Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind Teach Spot to Reason
TL;DR
The amazing and frustrating thing about robots is that they can do almost anything you want them to do, as long as you know how to ask properly. In the not-so-distant past, asking properly meant writing code, and while we’ve thankfully moved beyond that brittle constraint, there’s still an irritatingly inverse correlation between ease of use and complexity of task. AI has promised to change that. The idea is that when AI is embodied within robots—giving AI software a physical presence in the world—those robots will be imbued with with reasoning and understanding. This is cutting-edge stuff, though, and while we’ve seen plenty of examples of embodied AI in a research context, finding applications where reasoning robots can provide reliable commercial value has not been easy. Boston Dynamics is one of the few companies to commercially deploy legged robots at any appreciable scale; there ar.
Nauti's Take
Embodied AI is one of the most exciting frontiers right now — robots that can reason independently could transform manufacturing, logistics, and care. The gap between lab demos and real-world robustness is still significant; dust, noise, and unexpected situations remain hard challenges.
Anyone planning robot deployments should track Spot's progress closely — the pace of advancement is genuinely impressive.
Summary
The amazing and frustrating thing about robots is that they can do almost anything you want them to do, as long as you know how to ask properly. In the not-so-distant past, asking properly meant writing code, and while we’ve thankfully moved beyond that brittle constraint, there’s still an irritatingly inverse correlation between ease of use and complexity of task.
AI has promised to change that. The idea is that when AI is embodied within robots—giving AI software a physical presence in the world—those robots will be imbued with with reasoning and understanding.
This is cutting-edge stuff, though, and while we’ve seen plenty of examples of embodied AI in a research context, finding applications where reasoning robots can provide reliable commercial value has not been easy. Boston Dynamics is one of the few companies to commercially deploy legged robots at any appreciable scale; there ar
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