BMW has signed a first-of-its-kind deal to put “humanoid” robots to work at one of its factories. The robots, which are designed to be more operationally flexible than traditional industrial robots, will supposedly assist the luxury car manufacturer with various parts of the manufacturing process.
Warning! Microsoft Wants ChatGPT to Control Robots Next
The robots in question were designed by California robotics firm FigureAI and are described as being “general purpose”—meaning they can be used for any number of physical tasks. The bipedal bot, which is simply dubbed the “Figure 01,” stands 5’6" tall, weighs 130 pounds, and has five-fingered hands that the company claims can be used to physically construct objects. On its YouTube channel, Figure has a video of the robot making coffee. Another video shows the bot swiftly walking across a room using its two sturdy legs.
That said, it’s not entirely clear what the bots will actually be doing in this case. The related press release speaks of the “deployment of humanoid robots in an automotive manufacturing environment” and claims the robots will focus on “difficult, unsafe, or tedious tasks,” all of which sounds pretty vague.
The press release further states that, as part of the first phase of the deal, the two companies will work together to “identify initial use cases to apply the Figure robots in automotive production.” Again, the wording here sorta makes it sound like both companies are a bit unclear on what the robots will actually be doing. After the two firms finally agree on what the Figure 01 can do, some of the bots will be deployed to one of BMW’s manufacturing facilities in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
“Single-purpose robotics have saturated the commercial market for decades, but the potential of general-purpose robotics is completely untapped,” said Figure’s CEO Brett Adcock. “Figure’s robots will enable companies to increase productivity, reduce costs, and create a safer and more consistent environment.”
Figure has been steadily unveiling photos and videos of its new worker:
Tech companies throughout the world are currently in a race to churn out the first generation of “humanoid” robots. While robots have helped out in factories and warehouses for years, the human form factor of this newer iteration of robots is thought to have many added benefits for more complicated forms of industrial work. This has, of course, spurred concerns that the robots will (eventually) take a lot of human jobs. Figure’s CEO has claimed that his company has no interest in taking jobs away from people—which is, of course, what he would say.
Gizmodo reached out to Figure for more details about the deal and will update this story if it responds.
Taking a cue from a recent recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board, a legislative proposal in California would require that new vehicles be equipped with “intelligent” speed restrictive technology to limit speed in specific locations.
If it were to pass, the bill, put forward by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener, would require cars and trucks of the 2027 model year or later that are built or sold in California to include speed governors that would prohibit motorists from driving more than 10 mph over posted speed limits.
The speed “governor” technology relies on GPS data or car cameras to cap vehicle speeds based on where the car is driving. For instance, vehicles wouldn’t be able to drive faster than 80 mph on state highways with a posted 70 mph speed. In residential neighborhoods, for example, motorists would have to keep their speed below 35 mph on streets with 25 mph limits.
Several auto manufacturers, such as Hyundai, already offer speed governor features in their newest models, which some motorists utilize as a form of cruise control, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“We have speed limits, and they exist for a reason. And it’s perfectly reasonable to say you can’t travel more than 10 miles over the speed limit,” Wiener said. “That’s what this bill will do. It’s very reasonable, and it’s an idea whose time has come.” The bill exempts emergency vehicles, such as ambulances and fire trucks, and the California Highway Patrol would have the discretion to disable speed governors on their vehicles.
One factor motivating the passage of the bill are reports that speed factors into about a third of traffic deaths across the country, according to the National Safety Council. The National Highway Safety Administration estimated more than 40,000 traffic fatalities in 2022.
Last November, the National Transportation Safety Board, prompted by a multi-vehicle crash in North Las Vegas that resulted in nine fatalities, recommended that the federal government “at a minimum” require speed limiters in cars that warn drivers when they’re speeding.
Meta shook up the race to build more powerful artificial intelligence last July by releasing Llama 2, an AI model similar to the one behind ChatGPT, for anyone to download and use. In November, a little-known startup from Beijing, 01.AI, released its own open source model that outperforms Llama 2 and scores near the top of many leaderboards used to compare the power of AI models.
