Support is Growing for an International Ban on ‘Killer Robots’
Retaining “meaningful human control” over autonomous weapons systems is an ethical imperative and a moral obligation, according to Human Rights Watch.
Governments around the world are increasingly recognising the threat of autonomous weapons systems and ‘killer robots’, according to a new report.
The report, published by Human Rights Watch, suggests a growing number of countries would support plans to impose a ban on autonomous weapons and prevent further development of such systems.
https://digit.fyi/killer-robots-support-is-growing-for-an-international-treaty-ban/
#HRW #drones #killer #robots
Retaining “meaningful human control” over autonomous weapons systems is an ethical imperative and a moral obligation, according to Human Rights Watch.
Governments around the world are increasingly recognising the threat of autonomous weapons systems and ‘killer robots’, according to a new report.
The report, published by Human Rights Watch, suggests a growing number of countries would support plans to impose a ban on autonomous weapons and prevent further development of such systems.
https://digit.fyi/killer-robots-support-is-growing-for-an-international-treaty-ban/
#HRW #drones #killer #robots
Army of a million microscopic robots created to explore on tiny scale
A troop of a million walking robots could enable scientific exploration at a microscopic level.
Researchers have developed microscopic robots before, but they weren’t able to move by themselves, says Marc Miskin at the University of Pennsylvania. That is partly because of a lack of micrometre-scale actuators – components required for movement, such as the bending of a robot’s legs.
Miskin and his colleagues overcame this by developing a new type of actuator made of an extremely thin layer of platinum. Each robot uses four of these tiny actuators as legs, connected to solar cells on its back that enable the legs to bend in response to laser light and propel their square metallic bodies forwards.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2253052-army-of-a-million-microscopic-robots-created-to-explore-on-tiny-scale/
#microbots #microscopic #robots
A troop of a million walking robots could enable scientific exploration at a microscopic level.
Researchers have developed microscopic robots before, but they weren’t able to move by themselves, says Marc Miskin at the University of Pennsylvania. That is partly because of a lack of micrometre-scale actuators – components required for movement, such as the bending of a robot’s legs.
Miskin and his colleagues overcame this by developing a new type of actuator made of an extremely thin layer of platinum. Each robot uses four of these tiny actuators as legs, connected to solar cells on its back that enable the legs to bend in response to laser light and propel their square metallic bodies forwards.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2253052-army-of-a-million-microscopic-robots-created-to-explore-on-tiny-scale/
#microbots #microscopic #robots
Facebook Wants to Make Smart Robots to Explore Every Nook and Cranny of Your Home
“Hey Alexa, turn on the kitchen light.”
“Hey Alexa, play soothing music at volume three.”
“Hey Alexa, tell me where to find my keys.”
You can ask an Alexa or Google home assistant questions about facts, news, or the weather, and make commands for whatever you’ve synced them to (lights, alarms, TVs, etc.). But helping you find things is a capability that hasn’t quite come to pass yet; smart home assistants are essentially very rudimentary, auditory-only “brains” with limited functions.
But what if home assistants had a “body” too? How much more would they be able to do for us? (And what if the answer is “more than we want”?)
https://singularityhub.com/2020/08/26/facebook-wants-to-make-smart-robots-to-explore-every-nook-and-cranny-of-your-home/
#Facebook #AI #robots
“Hey Alexa, turn on the kitchen light.”
“Hey Alexa, play soothing music at volume three.”
“Hey Alexa, tell me where to find my keys.”
You can ask an Alexa or Google home assistant questions about facts, news, or the weather, and make commands for whatever you’ve synced them to (lights, alarms, TVs, etc.). But helping you find things is a capability that hasn’t quite come to pass yet; smart home assistants are essentially very rudimentary, auditory-only “brains” with limited functions.
But what if home assistants had a “body” too? How much more would they be able to do for us? (And what if the answer is “more than we want”?)
https://singularityhub.com/2020/08/26/facebook-wants-to-make-smart-robots-to-explore-every-nook-and-cranny-of-your-home/
#Facebook #AI #robots
Singularity Hub
Facebook Wants to Make Smart Robots to Explore Every Nook and Cranny of Your Home
The company’s new research aims to train AI using both visual and audio data, letting smart robots use sounds to understand a physical space.