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AI startup company Figure, which emerged from stealth last year, has unveiled the latest upgrades to its Figure 1 humanoid robot.

Founded in 2022 and publicly announced in March 2023, Figure is a California-based company with 80 employees that is building autonomous, general‑purpose humanoid robots. Its aim is to address labour shortages, fill jobs that are undesirable or unsafe for humans, and support a supply chain on a global scale.

The company is backed by a number of tech leaders including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, chipmaker NVIDIA, and Microsoft, and it recently announced a deal with ChatGPT‑maker OpenAI. Figure’s latest round of funding – which closed at $675 million – brought its total valuation to an impressive $2.6 billion.

A new generative artificial intelligence startup called Cognition AI Inc. is looking to disrupt coding with the launch of a new tool that can autonomously create code for entire engineering jobs, including its own AI models.

That tool’s name is Devin, and it takes the premise of GitHub Inc.’s and Microsoft Corp.’s Copilot developer tool much further, as it can carry out entire jobs on its own, rather than simply assist a human coder.

In a video (below) attached to a blog post announcing Devin, Cognition Chief Executive Scott Wu demonstrates how users can view the model in action. They can see its command line, code editor and workflow as it goes step-by-step, completing comprehensive coding projects and data research tasks assigned to it.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning, with a focus on Natural Language Processing (NLP), have seen substantial changes in the last few years. The area has advanced quickly in both theoretical development and practical applications, from the early days of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) to the current dominance of Transformer models.

Models that are capable of processing and producing natural language with efficiency have advanced significantly as a result of research and development in the field of neural networks, particularly with regard to managing sequences. RNN’s innate ability to process sequential data makes them well-suited for tasks involving sequences, such as time-series data, text, and speech. Though RNNs are ideally suited for these kinds of jobs, there are still problems with scalability and training complexity, particularly with lengthy sequences.

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When will AI match and surpass human capability? In short, when will we have AGI, or artificial general intelligence… the kind of intelligence that should teach itself and grow itself to vastly larger intellect than an individual human?

According to Ben Goertzel, CEO of SingularityNet, that time is very close: only 3 to 8 years away. In this TechFirst, I chat with Ben as we approach the Beneficial AGI conference in Panama City, Panama.

We discuss the diverse possibilities of human and post-human existence, from cyborg enhancements to digital mind uploads, and the varying timelines for when we might achieve AGI. We talk about the role of current AI technologies, like LLMs, and how they fit into the path towards AGI, highlighting the importance of combining multiple AI methods to mirror human intelligence complexity.

We also explore the societal and ethical implications of AGI development, including job obsolescence, data privacy, and the potential geopolitical ramifications, emphasizing the critical period of transition towards a post-singularity world where AI could significantly improve human life. Finally, we talk about ownership and decentralization of AI, comparing it to the internet’s evolution, and envisages the role of humans in a world where AI surpasses human intelligence.

Like Gates, Leslie doesn’t dismiss doomer scenarios outright. “Bad actors can take advantage of these technologies and cause catastrophic harms,” he says. “You don’t need to buy into superintelligence, apocalyptic robots, or AGI speculation to understand that.”

“But I agree that our immediate concerns should be in addressing the existing risks that derive from the rapid commercialization of generative AI,” says Leslie. “It serves a positive purpose to sort of zoom our lens in and say, ‘Okay, well, what are the immediate concerns?’”

In his post, Gates notes that AI is already a threat in many fundamental areas of society, from elections to education to employment. Of course, such concerns aren’t news. What Gates wants to tell us is that although these threats are serious, we’ve got this: “The best reason to believe that we can manage the risks is that we have done it before.”

The industrial innovation fund is seeking to invest in start-ups that can support the ecommerce group’s aims of becoming “more efficient, safer for our associates, and increase the speed of delivery to our customers.” Bossart said.

She said the Amazon fund would expand its focus this year, including by seeking to invest in companies involved in the “last mile” of deliveries, when packages arrive with customers, as well as geographically and in later-stage companies. However, Bossart would not be drawn on how much the fund has deployed so far, declining to comment on a report it has invested $110 million as of June.

The focus on the automation of warehouses and logistics was not about cutting people out of them altogether, but would result in a “shift in jobs” as more robots and automated vehicles took on repetitive or dangerous tasks, she said. “We’re also a long way off from replacing all humans,” she added.

Bricklaying robots are not looking to steal jobs but fill a labor shortage.

Imagine being a bricklayer.


How much does the bricklaying robot cost?

Monumental’s robots are much more affordable than conventional ones, costing only $25,000 per unit. But Monumental does not sell its robots; it sells its brick-laying services. It charges by the brick, just like human masons in Europe, and at a similar rate.

Called it. already impacting. not even a week later.


I just used AI in two films that are going to be announced soon. That kept me out of makeup for hours. In post and on set, I was able to use this AI technology to avoid ever having to sit through hours of aging makeup.

How are you thinking about approaching the threat that AI poses to certain job categories at your studio and on your productions?

Everything right now is so up in the air. It’s so malleable. The technology’s moving so quickly. I feel like everybody in the industry is running a hundred miles an hour to try and catch up, to try and put in guardrails and to try and put in safety belts to keep livelihoods afloat. But me, just like every other studio in town, we’re all trying to figure it all out. I think we’re all trying to find the answers as we go, and it’s changing every day — and it’s not just our industry, but it’s every industry that AI will be affecting, from accountants to architects. If you look at it across the world, how it’s changing so quickly, I’m hoping that there’s a whole government approach to help everyone be able to sustain, is my hope.