Robots and Robotics

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    China to Launch Tianwen-2 Mission to Capture Pieces of Near-Earth Asteroid

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    The robotic Tianwen-2 spacecraft will collect samples from Kamoʻoalewa, which some scientists suspect is a fragment of the moon.China has a space station and, in just a few short years, has landed robots on the moon and Mars. This week the country’s space agency is targeting new, far-flung destinations and setting off for an asteroid that could contain secrets that explain how Earth and the moon formed.The country’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft is set to lift off aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China some time on Thursday (it will be Wednesday in New York).After about a year, the robotic mission will arrive at 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, a near-Earth asteroid. There, it will perilously try to scoop up some rocky matter, and then swing back around to Earth. A capsule filled with geologic treasure would then plunge toward the planet for retrieval by scientists in late 2027.If Tianwen-2 pulls this off, China will become the third nation — after Japan and the United States — to retrieve pristine material from an asteroid.“All Chinese planetary scientists are now finger-crossed for this historic mission,” said Yuqi Qian, a lunar geologist at the University of Hong Kong.The spacecraft also has a secondary target, an unusual comet that it could study as part of an extended mission.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Understanding Lapses in Learning

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      More from our inbox:Will We Train Better Robots or Better Humans? Kendrick Brinson for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Have We Quit on Learning?,” by Dana Goldstein (news article, May 11):Governors are rising up — not giving up — on education as we know it. Education is the single best investment we can make in the future of our states and economy. This is a national conversation not being had enough in the halls of Washington by either party. But it is happening in the states — and it’s one we have to elevate nationally, before too many youngsters fall behind.States are passing nonpartisan, common-sense reforms, and it’s making a difference. Colorado passed free full-day kindergarten and universal preschool to prevent achievement gaps from forming in the first place, give our youngest learners a strong start and save parents and families thousands of dollars. We’ve deployed targeted tutoring and after-school opportunities for K-12 students, including an online math platform that is free for schools to use, and that increased scores after just one year.Governors from both parties are leading similar efforts to improve student performance in reading and math, with science-based initiatives generating real results in states such as Alabama, California, Louisiana and New York.Through an effort I’m leading with the National Governors Association known as Let’s Get Ready: Educating All Americans for Success, we’re looking at how we can best measure what skills and knowledge students need to thrive in school and beyond, invest in what works and change what doesn’t.In Colorado, Canon City and Poudre high schools are allowing ninth-grade students to choose a focus — including agriculture, the arts, engineering, health services, hospitality, skilled trades and more — to guide their studies. This program combines strong academics, technical education and real-world experience, and offers college credit and industry certifications.Technological change has made the job market unrecognizable compared with just a decade ago, and a decade from now, it will be more unrecognizable still. That’s why my main focus as governor is to ensure that our education system equips students with the skills they need to meet current and future needs. To keep up, schools have to evolve and innovate, too.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Inside A.I.’s Super Bowl: Nvidia Dreams Of A Robot Future

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      The robots were everywhere. Some pedaled around like “Star Wars” droids. Others manipulated hospital surgery equipment. They all provided a glimpse of what a future powered by artificial intelligence could look like.Nvidia, the world’s largest maker of artificial intelligence chips, brought the robots together as part of its annual developer conference in San Jose, Calif. The event, formally known as Nvidia GTC, has become the Super Bowl of A.I.The weeklong showcase of robots, large language models (the systems behind A.I.-powered chatbots) and autonomous cars drew a who’s who of industry leaders and more than 25,000 attendees. They were there to learn about the latest A.I. technologies and hear Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, speak about A.I.’s future. Here are some photos and videos from the A.I. extravaganza:Loren Elliott for The New York TimesNvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, who has been nicknamed “A.I. Jesus,” onstage with a robot during a keynote address at the Nvidia GTC conference in San Jose, Calif.Loren Elliott for The New York TimesAbout 12,000 people packed into San Jose’s National Hockey League arena to hear Mr. Huang speak. “Every single year, more people come, because A.I. is able to solve more interesting problems for more industries,” Mr. Huang said.Mike Kai Chen for The New York TimesThe city’s convention center offered demonstrations of how A.I. is being used in the real world.Mike Kai Chen for The New York TimesNvidia has become one of the world’s three most valuable companies by selling the chips and machines, like this Nvidia DGX system, that are used to build A.I. systems.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Physical Intelligence, a Specialist in Robot A.I., Raises $400 Million