Within a few days of its release 01.AI’s model, Yi-34B, rocketed to the top spot on a ranking maintained by startup Hugging Face, which compares the abilities of AI language models across various standard benchmarks for automated intelligence. A few months on, modified versions of 01.AI’s model consistently score among the top models available to developers and companies on the Hugging Face list and other leaderboards. On Monday, the startup launched a “multimodal” AI model called Yi-VL-34B that can process images and discuss their contents.
OpenAI, Google, and most other AI companies tightly control their technology, but 01.AI is giving away its AI models in hopes of inspiring a loyal developer base that helps it hatch some killer AI apps. 01.AI, founded in June of last year, has raised $200 million in investment from Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba and others and is valued at over $1 billion, according to Pitchbook.
The startup’s founder and CEO is Kai-Fu Lee, a prominent investor who did pioneering artificial intelligence research before founding Microsoft’s Beijing lab and then leading Google’s Chinese business until 2009, a year before the company largely pulled out of the country. He says the creation of Yi-34B is the culmination of his life’s work trying to build more intelligent machines.
“This has been the vision of my whole career,” Lee says over Zoom from a handsomely decorated apartment in Beijing. “It’s been too long that we’ve had to learn computers’ language—we really need systems that can understand our language, which is speech and text.” In Chinese 01.AI is known as ????, Ling-Yi Wan-Wu in Chinese, which means “zero-one, everything” and alludes to a passage from the Taoist textTao Te Ching.
01.AI is one of China’s leading contenders in the AI race that was started by OpenAI and ChatGPT and has so far been dominated by US companies. Lee says his company aims to lead the next phase of this revolution by building some of the first “killer apps” built on the capabilities of language models, which earn 01.AI healthy revenues. “The apps that won the mobile era are ones that are mobile-first, like Uber, WeChat, Instagram, TikTok,” Lee says. “The next-gen productivity tools shouldn’t look like Office anymore—Word, Excel, PowerPoint—that’s the wrong way to go.”
01.AI’s engineers are experimenting with different “AI-first” apps, Lee says, for office productivity, creativity, and social media. He says the plan is for them to become successful around the globe, in a similar way to how Chinese-backed social network TikTok and online retailer Temu are top apps with US consumers.
In 2017, detectives at the East Bay Regional Park District Police Department working a cold case got an idea, one that might help them finally get a lead on the murder of Maria Jane Weidhofer. Officers had found Weidhofer, dead and sexually assaulted, at Berkeley, California’s Tilden Regional Park in 1990. Nearly 30 years later, the department sent genetic information collected at the crime scene to Parabon NanoLabs—a company that says it can turn DNA into a face.
Parabon NanoLabs ran the suspect’s DNA through its proprietary machine learning model. Soon, it provided the police department with something the detectives had never seen before: the face of a potential suspect, generated using only crime scene evidence.
The image Parabon NanoLabs produced, called a Snapshot Phenotype Report, wasn’t a photograph. It was a 3D rendering that bridges the uncanny valley between reality and science fiction; a representation of how the company’s algorithm predicted a person could look given genetic attributes found in the DNA sample.
The face of the murderer, the company predicted, was male. He had fair skin, brown eyes and hair, no freckles, and bushy eyebrows. A forensic artist employed by the company photoshopped a nondescript, close-cropped haircut onto the man and gave him a mustache—an artistic addition informed by a witness description and not the DNA sample.
In a controversial 2017 decision, the department published the predicted face in an attempt to solicit tips from the public. Then, in 2020, one of the detectives did something civil liberties experts say is even more problematic—and a violation of Parabon NanoLabs’ terms of service: He asked to have the rendering run through facial recognition software.
“Using DNA found at the crime scene, Parabon Labs reconstructed a possible suspect’s facial features,” the detective explained in a request for “analytical support” sent to the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, a so-called fusion center that facilitates collaboration among federal, state, and local police departments. “I have a photo of the possible suspect and would like to use facial recognition technology to identify a suspect/lead.”
