At the point it gets solid and useful, the powers that be will immediately use them as weapon.
They already use robots as a weapon, they're just not bipedal.
Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
481–490 of 584 posts
Re: Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
#482I've kind of given up on humanoid robotics, because of how bad the actuators are. There has been no innovation in robotic actuators since Honda's Asimo. There's just no way that someone wants a 80kg wobbling tin can in their home or workplace. My bet is that the final robotic revolution will use genetically modified human/animal bodies with replaced brains. You'll have to stretch your ethics a bit, but if you grow a…
Have you worked construction?
I'd rather have a guy with a crane than a grizzly.
Re: Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
#483While Anthropic and Open AI get 80% of the attention here, it's impressive to see how much Google is doing: near frontier model, fast models, open weight models, image generation, video generation, music generation, robotics, etc.
and building inference hardware
Re: Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Disturbing" to be able to economically provide cooking, cleaning, laundry, yard maintenance, snow shoveling, etc., for an elderly parent who lives alone (by her choice)? Why is that disturbing?
Because the last thing a lonely elderly person needs at the life's sunset is a soulless clanker around.
Just because a robot is taking care of the chores does not mean that they have no relatives that visit them.
And if they truly have no relatives that visit, then a clanker is better than some low-paid disgruntled employee in an assisted living facility.
Re: Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
Toddlers should learn to pick up their own toys...? Unless we're grooming them for a life of pampered self-absorbed entitlement?
This is one of those "tell me you don't have kids without telling me" situations. The process of teaching a kid to be a responsible human is long and arduous. If you expect a 2 and a half year old to successfully be picking up their toys, well, I don't know what to tell you. Go spend some time in a daycare, I guess. And of course, that's completely ignoring the fact that I also would like to not have to pick up my sh…
Teaching kids responsibility and autonomy cones in right after keeping them healthy.
2 year olds do a bad job. They are 2. Yet it is valuable for them to learn to manage themselves. They love helping put silverware away from the washing machine. Kids _need_ to help as part of their development.
Re: Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
#486These robots look slow and not very fluid in their motions, but LLMs like ChatGPT also looked very dumb initially. If progress is as fast as LLMs , this could have massive applications in a few years.
For house keeping tasks the robotics companies love showing off... it honestly doesn't matter if it takes a robot longer than a human to clean your house. As long as it gets done before you get home from work, no big deal.
which work?
Re: Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
For house keeping tasks the robotics companies love showing off... it honestly doesn't matter if it takes a robot longer than a human to clean your house. As long as it gets done before you get home from work, no big deal.
I'm bearish that they'll be economically viable in the house for a very long time. For businesses the bar for adoption is very low: If the thing can work repetitive jobs for 24 hours a day and replace 3 shifts, the purchase bar is nominally anything less than 3 x human salary if your budgeting horizon is 1 year. That's a high number, and probably fairly easy to achieve. For homes, it's a very different bar. You'd hav…
Price point: they’ll be very low volume and very high price. There’s enough inequality and plenty of cash at the top to support such luxury robots. Everyone else will be doing their chores the old fashioned way, with their own hands.
Re: Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
have you ever bathed or changed diaper on old people?
Yes, I helped my friend deal with her bedridden granny who was very painful at a slightest movement, we did it together as gentle as we could. Now I imagine a robot doing that with all its compassion and empathy (which, however close to zero, still seem to be greater than in many people at this point). Your parents bathed you and changed your diapers, why can't you? Or did they hire a robot for that? Getting shit don…
I think this idealism needs to be tempered with a big dose of reality. Old people who need care aren't always able to book in time to be bathed. They soil themselves, trip and fall, get hungry and thirsty, need to get their book/glasses, need to check the mail, clean, get lost and confused, etc. This can be a full time job. How do you expect someone with a full time job to do this?
Dumping granny in a home and never visiting is bad. Being a full time carer and abandoning one's family and job is also bad.
Re: Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
#489Earlier quoted context omitted.
People in the US buy cars. Can a household robot provide as much utility as a car? If "yes", the market gets pretty big.
Not really. The car is a non-negotiable, like food, unless you live in Boston/NYC/SF or something. The robot is not.
The economy would be very dead if people only spend money on non-negotiable items. Why would one fly to Colorado if they could just go to the park near by?
Robots may not be very useful for now, but they will be at some point, and people will buy them, financing if they have to. Even if what the robots can do are not non-negotiable.
Re: Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots
#490[dead]