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1 month ago | 
robots4therestofus.substack.com | David Berreby
A couple of videos circulating last week showed robots and humans looking like they were about to throw down. They weren’t. But as humanoid makers all over the world ramp up production (and as several make splashy announcements that they are aiming to put their products in homes, and not just factories), these scenes are, I think, a glimpse of the future. Most compatible with people’s preconceptions is this video, taken February 9 at the Spring Festival Gala in Tianjin, China.
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1 month ago | 
robots4therestofus.substack.com | David Berreby
Last fall, I gave a talk in which I mentioned generative AI’s homogenizing effect on creative expression. These systems create their answers by analyzing patterns in what has already been written, or said, or imaged. So of course their writing and image-making isn’t tops for spark and originality. (That’s why, I think, some studies report that AI helps average performers at work more than it helps the stars.)I said this was unquestionably bad for creative people.
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2 months ago | 
robots4therestofus.substack.com | David Berreby
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2 months ago | 
robots4therestofus.substack.com | David Berreby
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
robots4therestofus.substack.com | David Berreby
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -51:25Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Data scientist Wes Chaar was at home a few years ago, working with the tools of his trade, when he had an “aha!” moment. He realized the information he was looking at would let him predict not only what people would buy and how they’d vote, but also how they’d feel about their choices. Those people might not have shared those feelings with anyone, but Chaar could foresee they’d be there.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
robots4therestofus.substack.com | David Berreby
Years ago I worked for a few months as an editor in the Opinion section of the New York Times, filling in for someone on maternity leave. Our workday had two different modes. One was sitting around, sometimes with our feet up on our desks, discussing the great issues and ideas of the day, and how we might get this or that person to write something interesting. The other was the opposite: frantic typing, calling and faxing (I did say it was a long time ago).
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Aug 11, 2024 | 
robots4therestofus.substack.com | David Berreby
The other day at my annual eye checkup, I began with a young ophthalmologist, who measured the fluid pressure in my eyes, did some other checks, and had everything ready for my veteran doctor when he walked in. As they talked over the data, he said, "Hmm, let me take his pressure again.""See? It's actually a little lower than you wrote," he told his colleague. "The thing is, when you lift his eyelid a little for the machine, you're adding a very slight pressure from your finger.
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May 31, 2024 | 
projektpulsar.pl | David Berreby
Mimo wielu wspaniałych filmów na YouTube, przedstawiających roboty-magazynierów, roboty-psy, roboty-pielęgniarzy i oczywiście roboty-samochody, żadne z tych urządzeń nie jest elastyczne i zdolne sobie radzić jak człowiek. Jak temu zaradzić? Roboty przygotowują posiłki w restauracjach na całym świecie od Szanghaju po Nowy Jork.
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May 24, 2024 | 
robots4therestofus.substack.com | David Berreby
How should we see robots as they roll (or walk, or fly, or swim) into our lives? As animals to train? Children to guide? Loyal servants? Amiable friends? Therapists? Or therapons? Fellow workers? Fellow artists? People are likely to try on all these attitudes. The same person will probably cycle through some of them, maybe in the course of a single day of modern life in 2050. Agnieszcka Pilat is an artist who ponders these questions and makes art that brings people face to face with these questions.
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May 15, 2024 | 
robots4therestofus.substack.com | David Berreby
Nothing illustrates the power of science fiction better than Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Asimov coined them (in 1942!) after conversations with other SF writers and editors, because the laws' interactions make for good stories. But he also thought of them as scientifically possible and even necessary -- indeed, some sources say he felt they were an obvious set of principles for any kind of machine. He did not, however, set them forth as a research program.
