Lugh

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44
Finland warms up the world’s largest sand battery, and the economics look appealing. (techcrunch.com)
10
An Australian in California built a 210 km-range drone in 90 days using off-the-shelf parts, a 3D printer, and no prior experience—showing how accessible drone warfare has become. (futurology.today)
 

Ukraine's recent Spiderweb operation pointed to how decisive drones can be in modern warfare. Now here's another indication. With commonly available materials they can be built by amateurs.

20th century mass-warfare was defined by a nation's industrial might. But it seems you don't need that to build drones. They're following another 21st century trend - working from home. In traditional warfare, bombing industrial centers got results - what will it mean with drones when there doesn't have to be a 'center' - as they can be made anywhere and everywhere?

I made a 3D printed VTOL that can fly 130 miles (as a CAD beginner)

MORE INFO ABOUT THE BUILDER

26
Artificial Blood That Could Work for All Blood Types in Trials in Japan (www.newsweek.com)
12
A Chinese group has released one of the world's most powerful AI for robots as Open-Source. Will Open-Source AI soon dominate Silicon Valley VC-funded efforts? (futurology.today)
 

Open Source AI seems to be setting Silicon Valley up to fail. While they pour hundreds of billions into closed AI systems in the hope they'll get a 'Unicorn' that will dominate the market, at every step Open Source AI equals or exceeds them. If this goes on long enough, eventually the Venture Capitalists are going to lose.

Is the same about to happen with robotics? This announcement is not the first time a Chinese group has open-sourced a robotics model. The US is desperate to slow Chinese technological advancement. Is this all part of Chinese counter-measures? If it isn't, is it just a coincidence it will severely hamper how Silicon Valley functions?

The Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), a prominent non-profit research institute, has unveiled RoboBrain 2.0—an open-source AI model engineered to serve as the cognitive core for China’s next generation of humanoid robots.

In England, 90% of keyhole surgeries in the public health system to be performed by robots by 2035, government says. in c/[email protected]
16
In England, 90% of keyhole surgeries in the public health system to be performed by robots by 2035, government says. (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
2 comments fedilink
 

By 2035 I'd expect humanoid robots will also be making a significant impact in healthcare. In particular, doing a lot of basic nursing assistant/healthcare assistant tasks.

When people worry about the burden of an aging population in the 2030s & 40s, I rarely see them factor in how much robots will reduce the need for human workers to do this.

38
Engineers build blood-inspired battery to run robots more efficiently - Injecting gas into a silicone oil-water emulsion boosts oxygen capacity sixfold, mimicking how hemoglobin stores oxygen in blood (interestingengineering.com)
27
China Is The World's First Electrostate (cleantechnica.com)
San Francisco based XRobotics pizza making robots, lease for $1,300 a month and can make 100 pizzas per hour. in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'd guess it's the quality of the ingredients that matter, not if its robot or human put together.

San Francisco based XRobotics pizza making robots, lease for $1,300 a month and can make 100 pizzas per hour. in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Here's it in action. The dough base is pre-made.

https://youtu.be/7eunAdUqGZA

It looks believable to me that this might be far faster than a human.

18
Korean researchers have used carbon nanotubes to replace metal coils for ultra-lightweight electric motors that are 80% lighter than metal ones. (futurology.today)
 

This isn't going to shave much weight off of EV's. Typically the engine weight is only 2-5% of the total weight. But it may have a much larger effect on battery efficiency and range.

Internal combustion engine cars are now in their decline phase. We won't see any more technological innovation from them. From now on all the tech innovation is going to be in EVs, which will keep getting better and better than the old gas cars.

Core-sheath composite electric cables with highly conductive self-assembled carbon nanotube wires and flexible macroscale insulating polymers for lightweight, metal-free motors

Snap will launch its AR glasses called Specs next year, and these will be commercially available in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

The Meta Quest 3 is the one I've found most appealing. Using it as a virtual desktop or entertainment screen looks genuinely useful, though shame it still looks so ungainly.

35
San Francisco based XRobotics pizza making robots, lease for $1,300 a month and can make 100 pizzas per hour. (futurology.today)
 

Interesting that they are going the subscription route and not selling these outright. It works because the comparison with the cost of a human looks so favorable. I'd expect to see this with humanoid robots too as they take over more and more human jobs.

