The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– Elon Musk’s Worst Nightmare: Russian AK-47 Maker Builds Fully-Automated “Killer Robot”:
Predator drone style combat machines are just the tip of the iceberg for what is to come down the line of lethal weaponry and some (like Elon Musk) are worried that when robots are calling the shots, things could get a little out of hand.
…
* * *
PayPal: Donate in USD
PayPal: Donate in EUR
PayPal: Donate in GBP
– America’s First Robot Bar Opens In Vegas: “Perfect Pours Every Time”:
Here’s a headline that should send a chill through the spine of every bartender and server in America: “Bionic bartenders deployed at Las Vegas Strip bar.”
As we reported last week, Cowen analyst Andrew Charles calculated that McDonald’s “Experience of the Future” strategy could allow it to replace 2,500 cashiers with “Big Mac ATMs” by the end of 2017 – and another 3,000 in 2018.
Now, in a hint of what’s to come for the nightlife industry, the Las Vegas Sun reports that the a bar relying solely on robot bartenders – the first of its kind in the US – will open on Friday.
Read moreAmerica’s First Robot Bar Opens In Vegas: “Perfect Pours Every Time”
Related info:
– Obsolete — Full Documentary (Video) (Must-watch!)
– Manufacturing Might Come Back to the US, but Robots will Get the Jobs: Apple CEO:
Robots are the Great Equalizer.
Apple will invest in and promote “advanced manufacturing” in the US, CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday after the somewhat uninspiring earnings report. It was one of the ways Apple would create jobs in America, he said. To do that, Apple would put $1 billion in a fund that would invest in “advanced manufacturing” companies.
Apple has already “created two million jobs in America,” he said in the interview. This includes 80,000 jobs at Apple in the US; plus jobs at US suppliers, such as Corning, which makes the glass for the iPhone and iPad, and 3M, which makes adhesives that Apple uses in its devices; plus the “developer community” of almost 1.5 million people who write apps that, as he said, “change the world.”
Read moreManufacturing Might Come Back to the US, but Robots will Get the Jobs: Apple CEO
Russian Army Testing 14.7 Ton Robot Tank With 30mm Automatic Gun https://t.co/lUMtBSVF7n pic.twitter.com/0LBggehbgF
— NewsBud (@NewsBud_) May 3, 2017
* * *
PayPal: Donate in USD
PayPal: Donate in EUR
PayPal: Donate in GBP
– Chinese firm halves worker costs by hiring army of robots to sort out 200,000 packages a day:
The machines are cheaper than human workers and are also more efficient and accurate in sorting out parcels, spokesman says
A viral video showing an army of little orange robots sorting out packages in a warehouse in eastern China is the latest example of how machines are increasingly taking over menial factory work on the mainland.
The behind-the-scenes footage of the self-charging robot army in a sorting centre of Chinese delivery powerhouse Shentong (STO) Express was shared on People’s Daily’s social media accounts on Sunday.
…
* * *
PayPal: Donate in USD
PayPal: Donate in EUR
PayPal: Donate in GBP
– Meet SAM, Brick Laying Robot That Does The Work Of 6 Humans:
In the latest installment of our “Dear Bernie” series, posts intended to inform the Vermont Senator about the unintended, negative consequences of minimum wage hikes, we present SAM (Semi-Automated Mason), a brick laying robot designed and engineered by Construction Robotics out of New York. While SAM can do the work of 6 unionized masons each day, he never requires a break, benefits or a paycheck.
Here’s a look at SAM in action:
Each SAM can be rented at a monthly cost of ~$3,300 according to The Sun. With an average efficiency of 3,000 bricks per day, that breaks down to about 4.5 cents per brick. Meanwhile, using using Bernie’s preferred $15 per hour minimum wage rate, plus benefits, and a daily efficiency of about 500 bricks brings the human labor cost equivalent to roughly 32 cents per brick, or a little over 7x.
Read moreMeet SAM, Brick Laying Robot That Does The Work Of 6 Humans
– Boston Dynamics reveals ‘nightmare-inducing’ new robot Handle
H/t reader squodgy:
“And on and on and on.
Once again it is only the Alternative Media who raise the alarm.
I wonder when Google (who own Boston Dynamics) will re-name them SKYNET?”
* * *
PayPal: Donate in USD
PayPal: Donate in EUR
PayPal: Donate in GBP
– EU Parliament Committee Votes To Give Robots Rights (And A Kill Switch):
Foreseeing a rapidly approaching age of autonomous artificial intelligence, a European Parliament committee has voted to legally bestow electronic personhood to robots. The status includes a detailed list of rights, responsibilities, regulations, and a “kill switch.”
The committee voted by 17 votes to two, with two abstentions, to approve a draft report written by Luxembourg MEP Mady Delvaux, who believes “robots, bots, androids and other manifestations of artificial intelligence” will spawn a new industrial revolution. She wants to establish a European Agency to develop rules for how to govern AI behavior. Specifically, Delvaux writes about how increased levels of autonomy in robot entities will make usual manufacturing liability laws insufficient. It will become necessary, the report states, to be able to hold robots and their manufacturers legally responsible for their acts.
