What’s new in robots? An AI-powered humanoid machine that writes poems

Ameca can converse French, Chinese language or dozens of different languages, immediately compose a poem or sketch a cat on request. Ask for a smile, and you will get a clenched grin on her rubbery blue face.

Ameca is a humanoid robotic powered by generative synthetic intelligence that offers it the flexibility to reply to questions and instructions and work together with folks. It is one in all a whole lot of robots on show this week on the Worldwide Convention on Robotics and Automation, or ICRA, in London, the place guests received a glimpse on the future.

The occasion is form of the Olympics of the robotic world, the place scholar groups compete in a bunch of challenges together with robotic cooking and autonomous driving contests, lecturers current their analysis and startups exhibit their newest expertise.

It comes as scientists and tech trade leaders, together with executives at Microsoft and Google, warned Tuesday concerning the perils of synthetic intelligence to mankind, saying “mitigating the danger of extinction from AI needs to be a worldwide precedence.”

Packs of robotic canines swarmed the exhibition flooring. Guests used digital actuality headsets and joysticks to maneuver the arms of android sentries on wheels. College students from the College of Bonn confirmed off their prize-winning effort, an avatar system that lets operators sporting VR glasses manipulate robotic arms to maneuver chess items, flip switches or function a drill.

One of many key challenges was constructing a system that somebody who’s not a member of the staff might begin utilizing rapidly, Ph.D. scholar Max Schwarz mentioned.

“It means we’ve got to construct an intuitive system that individuals can study in a really brief time, like half an hour,” he mentioned.

New synthetic intelligence techniques are a part of the excitement at this yr’s present, mentioned Kaspar Althoefer, basic chair of convention’s 2023 version.

“ChatGPT is an effective instance the place AI has actually gone by way of the roof. And there may be, in fact, additionally lots of curiosity to mix this with robotics,” Althoefer mentioned. “For instance, if you happen to had ChatGPT mixed with a robotic machine, then perhaps you could possibly inform the robotic what to do and there can be no programing vital.”

Will Jackson, director of Engineered Arts, the British firm that created Ameca, mentioned his firm’s robots are designed for duties that contain interacting with people, equivalent to serving to guests in amusement parks.

“Humanoid robots are all about communication with folks: So it’s about facial features, it’s about gestures — in order that dialog, storytelling, leisure, these are the issues that we’re keen on,” he mentioned.

AI has developed so rapidly that the most important robotic problem is mechanical engineering, he mentioned.

Ameca is newer and has to date primarily gone to museums and analysis establishments. It makes use of the AI picture generator Steady Diffusion to attract and OpenAI’s GPT-3 to give you responses. When requested to compose a poem, Ameca took just a few seconds to give you just a few verses:

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