Browsing: robots

News
Eat the ice cream
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Ice cream, it’s a delicious frozen treat that’s typically presented in a joyful light, but that’s not the case for Halo Top. The ice cream brand has opted for an unsettling and creepy ad instead.

News
Brains vs. bots
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The Turing Test is often used as a benchmark for establishing the humanity of artificial intelligence and the media was frothing at the mouth last year when a chatbot called Eugene Goostman posed as a 34-year-old boy from Odessa and supposedly passed the test by convincing 33 percent of the participants they were conversing with a human. There’s no doubt machines are getting smarter (or, at least, getting better at answering questions). So can you tell the difference between human and robot writing? Find out by taking a test created by The New York Times.

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We welcome our robot overlords (but some don’t)
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The robots are here. And they’re increasingly doing the jobs of humans. Recently, there’s been a bit of chat over AP’s decision to get computers to write some business stories and writing in Wired last year Kevin Kelly surmised that “before the end of this century, 70 percent of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation”, just as they were over the industrial revolution. Jono and Ben took this idea and ran with it for a recent skit that shows expendable labour getting their own back on technology. And with some studies showing TV is still very strong and others showing ‘screen-stacking’ is increasingly prevalent, there’s a rather self-aware scene at the end.

News
Man vs machine: table tennis star takes on robotic arm in Kuka spot
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Ever since the first Terminator film was released, the question of mankind’s ability to survive against a robotic rebellion has been mooted in popular culture. And now, using this concern as the premise for its new ad, Munich-based Sassenbach Advertising has pitted a Kuka robot arm against German table tennis legend Timo Boll.