Lessons Learned When Robots Fail

Pundits are already speculating that the fatal crash by Uber’s autonomous taxi will set the driverless car industry back decades. As the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) deconstructs the accident to report on the technological breakdown, it is clear that the redundant systems failed – from the safety driver’s ability … Read More

SXSW 2018: Protect AI, Robots, Cars (And Us) From Bias

As Mark Hamill humorously shared the behind-the-scenes of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” with a packed SXSW audience, two floors below on the exhibit floor Universal Robots recreated General Grievous’ famed light saber battles. The battling machines were steps away from a twelve foot dancing Kuka robot and an automated coffee dispensary. Somehow the famed interactive … Read More

Making Unmanned Systems More Energy Efficient

Last Tuesday, I chaired a UJA Tech Talk on “The Future Of Autonomous Cars” with  former General Motors Vice-Chairman, Steve Girsky. The auto executive enthusiastically  shared his vision for the next 15-25 years of driving – a congestion-free world of automated wheeled capsules zipping commuters to and from work. Girsky … Read More

Israel, A Land Flowing With AI & Autonomous Cars

This past week I led a group of 20 American tech investors to Israel in conjunction with the UJA and Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry. We witnessed firsthand the innovation that has produced more than $22 billion of investments and acquisitions within the past year. We met with the University that … Read More

Labor & Automation’s Symbiotic Relationship

Last night, President Barack Obama’s parting words “Be Kind & Be Useful” struck a chord with me and my daughter. This morning, it led me to buy a homeless man gloves and rethink how we adopt technology. I would like to controversially suggest that Asimov’s fictional laws be amended to … Read More

CES 2018 Recap: Out Of The Dark Ages

As close to a quarter million people descended on a city of six hundred thousand, CES 2018 became the perfect metaphor for the current state of modern society. Unfazed by floods, blackouts, and transportation problems, technology steamrolled ahead. Walking the floor last week at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), the … Read More

An Emotional Year For Machines

Two thousand seventeen certainly has been an emotional year for mankind. While homosapiens continue to yell at Alexa and Siri, the actuality of people’s willingness to pursue virtual relationships over human ones is startling. In a recent documentary by Channel 4 of the United Kingdom, it was revealed that Abyss … Read More

So Where Are The Jobs?

Dan Burstein, reporter, novelist and successful venture capitalist, declared Wednesday night at RobotLab‘s winter forum on Autonomous Transportation & SmartCities that within one hundred years the majority of jobs in the USA (and the world) could disappear, transferring the mantle of work from humans to machines. Burstein cautioned the audience … Read More

The Advantage of Four Legs

Shortly after SoftBank acquired his company last October, Marc Raibert of Boston Dynamics confessed, “I happen to believe that robotics will be bigger than the Internet.” Many sociologists regard the Internet as the single biggest societal invention since the dawn of the printing press in 1440. To fully understand Raibert’s point … Read More

The Race To Own The Autonomous Super Highway: Digging Deeper Into Broadcom’s Offer To Buy Qualcomm

Governor Andrew Cuomo of the State of New York declared last month that New York City will join 13 other states in testing self-driving cars: “Autonomous vehicles have the potential to save time and save lives, and we are proud to be working with GM and Cruise on the future of this … Read More