Video and more at the link. Chinese humanoid robot lands world's first front flip Chinese robotics company Zhongqing Robotics, also known as EngineAI, has officially entered the humanoid robotics scene by releasing a video showcasing what it claims is the world's first humanoid robot front flip. Robot backflips are becoming commonplace, but a front flip is significantly more difficult than a backflip, as any gymnast can attest. Front flips: A big deal The challenge for robots attempting a front flip lies in maintaining balance and control throughout the rotation. Unlike humans, robots rely on precise sensor data and motor control to execute complex movements. During a front flip, the robot must rapidly shift its weight, adjust its center of gravity and coordinate the movements of its limbs to ensure a smooth and controlled landing. EngineAI has overcome a significant challenge in robotics by programming its PM01 to gather enough force to spin in the forward direction while calculating the correct angular velocity and torque. Robots don't feel fear Of course, this is a robot, and it has no fear, no hesitation and no sense of self-preservation. Its designers can put any range of powerful electric motors and joints into its anatomy, and it's been coded and instructed to flip, so it flips.
Man invents robotic tongue for ‘screen-licking’ fetishists Japan has always been pretty ahead of the game when it comes to groundbreaking new technology. It’s gifted us with karaoke, robot hotels, the digital camera – and is even rumoured to be working on the world’s first underwater city. So, in an age where so many of our needs are already catered for, how does it manage to stay ahead of the curve? Introducing the ‘robot tongue’. In a bid to target a more niche audience, one Japanese inventor – known only as Mansun – has created an automated licking device. The ‘realistic’ tongue, which was made using a servomotor and some Arduino circuitry, is apparently the perfect tool for fetishists who enjoy getting up close and personal with their computer screens. Particularly, in Mansun’s case, those who like licking ‘cute’ anime characters – as you can see: https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsan...-robotic-tongue-for-screen-licking-fetishists
to be certain, i'm way more concerned with human stupidity than artificial intelligence. mad props to the op tho!
The funny thing is . . .those panicking the most are in the creative spaces Writers Singers Actors etc Are freaking out over AI taking their places Rocket River and they not wrong
We don't have good frameworks for proper attribution or giving money to the true creator. Even without AI, there's a lot of copy/paste slop from tiktok to snap/ig to youtube. Kinda sucks for anyone who wrote a 2 minute song, 20 pages of poetry, or a 200 page book have that all ripped up into pink slime that tastes and feels like the original but without the collective bits that once made it whole.
It's insane how much data is blindly gifted away by companies of all sizes. Google Ads is basically trending towards requiring detailed CRM-level customer information if you want to succeed in competitive niches. AI is being fed private information about the inter-workings of businesses and their customers. The trove of information SalesForce or Oracle have. 1st party data is king now and everyone wants access to yours so they can weaken your competitive advantage and sell your customers to anyone else - they can still keep it "private" if AI is doing all the dirty work. Scary times. The same practices that put companies like Trade Desk in the grave are now commonplace. And nobody cares. The 4 horeseman of the apocalypse are - Doge, Oracle, OpenAI and PLTR. ****, what am I babbling about, just listen to the babe in the vid.
Actual creative arts can't be replaced. These, on the other hand? Law Insurance Finance Medicine Manufacturing .... What's left?
What's worse is how many people just give away their info using "free" services (myself included). I'm about sick of of Microsoft begging me to back up all my data after every update... "would you like to back up your data?" "please back up your data" "it'll be quick.... c'mon... you know you want to back up your data". And when the hell did I agree to let Yahoo Mail tell me when my packages are arriving?! I mean, I know y'all are reading my mail, but why make it so obvious?! They don't care because they've got you hooked. And then all the damn "No" buttons have been changed to "Skip for Now" or "Ask me again in 3 monts". No, fool... I want to say NO and not have to keep saying it! Not to mention all the "YES" buttons are prominent, highlighted, and blinking whereas any "No" button is hidden somewhere in the text, written in Swahili and the text is the same color as the background. Man, I used to love technology, but these companies suck. Except their stocks. Those are ok.
There's a hardwired link between systemic control and end user convenience in today's tech. LinusTechTips ran an episode where he made an in-house way to store Apple icloud data without the crazy subs. The means are there, but it's two-three hops of uncertainty instead of one easy click and an out of sight 120/yr family subscription. As much as I post about AI's weaknesses, I'm also a big user of it. It's super addicting for someone who used to click on wikipedia links just to read up on things you don't know. What's insidious about its simplicity is that I'm usually ok with reading 20-30 minute articles and spending some effort figuring out what the writer is saying and what he's really meaning. I'm ok with believing everything as long as it isn't total horseshit because I figure I read more than enough to spot lies sooner or later. With all the slop and misinfo everywhere, the process isn't perfect or efficient. Now with something like Grok or Perplexity, not only can you put a 20 min article into the meatgrinder, you can perform followups with 20-60 sources. Sure it might hallucinate 10-15% of the time, but I just saved a half hour's worth of time with a standby Benihana chef throwing slices of cooked steak into my mouth. The difference is so great, and with LLMs reading your tone and syntax to mimic your style or "profile", I'm starting to read less and less articles over the chopped up bits with college level analysis and followups. Some of those sources in followups are still interesting enough for me to read or I could... We need more smart people like Meredith to look for other ways to fund tech than the current broken Mag 7 model.
Regarding humanoid robots, if they end up being a multi-trillion dollar market, keep in mind one thing: Scalability will decide who wins. The prototypes being demoed now doing various things won't amount to a hill of beans unless they can be manufactured relatively cheaply at scale. The addressable market for $500K-$1MM robots is relatively small. The market for $10K-20K robots that can legit do things people can do would be almost unimaginable. A key factor in performing like a human is dexterity, which IMO could be the hardest part. This is what makes me doubt they will ever replace workers at factories on a mass basis , become home assistants that can do human chores, etc. I'm not an expert in this at all. Just my 2 cents.
