Insights October 12th, 2018

In this week’s Future Trends – Jazzy Jumping Robots we look at Shimon the jazz playing robot, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas leaping around, Amazon’s plans for more robotics in warehouses, leadership in a smart age, and Waymo driving (virtually) driving 10 million miles a day.

Shimon and Friends – The Utrecht Concert

Parkour Atlas

Atlas does parkour. The control software uses the whole body including legs, arms and torso, to marshal the energy and strength for jumping over the log and leaping up the steps without breaking its pace. (Step height 40 cm.) Atlas uses computer vision to locate itself with respect to visible markers on the approach to hit the terrain accurately.

For more information visit www.BostonDynamics.com.

Report: Amazon wants robots that can do the work of warehouse pickers

Amazon has implemented robots and other automating technologies in a variety of ways–especially in its warehouses. The company has tried to assuage fears of robots taking over human roles by saying that certain roles won’t be automated. One of those jobs is the “picker,” or someone who grabs items and places them in the areas to be shipped. But according to a new report in the Information, those jobs may no longer be safe. According to unnamed people with knowledge of the situation, Amazon is looking into robots that can do this picking action.
The company, in a statement to the original report, admitted that Amazon is always looking into new technologies to streamline the workflow, but that human employees are usually better at performing a variety of tasks that robots may not be able to do. Still, the spokesperson told the Information“We need advanced technology and automation to meet customer demand—it’s just that simple.”
Read more at Fast Company

Leadership in a Smart Machine Age

While machine intelligence promises breakthroughs that improve the quality of human life as well as the condition of our planet, we need to be cautious. Critics point to significant limitations including the magnification of our cognitive biases in the algorithms that run our smart machines.
As bias researcher Sigal Barsade recently remarked in an interview “You can be the most consciously unbiased, progressive thinker and still have unconscious biases that come from our culture and things you experienced as a child, and they don’t necessarily align with your beliefs” Knowledge at Wharton, 2018). Additionally, the accelerating pace of work combined with a dearth of time for reflection may conspire to limit our ability to learn from each other and our experiences.
Read more at Graziadio Business Review

Waymo’s cars drive 10 million miles a day in a perilous virtual world

So today Waymo not only announced that its vehicles have clocked more than 10 million miles since 2009. It also revealed that its software now drives the same distance inside a sprawling simulated version of the real world every 24 hours—the equivalent of 25,000 cars driving 24/7. Waymo has covered more than 6 billion virtual miles in total.
This virtual test track is incredibly important to Waymo’s efforts to demonstrate that its cars are safe, says Dmitri Dolgov, the firm’s CTO. It lets engineers test the latest software updates on a wide variety of new scenarios, including situations that haven’t been seen on real roads. It also makes it possible to test scenarios that would be too risky to set up for real, like other vehicles driving recklessly at high speed.

Read more in MIT Technology Review

Related Articles from Nikolas Badminton:

Artificial Intelligence Bulletin –  Will Robots Take Your Job?

The Future of Giant Underwater Robots


Nikolas is a world-leading Futurist Speaker that drives leaders to take action in creating a better world for humanity. He promotes exponential thinking along with a critical, honest, and optimistic view that empowers you with knowledge to plan for today, tomorrow, and for the future.
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Futurist Keynote Speaker and Consultant - Nikolas Badminton

CEO of EXPONENTIAL MINDS and an award-winning Futurist Speaker, researcher and author. His expertise and thought leadership will guide you from complacency to thinking exponentially, planning for longevity, and encouraging a culture of innovation. You will then establish resiliency and abundance in your organization. Please reach out to discuss how he can help you, and read on to see what is happening in the world this week.

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