If you’ve ever looked at the Trending Topics in the top right of your Facebook newsfeed, just to see chatter about some video game character right next to news about a massive natural disaster, you’ve probably thought, “who on earth is deciding what shows up here?” Well, now it’s what, not a who, and it… might still need some refining. [More]
robots
Mall Security Robot Knocks Toddler To The Ground, Keeps On Going
By 7.13.16
A wise man once declared: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” But a mall security robot apparently hasn’t been reading up on his Isaac Asimov, as parents of a 16-month-old boy in Palo Alto, CA say the bot knocked their son to the ground and just kept on rolling. [More]
Could Artificial Intelligence Learn How To Brew A Tasty Beer?
By 7.8.16
Because we’ll need something tasty to swill when our robot overlords finally come into their full artificial intelligence, a company in the UK is attempting to figure out if robots can help humans brew a better beer. [More]
Autonomous Robots Will Be Delivering Food In London, Packages In Germany
By 7.6.16
If they come bearing hot French fries and gooey pizza, I, for one, will welcome our new robot overlords with open arms. The artificial intelligence revolution is one step closer to that reality in Europe, where a food delivery service, a package delivery company, and a retail chain are testing out autonomous robot couriers. [More]
Robot Pizza Company Wants To Be “Amazon Of Food”
By 6.24.16
A Silicon Valley startup created by a former video game executive is taking aim at Domino’s and Pizza Hut, promising to deliver mostly robot-made pizzas in a truck that cooks the pie en route to your house. [More]
As Expected, Robots Are Taking Over Call Center Jobs
By 6.21.16
Instead of talking to customer service representatives who adhere to scripts in a robotic manner, soon we might be talking and chatting with customer service employees that are actual robots. While industry experts say that technology isn’t quite there yet, the companies that run outsourced call centers, including offshore ones are already worried about having their jobs outsourced altogether to machines. [More]
McDonald’s CEO To Shareholders: No Plans To Replace Employees With Robots Yet
By 5.26.16
As governments and traditionally low-wage jobs raise their minimum wage or starting pay for employees, McDonald’s will be forced to pay higher wages to employees. That might cause the company to use more automation, perhaps replacing employees with robots, right? At today’s shareholders’ meeting, CEO Steve Easterbrook assured employees that robots will not be taking over. Probably. [More]
Pizza Robots Continue To Proliferate As Pizza Hut Tests Order-Taking Humanoid
By 5.24.16
It seems our future overlords are trying to butter us up before they dominate the human race, and by butter I really mean hot cheese, tomato sauce, and crust: Pizza Hut is the most recent pizza chain to have fallen under the sway of robots, with the test of a humanoid AI machine known in the robotics industry as Pepper. [More]
Domino’s Testing Pizza Delivery Robots In New Zealand
By 3.18.16
If the robot revolution is going to come eventually, at least our future overlords may arrive to enslave us bearing pizza: Domino’s is trying out a battery-powered delivery robot in Wellington, New Zealand, calling it “the world’s first autonomous pizza delivery vehicle.” [More]
IBM Watson Has A New Job Powering A Robotic Hilton Hotel Concierge
By 3.9.16
Artificial intelligence is here, and now it’s hanging out in the lobby of a Hilton Hotel as a robot concierge: IBM’s AI software Watson has been put to use powering a an electronic helper focused on hospitality. [More]
Gmail Wants To Reply To Your Emails For You With Artificial Intelligence
By 11.3.15
While we’re committed to a future serving as underlings to artificially intelligent lifeforms, we might as well enjoy some of the time-saving benefits, right? Like answering emails on the go — who wants to do that when there other more important things to do, like finally beat level 478 of Sugarsweet Smashtastic Kerplosion? Google wants to take on that task, with artificial intelligence that can read and reply to emails on your smartphone. [More]
Best Buy Testing Robot Customer Service Employees
By 10.7.15
In an era where retail is increasingly moving online, some shoppers still prefer to deal with actual human beings when they go to the store. But the folks at Best Buy believe that some in-store customer service tasks may be best done by automatons. [More]
Toyota Plans To Have Self-Driving Car For The Masses By 2020
By 10.7.15
Toyota attempted to break away from the self-driving car fanfare last month by announcing it would instead invest $50 million into creating “life-saving intelligent” vehicles that weren’t necessarily autonomous. Today, the company made it clear that it’s also pursuing the fully driver-less route, revealing plans to release a commercially available self-driving car by 2020. [More]
Awesome Or Annoying?: IT Help Desk Human Answering The Phone Like A Robot
By 9.29.15
It can be hard work manning a help desk and fielding questions from people all day, so we can’t really blame a New York City Health Department employee who’s taken to answering the phone in a robot voice for trying to jazz up his day a little bit. Unfortunately for Mr. Roboto, a judge has suggested he be suspended from work — for the second time — for his monotonous style. [More]
It’s Not Just You: Robots Are Also Bad At Assembling IKEA Furniture
By 9.29.15
If you’re the kind of person who’s terribly afraid of the impending robot revolution as well as someone who struggles when it comes to putting together IKEA furniture, we’ve got some good news for you: robots are also pretty bad at it, so maybe that’ll delay the artificial intelligence uprising somewhat. [More]
We Live In A World Where There’s An iPad Waiting In Line To Buy An iPhone 6S
By 9.24.15
What with the inevitable, eventual artificial intelligence revolution always hangin on the horizon, we’re actually sort of surprised that this is the first we’ve heard of a robot holding a spot in line to buy a new iPhone. A woman in Australia sent her mechanical representative to wait for the release of the iPhone 6 at the Apple Store in Sydney, because it’s much better than camping out for hours or even days. And robots don’t even have to leave for bathroom breaks. [More]
Toyota Investing $50M Into “Life-Saving Intelligent” Vehicles
By 9.4.15
There’s a lot of talk these days about the inevitable arrival of self-driving cars and the implications they will have on safety, insurance, traffic, and fuel costs, but Toyota has announced an investment in new research to develop “life-saving intelligent” vehicles that aren’t necessarily self-driving, but which could ideally combine the best of the autonomous car with one driven by a real human. [More]
FCC Approves iRobot Automatic Lawnmower
By 8.13.15
iRobot, maker of robots that vacuum your carpets and scrub your toilets, wants to bring this same technology to your lawn. The lawn? Yes, humanity might hand over yet another of our annoying chores to our robot pals. While automatic lawn mowers are nothing new, iRobot’s version is. Maybe they can popularize the devices, which haven’t really caught on in this country. [More]
