"Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors - too complicated, capital-intensive and "boring, honestly," says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui. But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do. Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people this week, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google and dozens of startups,"
"Disney's contribution to the field, a walking robotic version of "Frozen" character Olaf, will be roaming on its own through Disneyland theme parks in Hong Kong and Paris early next year. Entertaining and highly complex robots that resemble a human - or a snowman - are already here, but the timeline for "general purpose" robots that are a productive member of a workplace or household is farther away."
Robots have long been seen as a poor investment because they are complicated, capital-intensive and unexciting. The commercial boom in artificial intelligence has renewed interest in building humanoid robots that move and act like people. A Humanoids Summit drew more than 2,000 engineers and startup founders, with many researchers predicting humanoids or other physical embodiments of AI could become common, though timelines vary. Disney plans autonomous walking Olaf robots for Disneyland parks. Entertaining, complex robots already exist, but general-purpose workplace or household robots remain distant. Significant research and engineering challenges, including sensing and touch, keep skepticism high.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]