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      The start-up raised $400 million in a funding round with investments from the likes of Jeff Bezos, Thrive Capital and OpenAI.Physical Intelligence, an artificial intelligence start-up seeking to create brains for a wide variety of robots, plans to announce on Monday that it had raised $400 million in financing from major investors.The round was led by Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s executive chairman, and the venture capital firms Thrive Capital and Lux Capital. Other investors include OpenAI, Redpoint Ventures and Bond.The fund-raising valued the company at about $2 billion, not including the new investments. That’s significantly more than the $70 million that the start-up, which was founded this year, had raised in seed financing.The company wants to make foundational software that would work for any robot, instead of the traditional approach of creating software for specific machines and specific tasks.“What we’re doing is not just a brain for any particular robot,” said Karol Hausman, the company’s co-founder and chief executive. “It’s a single generalist brain that can control any robot.”It’s a tricky task: Building such a model requires a huge amount of data on how to operate in the real world. Those information sets largely do not exist, compelling the company to compile its own. Its work has been aided by big leaps in A.I. models that can interpret visual data.Among the company’s co-founders are Mr. Hausman, a former robotics scientist at Google; Sergey Levine, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley; and Lachy Groom, an investor and former executive at the payments giant Stripe.In a paper published last week, Physical Intelligence showed how its software — called π0, or pi-zero — enabled robots to fold laundry, clear a table, flatten a box and more.“It’s a true generalist,” Mr. Hausman said. Physical Intelligence executives said that its software was closer to GPT-1, the first model published for chatbots by OpenAI, than to the more advanced brains that power ChatGPT.Mr. Groom said that it was hard to predict the rate of progress: A ChatGPT-style breakthrough “could be far sooner than we expect, or it could definitely be far out.”The field of robotics A.I. is getting crowded, with players including Skild, which is also working on general-purpose robot A.I.; Figure AI, whose backers include OpenAI and Mr. Bezos; and Covariant, which focuses on industrial applications.Amazon has a vested interest in the industry, and has been adding more robots in its operations as it seeks to drive down costs and get orders to customers faster. Tesla also has major A.I. ambitions, with Elon Musk recently saying that the company’s humanoid robot would be “the biggest product ever of any kind.” More

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      The Robotic Future of Pro Sports

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      We explore a looming change in sports officiating. For most of sports history, there was no recourse when a referee made a bad call. Fans could boo and players could complain, but the game went on. Instant replay changed that a few decades ago, allowing coaches to challenge a call and ask the referees to review it. That made games fairer, but it also made them slower.Now, many professional sports are on the verge of a new technological breakthrough: automated referee systems, which get the call right every time and significantly reduce delays from reviews.Leagues insist that these systems, which they are testing in the minors or in preseason games, are not meant to eliminate officials. Umpires and referees are still necessary to make nuanced calls — checked swings in baseball, charging in basketball, pass interference in football. But the leagues believe automated systems could make games both fairer and faster.In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain what this technology can do as well as the concerns that some league officials have about it.Referees check an instant replay during an N.F.L. game. Adam Hunger/Associated PressState of the toolsTechnology is built into the rules of professional sports. The N.F.L. requires instant-replay reviews of all scoring plays and turnovers to ensure that the calls are right.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      My First Robot Massage

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      In many ways, the room looked familiar. As with past massages I had received, the lights were dim, the air smelled vaguely of aromatherapy and there was an inviting bed in the center of the space.But one thing was different: Attached to the bed were two large, white robotic arms, which were about to work on my body for a half-hour.The hulking machine was developed by Aescape, a start-up based in New York that claims to have created “the world’s most advanced massage.” The contraption includes infrared sensors, which scan the body to create a detailed map of its muscle structure. Using machine learning, it then analyzes the information and creates a personalized massage plan. The robot is currently available at a hotel and massage studio in New York City, and Aescape says it will be on offer at 10 Equinox locations this month.The company is betting that the parts of a traditional massage some people don’t enjoy — the oils, the nudity, the small talk — can be solved using artificial intelligence and robotics.I was at the Aescape offices in Manhattan to test the theory.Jeanette Spicer for The New York TimesI changed into an outfit provided by the company (leggings and a tight, long-sleeved shirt). Once on the bed, I lay face down with my head in a doughnut pillow and my arms resting comfortably overhead on a bolster. On the other side of the pillow was a touch screen. I tapped a button to begin.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Robots Get a Fleshy Face (and a Smile) in New Research

