TECH WORLD

The Rise of the Robots Robots in logistics and warehouse applications are much more cost-justifiable than they used to be. It used to seem that a headline like the one for today’s column would freak everyone out that “robots are taking all of our jobs.” However, low unemployment combined with dropping prices and increasing capabilities for robots has to a great degree  silenced that cry , especially in logistics where companies are having a hard time with staffing (especially finding pickers) and where, in total, there are 600,000 open jobs industry-wide. In logistics, robots can pay for themselves within three to nine months, and with lower purchase prices, easier-to-configure robots and greater capabilities of robots that can find their way around a building, even small- and mid-size companies can now more easily deploy robots and gain a fast return. So it’s no surprise that in logistics and warehousing, robots are taking a larger and larger role, at least partially d...

Softbank's Robotics Business Prepares To Scale Up Photo by Parmy Olson The Pepper robot looks up at a delegate at the VivaTech conference in Paris on May 24, 2018. Billionaire  Masayoshi Son  is facing a tough challenge in growing his robotics business in Europe. His conglomerate Softbank bought French robot maker Aldebaran in 2013 for $100 million. Two years later it released a waist-high robot named Pepper. With a high-pitched voice and doe-eyed, friendly gaze that follow’s your own as you move around it, Pepper exudes cuteness, building off Aldebaran’s expertise in building machines that can pick up on human emotions. How many "Peppers" has Softbank Robotics Europe sold so far? Around 12,000, each costing 20,000 euros ($23,200). “It’s an amazing result,” says Nicolas Boudot, the company’s sales and marketing director. “But it’s peanuts.” Many of these sales are pilots across the world, such as the 25 Peppers t...

Genetic Fortune-Telling DEREK BRAHNEY One day, babies will get DNA report cards at birth. These reports will offer predictions about their chances of suffering a heart attack or cancer, of getting hooked on tobacco, and of being smarter than average. Genetic Fortune Telling Breakthrough Scientists can now use your genome to predict your chances of getting heart disease or breast cancer, and even your IQ. Why It Matters DNA-based predictions could be the next great public health advance, but they will increase the risks of genetic discrimination. Key Players Helix; 23andMe; Myriad Genetics; UK Biobank; Broad Institute Availability Now The science making these report cards possible has suddenly arrived, thanks to huge genetic studies — some involving more than a million people. It turns out that most common diseases and many behaviors and traits, including intelligence, are a result of not one or a few genes but many acting in concert. Using the data from large ongo...

Babel-Fish Earbuds GOOGLE In the cult sci-fi classic  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,  you slide a yellow Babel fish into your ear to get translations in an instant. In the real world, Google has come up with an interim solution: a $159 pair of earbuds, called Pixel Buds. These work with its Pixel smartphones and Google Translate app to produce practically real-time translation. Babel-Fish Earbuds Breakthrough Near-real-time translation now works for a large number of languages and is easy to use. Why It Matters In an increasingly global world, language is still a barrier to communication. Key Players Google and Baidu Availability Now One person wears the earbuds, while the other holds a phone. The earbud wearer speaks in his or her language — English is the default — and the app translates the talking and plays it aloud on the phone. The person holding the phone responds; this response is translated and played through the earbuds. Google Translate ...

AI for Everybody MIGUEL PORLAN Artificial intelligence has so far been mainly the plaything of big tech companies like Amazon, Baidu, Google, and Microsoft, as well as some startups. For many other companies and parts of the economy, AI systems are too expensive and too difficult to implement fully. AI for Everybody What’s the solution? Machine-learning tools based in the cloud are bringing AI to a far broader audience. So far, Amazon dominates cloud AI with its AWS subsidiary. Google is challenging that with TensorFlow, an open-source AI library that can be used to build other machine-learning software. Recently Google announced Cloud AutoML, a suite of pre-trained systems that could make AI simpler to use. Microsoft, which has its own AI-powered cloud platform, Azure, is teaming up with Amazon to offer Gluon, an open-source deep-learning library. Gluon is supposed to make building neural nets — a key technology in AI that crudely mimics how the human brain learns — as...

The 13 Engineers Leading the Way to the Flying Car We've never been closer to making flying cars a reality. Here are the engineers who are leading the charge. Flying cars are one of the coolest staples of science fiction, and we could be closer to making them a reality than ever before. There are plenty of companies working on flying cars at the minute, both major manufacturers and small start-ups. In the wake of Uber's Elevate Summit, which saw some of the greatest minds in engineering meet to discuss this new frontier of automobiles, it's worth checking out the latest advancements in the field. Here are just some of the visionary engineers who want to put cars in the skies. 1. Kevin Colburn - Terrafugia One flying car that you can reserve now, which is set for mass release in 2019, is the Terrafugia Transition. The company's COO and Vice President of Engineering, Kevin Colburn, claims the vehicle is  faster than a car  and more convenient than a plane. ...