They can do that, yet somehow, Gemini Assistant on Pixel phones still fails to reliably set timers or add shopping list items :-)
(which worked fine with Google Assistant)
How Google built its Gemini robotics models
21–30 of 89 posts
Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had never heard of Unitree (Chinese robotics company) before today. A lot of their videos look like CGI but apparently the product is real. What stuck with me the most browsing their website on the G1 model was seeing "Price from $16k" Now I'm not sure if these are actually purchasable or what the value would be, but it's my first time seeing an actual normal-ish price attached to a humanoid robot that seems to be…
>A lot of their videos look like CGI but apparently the product is real. I bought their robot dog as part of a project to build embodied AI models back in 2022. Their SDK was far more open than anything else on the market and the stock firmware was on par with competitors, this includes products that were x10 the price. The robot itself scared dogs in the park, but kids loved it. At $3k it's on par with a mid range d…
Same price as some pure bred dogs too
Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models
#23They can do that , yet somehow, Gemini Assistant on Pixel phones still fails to reliably set timers or add shopping list items :-) (which worked fine with Google Assistant)
Bring up dates and times if you want to wreak havoc on any AI. :D
Developers around the world's most beloved topic, how to handle date and time correctly, is still a topic of great misunderstanding. AI and AI agents are no different from that. LLM seems to help a little, but only if you know what you are doing, as it usually needs to be the case.
Some things won't change so fast; at one point or another, data must match certain building blocks.
Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models
#24They can do that , yet somehow, Gemini Assistant on Pixel phones still fails to reliably set timers or add shopping list items :-) (which worked fine with Google Assistant)
My own hands and cheap alarm clocks, or a piece of paper, have been working reliably for several decades. They also don't stop working when a corporation decides they want to hype something.
Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models
#25Even if Google's robotics technology (software and hardware) is leading edge does anyone think they'll actually be able to productize it? Seems similar to how they were the pre-product leaders in transformers and then fumbled any advantage they had to ChatGPT. It seems like something's missing from Google where they can't get from research to product effectively. Waymo perhaps a good counterexample if you think where…
I agree. The current leadership of Google (especially Sundar) is mediocre and comes from a consulting background. They will fail at making a tangible product out of this, similar to glass or Inbox or a multitude of other examples. This is particularly sad, as I know a few remarkable engineers at Google that share this frustration. However, Google's leadership folded to Indian managers and is now run as a circus
Sundar Pichai got into IIT Kharagpur in the 90s (one of the toughest engineering/technical school to get into). So he has more technical chops than many self-proclaimed engineers that seem to diss on his McKinsey credentials
Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had never heard of Unitree (Chinese robotics company) before today. A lot of their videos look like CGI but apparently the product is real. What stuck with me the most browsing their website on the G1 model was seeing "Price from $16k" Now I'm not sure if these are actually purchasable or what the value would be, but it's my first time seeing an actual normal-ish price attached to a humanoid robot that seems to be…
Take any of these videos with a grain of salt. In demos these robots only need to do well once and it can take hours to record. In real life, a failure rate of 80% is unnacceptable, but perfectly fine to edit out in the final cut media. I hope they do well, this area is incredibly hard, but it will take a lot more than what people imagine.
This whole hype cycle man. It's all shiny demos and no real products.
Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. The current leadership of Google (especially Sundar) is mediocre and comes from a consulting background. They will fail at making a tangible product out of this, similar to glass or Inbox or a multitude of other examples. This is particularly sad, as I know a few remarkable engineers at Google that share this frustration. However, Google's leadership folded to Indian managers and is now run as a circus
Sundar Pichai got into IIT Kharagpur in the 90s (one of the toughest engineering/technical school to get into). So he has more technical chops than many self-proclaimed engineers that seem to diss on his McKinsey credentials
A school being tough to get into due to an abundance of population (too many applicants) means little. There has been not one significant person coming out of those institutions (compared to the many figures coming out of the US, despite a population 5x smaller). I would not hire Sundar as a junior engineer in my team. Of course, you might see something in Google's current leadership which I do not see. Time will tell how performant the company will be long term. Again, I believe skills that make one successful in consulting rarely translate to success in the engineering field.
Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models
#28Even if Google's robotics technology (software and hardware) is leading edge does anyone think they'll actually be able to productize it? Seems similar to how they were the pre-product leaders in transformers and then fumbled any advantage they had to ChatGPT. It seems like something's missing from Google where they can't get from research to product effectively. Waymo perhaps a good counterexample if you think where…
In my bubble it's general consensus that Google - as we knew it - is done. Sergiej and Larry phased out and what is left is more of less a headless chicken, too big too fall, but without any clear direction and goal.
Didn't Sergey become active again with the latest AI efforts?
Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models
#29Even if Google's robotics technology (software and hardware) is leading edge does anyone think they'll actually be able to productize it? Seems similar to how they were the pre-product leaders in transformers and then fumbled any advantage they had to ChatGPT. It seems like something's missing from Google where they can't get from research to product effectively. Waymo perhaps a good counterexample if you think where…
I think the cautious faction of AI debate won temporarily inside Google, letting OpenAI take the lead. Lessons should be learnt from that experience. I do think Google will come out ahead in the end Gemini and Gemma are great models. Let’s see what Google I/O shows of this year, product application matters now that they have caught up on the tech side.
Will be interesting to see if that lesson has been learned. There's no existing product they could cannibalize with their robotics effort (vs search with LLMs) so any caution they have launching a robotics product would solely come down to fears about quality/safety.
Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sundar Pichai got into IIT Kharagpur in the 90s (one of the toughest engineering/technical school to get into). So he has more technical chops than many self-proclaimed engineers that seem to diss on his McKinsey credentials
A school being tough to get into due to an abundance of population (too many applicants) means little. There has been not one significant person coming out of those institutions (compared to the many figures coming out of the US, despite a population 5x smaller). I would not hire Sundar as a junior engineer in my team. Of course, you might see something in Google's current leadership which I do not see. Time will tel…
> There has been not one significant person coming out of those institutions
Of the IITs?
Co-founders of Sun Microsystems, Flipkart, Ola Cabs, Infosys, Zoho, HCL