The detective’s request to run a DNA-generated estimation of a suspect’s face through facial recognition tech has not previously been reported. Found in a trove of hacked police records published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets, it appears to be the first known instance of a police department attempting to use facial recognition on a face algorithmically generated from crime-scene DNA.
It likely won’t be the last.
For facial recognition experts and privacy advocates, the East Bay detective’s request, while dystopian, was also entirely predictable. It emphasizes the ways that, without oversight, law enforcement is able to mix and match technologies in unintended ways, using untested algorithms to single out suspects based on unknowable criteria.
“It’s really just junk science to consider something like this,” Jennifer Lynch, general counsel at civil liberties nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells WIRED. Running facial recognition with unreliable inputs, like an algorithmically generated face, is more likely to misidentify a suspect than provide law enforcement with a useful lead, she argues. “There’s no real evidence that Parabon can accurately produce a face in the first place,” Lynch says. “It’s very dangerous, because it puts people at risk of being a suspect for a crime they didn’t commit.”
The Raspberry Pi is already versatile out of the box. But with hardware extensions that are plugged directly onto the board, you can significantly increase the possibilities. We introduce you to some remarkable components.
With the “Hardware Attached on Top” (HAT) concept, the Raspberry has an easy way to expand its capabilities. The add-ons are simply plugged onto the GPIO pins on the board. The expansion kits usually also include plastic spacers to protect against short circuits if the main board and expansion board come too close together. The range of such extensions has grown considerably in recent years. In addition to the official HATs, the manufacturer Pimoroni stands out in particular.
In this article, we present a series of particularly interesting HAT boards. The focus is on model 4, but the boards presented here can also fit older models or the brand new Pi 5, although they do not have to. You should therefore find out about compatibility before you buy (see last point “Check before you buy!”).
Rich sound with DAC
With a DAC, you can connect the board to passive or active speakers or to the stereo system. This turns the Raspberry into a streaming box.
Raspberry Pi Foundation
An extension that works immediately, i.e. “out of the box,” improves the sound characteristics of the board. The Raspberry Foundation has various models of such “Digital Audio Controllers” (DAC) on offer.
Which board is right for you depends on your environment. The Digi AMP+ is the right choice if you want to connect passive speakers to the computer. The board offers the usual clamp connections for the cables and delivers an output of up to 35 watts per channel. That’s definitely enough for the living room at home.
The Raspberry Pi DAC or its Plus version, on the other hand, are intended for active speakers. They offer the classic connection via banana plugs. In such a system, the speaker with the integrated amplifier is connected to the signal source. The HATs convert digital signals into analog signals so that you can connect the Raspberry either directly to loudspeakers or the stereo system (AUX input). In combination with the right software, you can turn the Raspberry Pi into a streaming box for the WLAN or use it to play music stored on data storage media.
For all Lego fans
The HAT for Lego hobbyists opens up new possibilities for controlling sensors and motors from the Lego cosmos via Raspberry.
IDG
The Raspberry Pi Build HAT expansion board, which can control up to four motors and sensors — including components from the Mindstorm cosmos — is available for all ambitious Lego hobbyists who are intensively involved with Lego Technics. You can even find a Lego board in specialized shops, which you can use to integrate the board directly into your Lego creations. You can connect most components that use an LPF2 connection. Details on compatibility can be found on the board’s official product page.
But beware: The integrated power supply is not sufficient to operate a motor on the board.
An external power supply unit is offered as a supplement to the HAT board, which is only suitable for this component. You cannot use this power supply unit to operate the Pi 400, for example. There is an extensive library for Python projects to control distance, motion, or color sensors, which is explained in detail.
The extension costs just under $30. The matching power supply then costs a little less than $20.
Raspbee II: For home automation
This small circuit board looks inconspicuous, but does a lot: it allows the Raspberry to communicate with smart home devices that use the Zigbee standard.
Raspbee
Are you looking for a way to control your smart home centrally via the Raspberry Pi? Then you should definitely take a look at the Raspbee II board. As the name suggests, it is an extension that communicates with devices that use the Zigbee standard. The tiny board even has a slot for a battery so that devices can be controlled via a real-time clock (RTC).
