Chronicling Robots Since 2011
On March 28, 1931, a small subsidiary of Boeing, United Air Lines, announced that it completed the first transcontinental passenger flight in 27 hours. This ushered in the golden age of commercial American aviation, which lasted over 40 years. Autonomous aviation was birthed in 1849 by an Austrian attack on Italy with unmanned explosive-ladened balloons. Today’s drones are born from … Read more
Elon Musk had a rough week with the announcement of Tesla’s acquisition of his other company, SolarCity, for $3 billion. Following the announcement, the car maker’s stock plummeted. However, Musk continued to persevere with his vision of an oil free autonomous future as his other portfolio holding, Hyperloop One, an autonomous electric transportation system moved one step closer to … Read more
Last year, a leading group of academics and AI scientists called for a complete ban on “offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control.” The letter was signed by more than 20,000 people, including such luminaries as Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Stuart Russell, Max Tegmark, and Toby Walsh. The initiative was also endorsed by many human rights groups and is … Read more
A couple of years ago, I had coffee with the Heather Knight, author of the infamous paper, “How Humans Respond To Robots.“ When we met in 2014, we begun our discussion with “in the future…” people will rely on robots for everyday tasks. However, today the future is yesterday and social robots are beginning to live … Read more