Robo Brain Project Wants To Turn the Internet Into a Robotic Hivemind 108
malachiorion writes Researchers are force-feeding the internet into a system called Robo Brain. The system has absorbed a billion images and 120,000 YouTube videos so far, and aims to digest 10 times that within a year, in order to create machine-readable commands for robots—how to pour coffee, for example. From the article: "The goal is as direct as the project’s name—to create a centralized, always-online brain for robots to tap into. The more Robo Brain learns from the internet, the more direct lessons it can share with connected machines. How do you turn on a toaster? Robo Brain knows, and can share 3D images of the appliance and the relevant components. It can tell a robot what a coffee mug looks like, and how to carry it by the handle without dumping the contents. It can recognize when a human is watching a television by gauging relative positions, and advise against wandering between the two. Robo Brain looks at a chair or a stool, and knows that these are things that people sit on. It’s a system that understands context, and turns complex associations into direct commands for physical robots."
Re:We need positive Sci-Fi. (Score:5, Informative)
The original ending of I, Robot.
The movie changed it to the more modern cliche of rampant-AI-enslaving-the-world. In the original short story, a group of scientists uncovered an AI conspiracy towards world domination and discuss how to stop it - but then realise that these AIs are infallable, have no desire for power, money, sex or fame, and are incapable by design of acting against the best interests of mankind. So they decide to let the robots win.