The basic idea is to get rid of the various gateways from other manufacturers. This also works as long as the components are recognized by the manufacturer’s software. It is therefore worth looking through the documentation before making a purchase decision. After all, Zigbee is just a communication protocol. The “magic” of the control system must then be performed by software.
This useful addition to the smart home costs less than $30.
Game Hat: The Raspberry becomes a console
Who is connected to whom? It doesn’t matter — the Game HAT turns the small computer into a mini-game console, making it the ideal basis for retro games.
Waveshare
We presented the Retro-Pie project many years ago: The aim is to transform the small circuit board into a game console. The ideal companion for this project is the Game HAT from Waveshare. However, it is sometimes only available in Germany with a waiting period.
The term “HAT” doesn’t really fit here, because the Raspberry Pi is connected to the hardware of the gamepad. The Game HAT comes with a 3.5-inch screen with a resolution of 480×320 pixels and 60 FPS. This should easily suffice for classic games.
Two small speakers and a connection option for headphones are integrated. The usual buttons familiar from other gamepads are grouped around it. There are also two triggers on the top of the housing. However, these are quite delicate — so you shouldn’t play quite so wildly in order to keep the game fun for as long as possible.
It is very easy to set up. A battery is required to power the entire system so that you can play anytime and anywhere. You can find the specifications for purchasing the external power source in the product description and in the project wiki.
The manufacturer states that up to two hours of battery life are possible. However, this is very optimistic. In practice and when actively playing a game, the playing time is more likely to be a good hour. However, this does not detract from the fun with the extension, which costs around $45.
Machine learning with the Pi
For machine learning, many samples must first be taken — for example, for image recognition. This add-on provides a large number of interfaces, but requires solid familiarisation.
IDG
Fascinating projects are possible with the Braincraft HAT. However, you also need to be willing to familiarize yourself with the complex subject matter. The extension is not for a “quick project” at a weekend.
The idea behind the add-on is to offer (even professional users) a way to create “brains” for machine learning in a wide variety of locations. Professionals also like to talk about edge computing in this context.
The “eyes” and other senses still need to be added to the combination of HAT and circuit board. But thanks to the versatile connection options, this is quite easy to do. The Braincraft HAT has a 240×240 TFT IPS screen to output feedback from the system, slots for camera connection cables for image processing projects, a five-way joystick, left and right microphones, stereo headphone output, stereo 1W speaker output, and three RGB dotstar LEDs. A Stemma QT connection allows the connection of thermal sensors. Optionally, you can also install a fan on the underside, which then keeps the board at a comfortable temperature for computing-intensive projects.
For a good $40, you get a very solid basis for your projects. The manufacturer shows the versatile possibilities in a series of videos on the product page.
Display: ‘Let there be touch’
Input directly on the screen? That’s no problem either. The resistive 3.5-inch display from Waveshare is a real HAT, which you simply attach to the GPIO bar as usual. The scope of delivery also includes the matching stylus. The drivers enable problem-free operation under Ubuntu Mate or Retropie. For around $40, you can add this simple input option to the Raspberry.
A touch display with a resolution of 800×480 pixels is available from the same manufacturer, which is significantly larger at 5 inches and capacitive (i.e. reacts to simple touch without pressure). This transforms the Pi into a small tablet. The drivers work excellently. As with other tablets, you can control the brightness of the screen directly on the desktop.
However, this display is not a direct HAT: Instead, you connect the board via a camera bar and cable. It wouldn’t have made much sense the other way round, as the screen is larger than the board itself. The advantage of this design is that the GPIO pins remain available and accessible.
And if you don’t want to design your own housing with a 3D printer, you can find a whole range of housings in electronics stores, some of which also have a stand to build a kind of kiosk system.
The street price for the larger display is around $50.
Essential HATs for hobbyists
A lot of power, but at a price: With this HAT you can give the Raspberry Pi an external power supply with a large capacity.
