand has unveiled its first AI-powered police robot, deployed during the Songkran festival in Nakhon Pathom province to boost public safety.

The Royal Thai Police (RTP) introduced the robot on April 16 via a Facebook post.

Named “Pol Col Nakhonpathom Plod Phai,” meaning “Nakhon Pathom is safe,” the robot was stationed at the Tonson Road festival venue in Muang district.

Surveillance gets smarter

The robot, named “AI Police Cyborg 1.0,” made its debut during the Songkran festival in Nakhon Pathom province. Developed collaboratively by Provincial Police Region 7, Nakhon Pathom Provincial Police, and Nakhon Pathom Municipality, this Robocop-style unit is equipped with advanced surveillance and threat detection technologies.

AI Police Cyborg 1.0 uses onboard AI to immediately process and analyze data by integrating real-time data from aerial drone footage and local CCTV networks. Rapid reaction coordination is made possible by the robot’s in-built 360-degree smart cameras, which are immediately connected to the province’s Command and Control Center and backed by video analytics software, according to The Nation.

The robot’s facial recognition capabilities enable it to recognize people who have been marked as high-risk or wanted. Its technology can identify and locate people in busy event locations by analyzing a variety of visual clues, such as gender, body shape, clothing, and face features. Additionally, the robot is taught to recognize offensive activities, including fighting, physical altercations, and other disturbances.

Together with behavioral analysis, the robot can recognize possible weapons like knives and blunt objects like wooden sticks while deftly ruling out innocuous devices like water cannons, which are frequently used during Songkran celebrations.

RTP claims that the cutting-edge patrol system is a major advancement in Thailand’s use of AI in public safety operations.


Future police now

Humanoid robots have already begun assisting police patrols in neighboring China, capturing public interest with their interactive functions. In Shenzhen, PM01 model robots developed by EngineAI have been deployed alongside officers, wearing high-visibility police vests. These robots have been seen engaging with pedestrians—waving, shaking hands, and responding to voice commands—according to local media reports.

A recent video shows a PM01 robot waving to a crowd, sparking curiosity about its purpose in law enforcement. First launched in December 2024, the PM01 features agile mobility, an interactive touchscreen, and an open-source platform. This design allows developers worldwide to contribute to its evolution by adding new features and capabilities through secondary development.

 

Experts Alarmed by China's Enormous Army of Robots

As Donald Trump's trade war brings new levels of uncertainty to American manufacturing sector, one issue seems to have been vastly overlooked: China's massive legion of robot workers.

New reporting by the New York Times on Chinese robotics is shedding light on the enormous scale of automation happening across the Pacific. The article highlights the fact that China is currently one of the most automated countries in the world, with more capacity than the US, Germany, or even Japan — and more robots per worker than any other country besides South Korea and Singapore.

Automation on such a massive scale enables Chinese factories to pump out consumer and industrial goods at ever-decreasing costs, while fine-tuning product quality.

The US, by comparison, is quickly falling behind in robotics. In the past years, American manufacturing has shifted from consumer and industrial goods to high-tech products like airplanes, medical devices, and advanced machinery. These gigs call for highly specialized skills that can't easily be turned over to robot underlings — at least, not without dramatically shifting our robotics industry away from pie-in-the-sky startups to practical manufacturing efforts.

As it turns out, that's exactly what China did to become the robo-mecca, starting in 2015 with a national strategy called "Made in China 2025." As the name implies, the government-led effort laid out performance and quality benchmarks for Chinese manufacturing to hit by this current year, including in sectors like shipbuilding, electric vehicles, and high-speed rail.

Among the goals was capacity to produce 100,000 industrial robots a year, according to the state-run outlet China Daily. A recent report by the International Federation of Robotics found that between 2022 and 2023, China deployed over 276,00 roboworkers — over half of all robots installed throughout the globe, and the second highest annual industrial robotics deployment ever recorded.

Further complicating things for the US is unique access to heavy rare earth metals, which are crucial for high-tech manufacturing, particularly robotics. US factories are heavily reliant on these materials, giving China a huge bargaining chip in Trump's trade war.

Case in point, China halted the export of rare metals to the US earlier this month in response to Trump's tariffs — prompting an outcry from his close ally Elon Musk, who said it would hinder his own robotics efforts — on top of other measures meant to strengthen Beijing's position at the negotiating table.

Weeks later, Trump made the announcement that threatened tax rates on Chinese goods will "come down substantially," suggesting that the Chinese government played their cards well.

It'll likely be a while before we see who emerges the victor of this trade war, if anyone really "wins" at all. But if US leaders want to get serious about stepping up their manufacturing game, it seems there's one obvious choice: stop quarrelling, and start cooperating with the clear winner in the robotics arms race.

 

Looking Glass debuts 27-inch 5K 3D monitor which doesn't require any glasses - and doesn't cost as much as you think

Looking Glass has announced a 27-inch 5K light field display which shows 3D content without any need for headsets or glasses.


Looking Glass 27 is designed for shared use, projecting 45 to 100 perspectives across a 53-degree view cone. At just one inch thick and capable of displaying 16 inches of virtual depth, it offers shared 3D experiences that were previously only possible with specialized gear.

