The information: A brand new robotic coaching mannequin, dubbed “KnowNo,” goals to show robots to ask for our assist when orders are unclear. On the identical time, it ensures they search clarification solely when essential, minimizing useless back-and-forth. The end result is a brilliant assistant that tries to verify it understands what you need with out bothering you an excessive amount of.
Why it issues: Whereas robots may be highly effective in lots of particular situations, they’re usually unhealthy at generalized duties that require widespread sense. That’s one thing giant language fashions might assist to repair, as a result of they’ve numerous common sense data baked in. Learn the complete story.
—June Kim
Medical microrobots that journey contained in the physique are (nonetheless) on their approach
The human physique is a labyrinth of vessels and tubing, stuffed with obstacles which can be troublesome to interrupt by way of. That poses a severe hurdle for docs. Sickness is usually brought on by issues which can be exhausting to visualise and troublesome to entry. However think about if we might deploy armies of tiny robots into the physique to do the job for us. They might break up hard-to-reach clots, ship medication to even probably the most inaccessible tumors, and even assist information embryos towards implantation.
We’ve been listening to about using tiny robots in drugs for years, possibly even a long time. And so they’re nonetheless not right here. However specialists are adamant that medical microbots are lastly coming, and that they could possibly be a sport changer for quite a few severe illnesses. Learn the complete story.
—Cassandra Willyard