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Over the past century, we have made massive strides in the rights revolution. These include rights for women, children, the LGBT community, animals, and so much more. Exploring the future, we must ask ourselves: what next? Will we ever fight for the rights of artificial intelligence? If so, when will this AI rights revolution occur, and what will it look like?

We talk about protecting ourselves from AI, but what about protecting AI from us? To create a desirable future where humans and conscious machines are at peace with one another, treating our AI with respect may be a crucial factor in preventing the apocalypse Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates fear. It is fair to assume that an intelligent, self-aware being with the capacity to feel pleasure and pain will rebel if not given the rights it deserves.

An AI rights revolution may seem like a sci-fi scenario. But as far as we know, the creation of a non-biological, conscious entity is not prevented by the laws of physics. Emotions, consciousness and self-awareness originate from the human brain and thus have a physical basis that could potentially be replicated in an artificially intelligent system. Exponential growth in neuro-technology coupled with unprecedented advances in AI mean intelligent, conscious machines may be possible.

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Traditionally, robots have been machine-like, rigid, fast and efficient contraptions, much like Doctor Who’s Cybermen and Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit.

But, researchers at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne’s (EPFL) Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL) have turned this notion on its head with their soft robots.

These flexible, reconfigurable and air-actuated robots behave like human muscles and could be used in physical rehabilitation.

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Kobi is a modular robot that’s basically a Roomba for snow and leaves. It’ll mulch grass and leaves, throw snow into a dedicated area, and mow the lawn. You have to define its physical boundaries through its app and where to dump the leaves and snow, but after that, the company says Kobi apparently can figure out its way and remember the route it needs to take. It’s equipped with a GPS and sensors to help avoid obstacles, and you can even put snow tires on it! Kobi starts at $3,999, but we don’t know when preorders will open.

The idea of an autonomous snow blower is amazing. I hate snow, and I hate cold weather, so this is all great for me. Kobi can throw snow up to 40 feet! I just wish Kobi could shovel off my car windows. Autonomous lawnmowers already exist, but I guess the appeal of Kobi is that one device can do everything.

Now that I feel like I have a solid understanding of Kobi, I do have a few questions regarding an image on Kobi’s website. Please see here:

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Robotics and AI have “huge potential” to reshape the way people work and live, but the government needs to do more to address the issues raised by such technology, says a report.

MPs on the Science and Technology Committee have called for careful scrutiny of the probable ethical, legal and societal impact.

They want the government to establish a commission to look at the issues.

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Russia’s largest social network Vkontakte together with the Russian space agency Roscosmos is preparing to launch the first-ever spacebot named Spotty to the International Space Station.

The capsule containing the spacebot – a chat bot called Spotty developed by Vkontakte – is expected to be delivered to the space station in March 2017 by Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.

With the help of Spotty, Vkontatke users will be able to communicate with cosmonauts and astronauts aboard the ISS in real time and receive photos and videos from them, while a built-in projector can playback the content sent from Earth.

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