Designed for plug-and-play deployment in offices or exhibitions, the display supports flexible VESA mounting and can even run entirely off an iPad. This alone reduces system-level costs by roughly 35%, while shrinking the overall hardware footprint.

Developers can build content in Unity on a PC and deploy it to iPads across multiple platforms via TestFlight or the App Store, streamlining workflows. It has broad support for web-based 3D pipelines and simplified cross-device compatibility.

"This is a breakthrough moment for 3D. With the new 27-inch display, we’ve combined major hardware and software advances to cut system costs and dramatically reduce compute requirements," said Shawn Frayne, CEO of Looking Glass. "It’s never been easier for developers and enterprises to build, test, and then deploy applications for their audiences in 3D."

With a pre-order price of $8,000 (currently 20% off), significantly lower than many would expect, Looking Glass 27 sets a new standard for professional-grade 3D displays. The pre-order window lasts until April 30th. You can see it in action in the video below.

 

Balcony solar is all the rage in Germany. Why not in the US?

Raymond Ward wants to see solar panels draped over every balcony in the United States and doesn’t understand why that isn’t happening.

The technology couldn’t be easier to use — simply hang one or two panels over a railing and plug them into an outlet. The devices provide up to 800 watts, enough to charge a laptop or power a small fridge. They’re popular in Germany, where everyone from renters to climate activists to gadget enthusiasts hail them as a cheap and easy way to generate electricity. Germans had registered more than 780,000 of the devices with the country’s utility regulator as of December. They’ve installed millions more without telling the government.

Here in the U.S., though, there is no market for balcony solar. Ward, a Republican state representative in Utah who learned about the tech last year, wants that to change. The way he sees it, this is an obvious solution to surging power demand. “You look over there and say, ‘Well, that’s working,’” he said. “So what is it that stops us from having it here?”

His colleagues agree. Earlier this year, the Legislature unanimously passed a bill he sponsored to boost the tech, and Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed it. HB 340 exempts portable solar devices from state regulations that require owners of rooftop solar arrays and other power-generating systems to sign an interconnection agreement with their local utility. These deals, and other “soft costs” like permits, can nearly double the price of going solar.

Utah’s law marks the nation’s first significant step to remove barriers to balcony solar — but bigger obstacles remain. Regulations and standards governing electrical devices haven’t kept pace with development of the technology, and it lacks essential approvals required for adoption — including compliance with the National Electrical Code and a product safety standard from Underwriters Laboratories. Nothing about the bill Ward wrote changes that: Utahans still can’t install balcony solar because none of the systems have been nationally certified.

These challenges will take time and effort to overcome, but they’re not insurmountable, advocates of the technology said. Even now, a team of entrepreneurs and research scientists, backed by federal funding, are creating these standards. Their work mirrors what happened in Germany nearly a decade ago, when clean energy advocates and companies began lobbying the country’s electrical certification body to amend safety regulations to legalize balcony solar.

In 2017, Verband der Elektrotechnik, or VDE, a German certification body that issues product and safety standards for electrical products, released the first guideline that allowed for balcony solar systems. While such systems existed before VDE took this step, the benchmark it established allowed manufacturers to sell them widely, creating a booming industry...


More at the Link...

 

Taiwan Now Comes After TSMC’s “Technology Transfer” Attempts; Passes a New Law To Retain Production of Cutting-Edge Nodes In The Country

The Taiwan administration isn't pleased at all with TSMC's global expansion, especially in the US, as they are now pursuing formal law to keep core technology in the country.

TSMC Won't Be Allowed To Produce Cutting-Edge Nodes In Foreign Facilities; Taiwan Now Has The Right To Block Deals

With the Trump 2.0 administration taking office, we have seen firms like TSMC show huge interest in the region, mainly since the new government is committed to reviving the domestic chipmaking industry. Trump, with his "tariff technique", has managed to attract TSMC to invest over $100 billion in the nation, but the growing influence of the US has apparently made Taiwan officials worried, who are now pursuing an amendment in the law to ensure that the production of the latest-generation of processes remains exclusive to Taiwan, instead of going to a foreign entity.

According to Taiwan media sources, it is claimed that Article 22 of the Industrial Creation Ordinance has been passed, which primarily focuses on retaining core technology. Taiwan's Premier Cho Jung-tai has adopted the "N-1" policy, which means they'll allow foreign TSMC facilities to produce one node, which is one generation behind relative to Taiwan. Apart from this, it is claimed that if foreign investments by any Taiwanese organization prove to hinder national security, they could be blocked entirely. The legislation is expected to come into effect by late 2025.

Interestingly, before this law, Taiwan had zero tolerance for technology transfer, given that the country was against domestic companies expanding into other nations. But now, it seems like Taiwan has shown openness towards companies like TSMC operating in countries like the US, but it still wants to retain the production of cutting-edge nodes to maintain its status as the dominant chipmaker, so it is safe to say that TSMC won't have many issues operating in the US, given that it still gives Taiwan the right to produce "exclusive" semiconductors.

What we know about TSMC's US plans is that the Arizona facility is expected to produce up to 1.6nm (A16) by 2030, while the fab is currently responsible for 4nm production. The Taiwan giant is also opening new facilities and a dedicated R&D center in the US, so it is safe to say that TSMC is playing the "long-ball" game when it comes to US operations, and Taiwan apparently seems okay with it.