Robots Finally Learning to Clean the Bathroom

Team Homer teaches TIAGo to autonomously clean a toilet, and it’s about time A useful general home robot, as far as I’m concerned, needs to be able to do three things: fold laundry, wash dishes, and clean toilets. That’s all it would take to make me happy. We’ve seen some attempts at both laundry folding and washing dishes, but not a lot of bathroom cleaning. Now, thanks to the World Robot Summit (WRS) in Japan, robots are finally tackling this task. As part of a competition held at the event, robots had to clean water from around a toilet and clean trash off the floor. Team Homer at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany, managed to get things done with a TIAGo mobile manipulator that you could (almost) picture cleaning up your bathroom as well. 

Artificial intelligence summit adresses impact of technology on jobs and global economy

This week MIT hosted its second annual summit on “AI and the Future of Work,” bringing together representatives from industry, government and academia to discuss the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. Co-hosted by MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE), the event featured former Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt and Massachusetts Secretary of Labor Rosalin Acosta, who delivered the keynote address. A common theme throughout the event was the importance of doing more than just thinking about technological disruption and actually working to create public policy that encourages the thoughtful deployment of AI systems. “The technologies themselves are neutral, so the question is how to organize ourselves in society in a way that addresses their potential to change the job market,” said Diana Farrell, CEO of the JPMorgan Chase Institute. “We’re kidding ourselves if we think that the market Continue reading Artificial intelligence summit adresses impact of technology on jobs and global economy