Talking robots and AI Agents, two insane demos from this week
In the past day I have seen two AI demos that offer some hope / fear that our sci-fi future may be coming sooner than we think
The first is this demo from robotics company Figure, where they have connected their state-of-the-art humanoid robot FIGURE 01 to OpenAI’s GPT Large Language Model (think: ChatGPT). The result is a robot that can talk to you, understand its environment, and manipulate objects without prior training.
Even though this is just using a ‘simple’ LLM, I am VERY pleased they didn’t poke it with a hockey stick like the old Boston Dynamic videos.
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The second is a demo from Cognition Labs, who just unveiled a new AI coding tool called Devin that is designed to automate the job of software engineers. It’s working as an AI Agent which we have written about before, but is by far the most sophisticated implementation we have seen.
The actual demo video is impressive but a bit boring, however this YT summary is 🔥
AI Agents like Devin take LLMs and use them to complete complex tasks. They can work towards a set goal autonomously, use tools (like APIs) and correct their own mistakes. They are clever.
At some point soon, we will see examples that combine AI Agent software with robotic hardware. This will be a robot that can be set a goal, can consider the best way to complete it, and then take action in the real world. If it hits a wall (metaphorically or literally) then it can self-correct.
It will be a very clever robot, with great communication skills. Are you excited?
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A handful of Gen AI news
Here are five of the most interesting things we have seen and read in the last week;
Ric Burton was arrested in an airport, and is allowed to use his phone to make one phone call. He uses ChatGPT for legal advice and was let off with a small fine
A great podcast interview on AI milestones from the past month with Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman from Ben Thompson (Stratechery)
Big 2024 AWS Report on AI Skills in the Workplace, packed full of research
Generating 3D mesh from a single image in less than a second, wow
Midjourney now allows you to generate consistent characters across generated images
That’s a wrap for Issue #10. Drop us a comment and let us know what you think of our future friendly robots, or any special requests for future issues.