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How Google built its Gemini robotics models

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Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models

#61

Post by piokoch »

otherayden wrote: post #38

It's terrifying to think that robots like this will probably be used in the defense industry at some point. If the robot understands something as general as "put the erasers away", imagine "kill all enemies".

Exactly. Robodog that costs 5K USD, which is probably less than one month of cost of the infantry soldier, and can be sent to fight in the trenches is something generals would dream of. Ukraine, that is experiencing soldiers shortage will go in that direction, at the beginning with something simple like remotely steered land drones.

Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models

#62

Post by quotemstr »

otherayden wrote: post #38

It's terrifying to think that robots like this will probably be used in the defense industry at some point. If the robot understands something as general as "put the erasers away", imagine "kill all enemies".

> It's terrifying to think that robots like this will probably be used in the defense industry at some point

So what? Is keeping us safe a bad thing somehow? I can't get these people who reflexively think anything weapon-shaped is evil. Violence is good sometimes.

Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models

#63

Post by eitally »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #50
meta_ai_x wrote: post #25

Earlier 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

Seems doubtful. His entire time at Google was doing project management stuff, so that is probably where all of his skills lie. Can anyone with access to google3/ tell us if there is even a single commit by sundar@?

No, you can only access google3 by default if you are a T ladder FTE. This rules out almost everyone who isn't a SWE, SRE, PM or other affiliated technical role. There are exceptions, but ... they're exceptions.

Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models

#65

Post by whatnow37373 »

piokoch wrote: post #61
otherayden wrote: post #38

It's terrifying to think that robots like this will probably be used in the defense industry at some point. If the robot understands something as general as "put the erasers away", imagine "kill all enemies".

Exactly. Robodog that costs 5K USD, which is probably less than one month of cost of the infantry soldier, and can be sent to fight in the trenches is something generals would dream of. Ukraine, that is experiencing soldiers shortage will go in that direction, at the beginning with something simple like remotely steered land drones.

People are remarkably cheap and versatile especially if you happen to don’t give a fuck about them. I find it hard to imagine a high-tech incredibly unreliable complex robot to be of any value in the battlefield. Even my phone is remarkably unreliable, have to keep it charged, bugs, etc. I noticed this during COVID and its QR-scanning phase at restaurants.

A simple pipe bomb or two will make short work of any incoming monstrosity.

What they need is simple, simple tech, cheap and lots and lots of it. Basic drones and RC cars rigged with stupid bombs will accomplish 90% of what fancy robodogs can do at a fraction of the cost.

Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models

#66

Post by imtringued »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #51
harmmonica wrote: post #13

Even 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…

Waymo?

Waymo is the exception that proves the rule. Waymo feels more like "Google owned" than it feels like a Google product.

Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models

#67

Post by imtringued »

whatnow37373 wrote: post #65
piokoch wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Robodog that costs 5K USD, which is probably less than one month of cost of the infantry soldier, and can be sent to fight in the trenches is something generals would dream of. Ukraine, that is experiencing soldiers shortage will go in that direction, at the beginning with something simple like remotely steered land drones.

People are remarkably cheap and versatile especially if you happen to don’t give a fuck about them. I find it hard to imagine a high-tech incredibly unreliable complex robot to be of any value in the battlefield. Even my phone is remarkably unreliable, have to keep it charged, bugs, etc. I noticed this during COVID and its QR-scanning phase at restaurants. A simple pipe bomb or two will make short work of any incomin…

A robot dog hiding in bushes for reconnaissance is significantly more energy efficient than letting drones loiter in the air.

Killing people is already a solved problem. Use mortars, call air strikes, send drones, let a heli shoot 30mm rounds, etc.

Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models

#68

Post by sebastiennight »

sdenton4 wrote: post #31
anon84873628 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put another way, impossible to program if you wanted to. These are highly abstract concepts that only manifest at the highest level of cognition. The governance module would need to be programmed at that same level using those tokens, but that doesn't seem to be how things are shaping up to work. Instead we start with low level programming that learns and builds up concepts on top. Essentially you would need some sor…

Some kind of governor module to keep our security cyborgs in line...

Sounds like with such a governor module, everyone could rent a SecUnit any time they need to feel entirely safe!

Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models

#69

Post by cma »

MPSFounder wrote: post #43
cma wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Look at the sheer number of institutions and people, and now compare it to any US institution (Maryland). Despite how much smaller the population would be, the accomplishments speak for themselves. I would take an engineer with a bs from any R1 university over a graduate with experience from those institutions any given day of the week. But of course, there will be exceptions. I was responding to a defense of Sundar…

So you could rephrase your original comment: "not one (of course with multiple exceptions)"

Re: How Google built its Gemini robotics models

#70

Post by adrian_b »

WXLCKNO wrote: post #7
dachworker wrote: post #2

The "how" is completely missing, but if they can get this to work semi reliably it will be ChatGPT x100 in terms of impact.

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…

Their robots are real enough, and they are well designed.

You can see more details in this video "Tearing Down the Unitree Go2: A Robotics Expert's Deep Dive":

https://youtu.be/YjVbW6Fc11Y

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