From the archive
AI robotics combines perception, planning and learning with machines that act in the physical world. Follow developments in humanoid robots, autonomous systems, robotic manipulation and embodied intelligence. Our reports examine what was demonstrated, the conditions it worked under and the gap between a controlled trial and reliable deployment, with sources you can check and space to discuss the results.
Lead story
Aetina has launched industrial MXM accelerator modules built around NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell Embedded GPUs, bringing generative and physical AI hardware into compact systems for robots, manufacturing and medical equipment. The practical significance is edge deployment: more AI processing can happen near the machine, rather than making every…
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China’s AI industry is raising money, building alternatives to Nvidia hardware and releasing open-weight models at speed, while its public debate focuses more on economic deployment than existential risk. Reuters’ reporting offers a useful look at what is driving that push, and where the apparent lead may still…
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Andrew Dai, a former Google Brain and DeepMind researcher and co-founder of Elorian, argues that frontier AI remains unreliable at detailed visual tasks such as counting objects, tracking robot actions and interpreting complex designs. The practical point is less glamorous than another benchmark victory: systems that recognise a…
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A new essay argues that AI data agents are running into the same workplace problem as people: crucial knowledge is scattered, implicit and poorly documented. Its proposed answer is less exotic than a new database architecture, and rather more useful: improve the documentation.
Microsoft AI Watch
Microsoft researchers say robots can gain speed, accuracy and battery life by sending demanding AI inference to nearby edge hardware or the cloud instead of running everything on the robot. The catch is wonderfully physical: network delay and bandwidth now become part of the robot’s nervous system.
Berkeley BAIR Watch
A University of California, Berkeley and Princeton team has developed TANGO, an AI navigation system that lets a humanoid robot plan movement for all 29 of its joints. Tested on a Unitree G1, it reduced collisions in cluttered environments and completed narrow passages, low obstacles and floor obstacles…
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Five UC Berkeley computer science graduate students have been named Siebel Scholars for 2027, receiving $35,000 each to pursue research spanning AI, robotics, security and machine-learning hardware. The useful detail is not simply that Berkeley has won another academic laurel. The awards are buying time for work aimed…
Fei-Fei Li Watch
Fei-Fei Li says World Labs’ Atlas is designed to understand and generate three-dimensional environments, pointing AI beyond language models and towards robotics, design and science. The practical significance is clear: machines that can reason about space could be more useful in the physical world, not merely more eloquent…
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Alphabet’s robotics company Intrinsic has open-sourced key parts of its software platform, including tools for real-time control, pose estimation, motion planning and camera calibration. The release matters because it gives developers reusable building blocks for industrial robots, rather than another isolated demonstration with a suspiciously cinematic soundtrack.
Anthropic Watch
A tracker cited by The Register counts 225 vulnerabilities linked to Anthropic or Project Glasswing, yet only one has confirmed exploitation in the wild. The finding complicates the loudest claims about AI-powered bug hunting: discovering more flaws does not automatically mean attackers can turn them into more attacks.
OpenAI Watch
Researchers report that GPT-6 Astra can control robots directly on a range of tasks, outperforming the other public models tested. The more useful finding is less cinematic: Astra appears capable of understanding what a robot should do, but remains unreliable when the job demands precise, dynamic or two-handed…
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Researchers have introduced CausalWM, a 16-billion-parameter embodied world model that reasons about cause and effect before predicting what happens next. The work matters because it aims to move AI systems beyond spotting visual patterns and towards modelling how actions change the physical world, a rather important distinction once…
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ZoomInfo has launched Talent Autopilot, an AI recruiting platform that can discover candidates, explain its search in natural language and draft personalised outreach. The important shift is not another database with a shinier button: recruiters can describe the person they need in context, while the system reasons across…
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A month-old UK AI start-up founded by former Google DeepMind researchers is reportedly seeking up to $700m at a valuation of about $3.7bn. Emulate is still operating in stealth, making this a striking vote of investor confidence in world models before the company has shown the public what…