PiJuice
One of the challenges for all outdoor projects is supplying the computer with power. This is because there is not always a power socket near the place of use. You can find a whole range of circuit boards that can supply the Raspi with power independently in the well-known electrical shops under the keyword “UPS.” These are often battery packs into which you only need to insert conventional rechargeable batteries. Waveshare, for example, has the UPS HAT on offer.
The Pi Juice is more expensive. For a good $50 upwards, you get a battery with a capacity of 1820 mAh. Performance has its price. Longer delivery times are also to be expected. The circuit board includes a Real Time Clock so that time controls and time stamps remain accurate.
Do you have a network switch that can supply power to devices connected via Ethernet cable? Then the official PoE+ HAT is a good choice for supplying the minicomputer with power via the Ethernet cable. The board can cope with input voltages from 37 to 57V and then supplies a constant 5V to the board. An integrated fan allows the higher temperature at the interface to dissipate. Before buying, however, you should check the voltage and therefore the power supplied by the network switch. If this is suitable, the $20 are a sensible investment for many work situations.
If you have a network switch that can be used as a power supply, this HAT is the right counterpart.
IDG
Getting started with robotics
Admittedly: At around $60 for a pure starter kit, the Trilobot from Pimoroni is no bargain. However, it forms the basis for entering the fascinating world of robotics. This is ensured by the extensive software library which, as usual from the manufacturer, is well documented.
What else do you need to buy to enjoy the full fun? Of course, you need a Raspberry Pi with the SD card as a basis. As this is the base for a mobile robot, you will also need a power supply that is independent of location. The excellent instructions show you how to attach the battery pack. You should definitely consult these before purchasing additional parts. A Raspberry Pi v2 camera is also quickly added to the shopping list so that you can also “see” from the robot’s perspective.
And what do you get for your money? Well, in this case too, “HAT” is rather misleading, because you actually install the Raspberry Pi 4 in the construction. This comprises a circuit board on which there are two electric motors that propel the wheels, which are reminiscent of a lunar vehicle. To avoid collisions, the kit has ultrasonic distance sensors. And to make driving the robot look really cool, RGB LEDs on the underside provide atmospheric lighting. The kit is of course also great for all employees in educational institutions to teach the basics of robotics.
Take note before you buy!
There is a wide range of HATs for the Raspberry family. Before buying, it is best to consider a few basic requirements.
Firstly, the most obvious: If you have given the Raspberry a housing, you will probably have to make a new investment. This is because the add-on will naturally increase the overall height and the hardware will no longer fit into the housing.
Then check the compatibility: The manufacturer’s product description should explicitly mention the Raspberry model you are using. The expansion board must fit both mechanically and on the connection side.
The extension must also be controllable. Software is therefore required in order to benefit from it. Find out in advance how this is done. In most cases, you will be able to access the components and pins via Python (libraries). Check whether the manufacturer provides tutorials or sample applications on their website.
The legacy of invention and technology that comes out of Disney Imagineering is some of the closest we’ll get to a sci-fi future. And two of Disney Parks’ most recent incredible projects come from Lanny Smoot, a Disney legend who has already patented over 100 inventions, 74 of which are at Disney Imagineering—including Madame Leota’s floating head.
Spoilers of the Week Feb.11th
You’ll be familiar with his work on that incredible lightsaber he made as real as possible with retractable “laser” action. And now he’s made a very real HoloDeck-inspired invention, a game-changer for the world of VR. “We call it the HoloTile floor,” Smoot shared in a video released by Disney Parks to celebrate his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame; he’s only the second Disney inventor to become a member. The first was Walt Disney himself, for his work on the multi-plane camera.
Smoot’s legacy includes a number of Imagineering feats; as mentioned above, he’s the brains behind that Star Wars lightsaber wielded by Rey in promotional videos shot around Galaxy’s Edge to introduce the tech seen up close on Star Wars’ now-shuttered Galactic Starcruiser. In the video interview he does say it’s made for the parks, so hopefully we’ll see it pop up at special events or as part of future shows in Batuu. But the star of the video is certainly the HoloTile floor itself.