XRobotics’ countertop robots are cooking up 25,000 pizzas a month

Snap will launch its AR glasses called Specs next year, and these will be commercially available in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Will these be the AR glasses that take off? This tech has been 'about to take off' for some years now.

13
Worldcoin, Sam Altman's crypto coin-backed eyeball-scanning ID, has just launched in Britain - a country historically averse to national ID systems. Will anyone there use it? (futurology.today)
 

People in Britain have historically been quite averse to ID systems; the country is one of the few in Europe without national ID cards. Something that is standard in many other European countries.

Will they take to Worldcoin? It seems to combine everything that is rapidly going out of fashion. It's touting itself as a solution to AI slop, the same problem its founder is creating. It's crypto-backed, words that mean 'red flag' and 'scam artist' to many people. Finally, it's all about putting all your trust in American Big Tech. An idea in steep decline globally, and at home in America.

Still, the investor billions are still flowing. Palantir, with similar ambitions, is now valued at $328 billion, 220 times more than its earnings.

Financial Times Article

8
Figure Robotics says their humanoid robots have rapidly advanced in ability - after just three months of on-the-job factory training. (futurology.today)
 

The recent brouhaha about Apple saying AGI is not so imminent after all, disguises a more significant reality. Even without AGI, current AI is continuing along a revolutionary path that will utterly transform society.

Figure Robotics illustrates this. Its Helix humanoid robots are getting nearer and nearer human human-level dexterity in carrying out some common factory tasks.

We won't need AGI to develop humanoid robots capable of doing most unskilled and semi-skilled work.

Are the people obsessing over AGI, missing the revolution happening on their doorstep?

Scaling Helix: a New State of the Art in Humanoid Logistics

9
Silicon Valley led the quest for driverless cars. But Chinese robotaxis are catching up fast: Apollo Go challenges pioneer Waymo’s head start and leads country rivals in overseas push. (restofworld.org)
Women 3x More Likely to Lose Job to AI Than Men, UN Study Finds in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

In fairness to them, if you are a government or economic body, trying to plan for these events, then you do need to get granular and look at things from specifics like demographics, age groups, gender and so on.

Women 3x More Likely to Lose Job to AI Than Men, UN Study Finds in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

To add to the confusion when you click on the link to the report, it talks about generative AI, so it is not talking about AI as a whole. One of the biggest categories of jobs that will disappear is driving jobs and delivery jobs, thanks to self-driving tech. I'm guessing that these jobs are overwhelmingly male dominated.

LLM AIs are more persuasive than incentivized human persuaders. in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

There's good news too. It says the AI can persuade people who hold false beliefs. Maybe it can school people who've been led into delusion bubbles by misinformation?

What comes after the smartphone? Smart glasses, AI companions, and brain chips—a tour of the possible future beyond smartphones. in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I thought voice might take off more, though Alexa and Siri are popular. Maybe it just isn't efficient enough for large amounts of information.

Almost 75% of Google's revenue comes from search, and it's likely about to be obliterated. in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Yes, unethical practices seem baked in now with Big Tech, and Big Tech aspirants. I'm gratified to see open source AI keep up with the Big Tech offerings. At least it means there will be widespread alternatives. I hope it hobbles any one company from being as big as Google.

Almost 75% of Google's revenue comes from search, and it's likely about to be obliterated. in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Google recently held its big annual product announcement event - I/O 2025 - and it got lots of upbeat coverage. There were dozens of new product upgrades across Android, Search, Gmail, etc. Of course, the big focus was AI.

Google seemed to be lagging in AI but has caught up to speed lately with its models topping various AI leaderboards. Not surprising, Google has deep wells of computing power and talent to compete in AI.

However, behind the scenes, all is not so rosy. Almost 75% of Google's revenue comes from search, and it's about to be obliterated. As anyone who has gotten used to using ChatGPT, Claude, or DeepSeek instead of Google Search will tell you - AI is miles better. Google is about to transform old Search into an AI Search like ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, and all the other AIs, but the problem is their days of 90% market domination in this new medium don't seem repeatable.

Google are about to be replaced as the dominant means of internet search - but just how much, and how fast?

An escalator to nowhere: Science fiction lives and dies in space in c/[email protected]
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Great article. I'm glad 'Star Trek' still looms so large in the public imagination; it's given us a really hopeful template for the future.

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