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      Researchers at the University of Tokyo published findings on a method of attaching artificial skin to robot faces to protect machinery and mimic human expressiveness.Japanese researchers used living skin cells to make a flexible 3-D facial mold for a robot.via Shoji TakeuchiEngineers in Japan are trying to get robots to imitate that particularly human expression — the smile.They have created a face mask from human skin cells and attached it to robots with a novel technique that conceals the binding and is flexible enough to turn down into a grimace or up into a squishy smile.The effect is something between Hannibal Lecter’s terrifying mask and the Claymation figure Gumby.But scientists say the prototypes pave the way for more sophisticated robots, with an outward layer both elastic and durable enough to protect the machine while making it appear more human.Beyond expressiveness, the “skin equivalent,” as the researchers call it, which is made from living skin cells in a lab, can scar and burn and also self-heal, according to a study published June 25 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.“Human-like faces and expressions improve communication and empathy in human-robot interactions, making robots more effective in health care, service and companionship roles,” Shoji Takeuchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo and the study’s lead researcher, said in an email.The research comes as robots are becoming more ubiquitous on factory floors.There were 3.9 million industrial robots working on auto and electronics assembly lines and other work settings in 2022, according to the International Federation of Robotics.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Amazon Scraps Deal to Buy Maker of Roomba Amid Regulatory Scrutiny

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      Amazon walked away from the $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot as it faces questions from regulators in the European Union and United States.Amazon said on Monday that it was abandoning plans to buy iRobot, the maker of the self-driving Roomba vacuum, after regulators raised concerns the deal would hurt competition.The announcement is a rare admission of defeat by Amazon, which has in recent years acquired an eclectic mix of companies such as Whole Foods and MGM Studios, and is a sign of how the world’s largest tech companies are being forced to adjust their business practices, products and policies as a result of stiffening regulatory scrutiny globally, particularly in the European Union.In November, E.U. antitrust regulators warned Amazon that they might try to block the deal because it could restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners. The Federal Trade Commission was also scrutinizing the deal.Amazon, which will pay iRobot a $94 million termination fee, said in a statement that “disproportionate regulatory hurdles” caused it to step away from the deal, which was first announced in 2022. IRobot’s products, which also include robotic mops and air purifiers, were to join a growing list of connected home products made by Amazon, including Ring home security systems and Echo smart speakers.Amazon said that rather than restrict competition, the deal would have given iRobot more resources to compete with other robotics companies.“This outcome will deny consumers faster innovation and more competitive prices, which we’re confident would have made their lives easier and more enjoyable,” David Zapolsky, Amazon senior vice president and general counsel, said in the statement.Amazon is not the only company facing hurdles completing acquisitions. In December, Adobe, the maker of Photoshop and Illustrator, scrapped a $20 billion takeover of Figma, a maker of design collaboration tools, after it was questioned by regulators in the United States, the European Union and Britain.In the European Union, oversight of the tech sector is expected to intensify in the coming months as a new law, the Digital Markets Act, takes full effect with the aim of increasing competition in the digital economy. Last week, Apple announced a slew of changes to comply with the law, including allowing customers to use alternatives to the App Store for the first time.IRobot, a publicly traded company grappling with declining sales and mounting losses, must regroup without the financial backing of Amazon. The company’s stock price has fallen more than 60 percent in the past month as the fate of the deal with Amazon was thrown into doubt.On Monday, iRobot said it would cut approximately 350 jobs, or about 30 percent of its work force, as well as reshuffle its management ranks.“The termination of the agreement with Amazon is disappointing, but iRobot now turns toward the future with a focus and commitment to continue building thoughtful robots and intelligent home innovations,” Colin Angle, the company’s founder, who is stepping down as chief executive, said in a statement.Glen Weinstein, iRobot’s executive vice president and chief legal officer, was appointed interim chief executive. More

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      Kellyanne Conway’s View of Donald Trump