Smoot describes it as a “omnidirectional floor” you can walk on in any direction you want. He explained, “It will automatically do whatever it needs to have me stay on the floor. And what’s amazing about this is multiple people can be on it and all walking independently. They can walk in virtual reality and so many other things.” Take a look at the image below which gives you a glimpse at the rotating tiles, which simulate the act of walking throughout a space while not leaving that tile mat. It’s so wild to see how you can walk through places like Disneyland in VR on a HoloTile.
He continued, “Imagine a number of people being in a room, being able to be somewhere else collaboratively and moving around … doing sightseeing. Imagine theatrical stages that might have these embedded in them so dancers can do amazing moves. There’s so many applications for this type of technology.” He added they don’t know yet where the company will use it, but we are very excited to find out. Based on some the demonstration seen in the video, we wonder if it might be paired with his lightsaber for Star Wars stage shows—we definitely think the interviewer was practicing Force-pushing Smoot on a chair over the HoloTiles near the end. The Imagineer looks to be having a blast, and he clearly loves his job. Smoot admits, “It gives me an amazing opportunity to use these inventions that I’ve made in service of people having fun.”
Watch the video interview and tech demonstration below!
Disney Imagineer Makes History | Disney Parks
Hopefully we’ll be seeing the HoloTile in action soon at Disney Parks.
Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to a stable value like the US dollar, were created with the promise of bringing the frictionless, border-crossing fluidity of Bitcoin to a form of digital money with far less volatility. That combination has proved to be wildly popular, rocketing the total value of stablecoin transactions since 2022 past even that of Bitcoin itself.
It turns out, however, that as stablecoins have become popular among legitimate users over the past two years, they were even more popular among a different kind of user: those exploiting them for billions of dollars of international sanctions evasion and scams.
As part of its annual crime report, cryptocurrency-tracing firm Chainalysis today released new numbers on the disproportionate use of stablecoins for both of those massive categories of illicit crypto transactions over the last year. By analyzing blockchains, Chainalysis determined that stablecoins were used in fully 70 percent of crypto scam transactions in 2023, 83 percent of crypto payments to sanctioned countries like Iran and Russia, and 84 percent of crypto payments to specifically sanctioned individuals and companies. Those numbers far outstrip stablecoins’ growing overall use—including for legitimate purposes—which accounted for 59 percent of all cryptocurrency transaction volume in 2023.
In total, Chainalysis measured $40 billion in illicit stablecoin transactions in 2022 and 2023 combined. The largest single category of that stablecoin-enabled crime was sanctions evasion. In fact, across all cryptocurrencies, sanctions evasion accounted for more than half of the $24.2 billion in criminal transactions Chainalysis observed in 2023, with stablecoins representing the vast majority of those transactions.
The attraction of stablecoins for both sanctioned people and countries, argues Andrew Fierman, Chainalysis’ head of sanctions strategy, is that it allows targets of sanctions to circumvent any attempt to deny them a stable currency like the US dollar. “Whether it’s an individual located in Iran or a bad guy trying to launder money—either way, there’s a benefit to the stability of the US dollar that people are looking to obtain,” Fierman says. “If you’re in a jurisdiction where you don’t have access to the US dollar due to sanctions, stablecoins become an interesting play.”
As examples, Fierman points to Nobitex, the largest cryptocurrency exchange operating in the sanctioned country of Iran, as well as Garantex, a notorious exchange based in Russia that has been specifically sanctioned for its widespread criminal use. Stablecoin usage on Nobitex outstrips bitcoin by a 9:1 ratio, and on Garantex by a 5:1 ratio, Chainalysis found. That’s a stark difference from the roughly 1:1 ratio between stablecoins and bitcoins on a few nonsanctioned mainstream exchanges that Chainalysis checked for comparison.
Chainalysis concedes that the analysis in its report excludes some cryptocurrencies like Monero and Zcash that are designed to be harder or impossible to trace with blockchain analysis. It also says it based its numbers on the type of cryptocurrency sent directly to an illicit actor, which may leave out other currencies used in money laundering processes that repeatedly swap one type of cryptocurrency for another to make tracing more difficult.