Read moreEU Parliament Committee Votes To Give Robots Rights (And A Kill Switch)
– Rise Of The Machines: Millions Of American Jobs Will Be Wiped Out In The Next Five Years:
There is a paradigm shift coming and it is about to rewrite everything we know about economics, human labor, and government dependence.
Earlier this week Amazon launched its first Amazon Go store, which allows a customer to walk in, grab the items they want, and simply walk out. Everything is tracked utilizing RFID chips, so the second you step out of the store Amazon knows exactly what you’ve purchased and automatically charges your account:
Read moreRise Of The Machines: Millions Of American Jobs Will Be Wiped Out In The Next Five Years
– Two-Thirds Of Workers In Developing Nations To Be Replaced by Robots, Report Warns:
An alarming new report from the United Nations is the latest in a litany of studies suggesting that the coming age of automation and workforces dominated by robots will be upon us much faster than previously thought. The U.N. now claims two-thirds of the human labor force in developing nations will be replaced by automation.
The U.N. says a Universal Basic Income will be necessary as a stop-gap for the 75% of humans left without work.
Anti-Media previously reported on predictions that half the American workforce could be replaced by automation within the next two decades. Another report’s statistics suggested automated software could fleece 1.7 million truckers of their jobs within a decade.
The U.N.’s UNCTAD report notes that taken on a global scale, we’re seeing“premature deindustrialization.”
Read moreTwo-Thirds Of Workers In Developing Nations To Be Replaced by Robots, Report Warns
– ‘Robotic sex may become addictive as sexbots can’t say no’ – expert:
As scientists hold the world’s first conference on sex robots, one expert warns that making love to machines could become addictive.Robot experts from around the world will converge on Manchester in northern England this week for the Human Choice and Computers Conference, where they will explore the latest research and theories about how humans will engage with robots.
Academics will also touch on moral issues, such as whether sex robots are potentially harmful and should be banned.
Read moreAND NOW: ‘Robotic sex may become addictive as sexbots can’t say no’ – expert
Alex Garden, co-founder and executive chairman of Zume.
– Inside Silicon Valley’s Robot Pizzeria:
In the back kitchen of Mountain View’s newest pizzeria, Marta works tirelessly, spreading marinara sauce on uncooked pies. She doesn’t complain, takes no breaks, and has never needed a sick day. She works for free.
Marta is one of two robots working at Zume Pizza, a secretive food delivery startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through machines. It’s also created special delivery trucks that will finish cooking pizzas during the journey to hungry customers if approved by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health. Right now Zume is only feeding people in Mountain View, California, but it has ambitions to dominate the $9.7 billion pizza delivery industry.
– A Dexterous Warehouse Robot Does Things Amazon’s Automated Helpers Can’t:
A German firm called Magazino believes it has built a better warehouse robot: the Toru. Unlike the robots used in Amazon warehouses that help locate items for shipping by moving entire shelves, Toru robots can pick up individual items.
“The [Amazon] approach saves a lot of human work spent on walking around, but there is still the need for a human worker to eventually pick the item off the shelf,” explains Magazino CEO and cofounder Frederik Brantner (see “Inside Amazon’s Warehouse, Human-Robot Symbiosis”).
Read moreToru Warehouse Robot Can Take Individual Items Off The Shelf All By Itself
– Nimble-Fingered Robot Outperforms the Best Human Surgeons:
A surgical robot was able to repair pigs’ bowels more accurately than human doctors.
A robot surgeon has been taught to perform a delicate procedure—stitching soft tissue together with a needle and thread—more precisely and reliably than even the best human doctor.
…
* * *
PayPal: Donate in USD
PayPal: Donate in EUR
PayPal: Donate in GBP
– Free Robot Lawyer Created by 19-Year-Old Programmer Is Saving People A Lot of Money in Legal Fees:
British programmer Joshua Browder is helping people save a lot of money on legal fees with his latest project – the world’s first robot lawyer. The 19-year-old developed a free service that allows users to ask any kind of legal question and receive relevant answers autogenerated by bots.
Browder first started the project last summer as a free website to help people appeal unfair parking tickets. He came up with the idea after getting a series of tickets himself for “trivial reasons”. Having wasted several hours on writing appeals to these tickets, he realised that many people do not have the time, legal knowledge or even the energy to appeal. So he decided to create an automatic appeal generator, using previously successful letters as a template. He aptly named the service DoNotPay, given that the legal fees involved in challenging tickets could mount up to sizable amounts between $400 to $900.
– Watch This Frighteningly Life-Like Smart Robot “Joke” About Destroying Humans:
The evolution of humanoid robots is well into the concerning stage at this point. DARPA’s latest incarnation of its Atlas robot is seen in the following video beginning to walk at a pace with a sense of balance equal to most humans. Strangely, toward the end of the video, it is being “abused” by its human handler, which begs the question if a true artificial intelligence is permitted to flourish in this robot, if it might strike back at some point. At the very least, this robot’s demonstration of dexterity in the warehouse is likely to threaten humans economically as humans continue to be outsourced to machine labor at record levels.
But it’s the latest humanoid robot from Hanson Robotics that might further heighten the level of concern. As you will see below, the “Sophia” robot is being designed to walk among us in the future and fully integrate as part of the consumer experience and on into the family, according to CEO Dr. David Hanson.
Read moreWatch This Frighteningly Life-Like Smart Robot “Joke” About Destroying Humans