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      More from our inbox:Russia’s Aggression in UkraineI, Robot Damon Winter/The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “The Case for (and Against) Donald Trump in 2024,” by Kellyanne Conway (Opinion guest essay, Jan. 15):A diversity of opinions and perspectives is a fantastic goal, and one reason I’ve been a longtime subscriber. Generally speaking, your opinion guest essays are well written and thoughtful and provide a point of view that makes one examine a topic with fresh eyes.The opinion from Ms. Conway is not that.Time and again she employs sloganeering to sling arrows at Democrats and non-Trumpists in an attempt to burnish the reputation of her former boss.She continues to attempt to turn neighbor against neighbor by perpetuating the othering of Trump detractors and the denial of Mr. Trump’s and her attacks on voting, democracy and simple decency.Hers is not another “opinion”; it is carefully crafted and intentional spin to appeal to people’s sense of grievance and to reaffirm the lies and misinformation they are so ready to believe.Her inclusion in your paper diminishes the quality of debate, and galvanizes a person America would be better off forgetting.Conn FishburnNashvilleTo the Editor:Kellyanne Conway opines that “when it comes to Donald J. Trump, people see what they wish to see,” and then goes on to demonstrate just that, never mentioning his blatant, willful, prolonged lying about the “stolen” 2020 election, which we now know not even he believes.Toss in the further elephants in the room — his central role in the Jan. 6 debacle, his fraudulent and shuttered foundation and university, the conviction of his family business entity’s C.F.O., and on and on, and it would appear that Ms. Conway is indeed a victim of the Trump Derangement Syndrome she decries.Even worse, she is clearly one who should know better, and even worse, likely does.Steve HeiligSan FranciscoTo the Editor:Talk about hedging your bets as a political forecaster and soft selling your qualifications for rehire! Kellyanne Conway’s well-composed essay on Donald Trump’s potential for 2024 felt like the needed equanimity, bipartisan advice and clear thinking the country needs.If Mr. Trump were smart he would rehire Ms. Conway as campaign manager for 2024, or at least pay close attention to her last sentences: “Success lies in having advisers who tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. And in listening to the people, who have the final say.”Lisa BostwickSan FranciscoTo the Editor:Read Kellyanne Conway’s guest essay for what it really is — a job pitch to future Republican presidential candidates (conveniently name-dropped in the article).The pitch: If I could get a buffoon like Donald Trump elected and then get The New York Times to give me a full page to list his imaginary accomplishments, just think what I could do for you.Laura SchumacherSan DiegoTo the Editor:Kellyanne Conway writes: “Success lies in having advisers who tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. And in listening to the people, who have the final say.”Since when has Donald Trump been known as a listener or as one who respects advisers who tell him what he needs to know?Mr. Trump’s overriding egotism and his self-infatuation prevent him from believing that anyone could know more about anything than The Donald himself.Ben MilesHuntington Beach, Calif.To the Editor:Thanks, Ms. Conway, for that delightful nostalgic stroll down the memory lane of alternative facts.Bruce LiptonNew YorkRussia’s Aggression in Ukraine Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Plundering Art, Russia Assaults Soul of Ukraine” (front page, Jan. 15):Like Nazi aggression in World War II, Russian aggression in Ukraine is an expression of absolute evil — a mixture of barbarism that knows no limits, genocide of both a people and their culture, and unremitting, centrally organized propaganda claiming that up is down, that black is white and that Russia is fighting a defensive war.Richard JoffeNew YorkI, RobotA robot prototype being developed by Yuhang Hu, a doctoral student in the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University, where engineers are exploring the possibility of self-aware robots.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Robot, Know Thyself” (Science Times, Jan. 10):Robots with consciousness is an oxymoron. Consciousness is a necessary ingredient to what is usually deemed the defining characteristic of being human: the ability to choose.Computers/robots do not have that ability. Their “choice” is limited to what programmers program them to do. Admittedly that may occur under circumstances not contemplated when the machines are programmed, but the machine’s progression toward making a decision is based on its programming, not on free choice.Steven GoldbergBrooklynTo the Editor:A truly conscious robot will cost a fortune to the company that develops it, but at that level of sophistication it may decide to work on unnecessary projects, or stop working altogether for the company, instead opting to work for a competitor.Kevin J. LongoPutnam, Conn.The writer is a science tutor. More