[ If you’ve been wondering when you’ll be able to order the flame-throwing robot that Ohio-based Throwflame first announced last summer, that day has finally arrived. The Thermonator, what Throwflame bills as “the first-ever flamethrower-wielding robot dog” is now available for purchase. The price? $9,420. Thermonator is a quadruped robot with an ARC flamethrower mounted … Read more
[ About two years ago, I was in a car with my best friend and her toddler. She was driving, and I was sitting in the back next to her 10-month-old, who was tucked into his car seat. For a while, the ride was smooth—then the baby burst into tears. We tried every common trick … Read more
[ You don’t need to have been petrified by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Skynet-commissioned cyborg assassin in 1984’s The Terminator to fret that super-strong, all-terrain, bipedal humanoid robots sprinting up steps, pulling backflips, and righting themselves could be programmed to break our necks on sight. (And laser guns, never give them laser guns.) With the Old Atlas, … Read more
[ I had My first-ever professional massage last December during a spa day with some friends. Everyone opted for a traditional massage, which required a preliminary consultation. They disrobed, and the massage took place in a private room. I opted for a shiatsu massage—a clothed experience in a semiprivate area, and while I felt physically … Read more
[ Peter Chen, CEO of the robot software company Covariant, sits in front of a chatbot interface resembling the one used to communicate with ChatGPT. “Show me the tote in front of you,” he types. In reply, a video feed appears, revealing a robot arm over a bin containing various items—a pair of socks, a … Read more
[ In 2020, crowdfunded indie sci-fi flick Code 8 dented the Netflix Top 10, which was apparently all the streamer needed to greenlight the rather pragmatically titled follow-up Code 8: Part II. Well, sort of – the sequel was slated to be a series on Quibi, but after that short-lived short-attention-span service flopped like a … Read more
[ The frenzied and intoxicating showcase for consumer technology known as CES took place this week in Las Vegas. Every January, the industry’s big shindig descends on this city in the Nevada desert, drawing tech manufacturers, retailers, distributors, members of the press, gadget fans, and regular old lookie-loos into the fray. The Las Vegas Convention … Read more
[ In 2016, I wrote about an internet that affected the world in a direct, physical manner. It was connected to your smartphone. It had sensors like cameras and thermostats. It had actuators: thermostats, drones, autonomous cars. And it had smarts in the middle, using sensor data to figure out what to do and then … Read more
[ Some robots, including from Boston Dynamics, are already doing warehouse work. Do you expect to see that humanoid workforce growing in the coming years? Warehouse work is one of the great applications at the moment because there’s such a need for people. Employers are really frustrated with the difficulty of getting humans and training … Read more
[ You learn a lot about people by hanging out with robots. QT made it plain to me how much human interaction depends on tiny movements and subtle changes in timing. Even when armed with the latest artificial intelligence language models, QT can’t play the social game. Its face expresses emotion, it understands words and … Read more
