A busy week continues

Welcome back to The Daily Update — We’ve got lots of breaking news on deck, so no AI training today. Here’s the full menu:

🗞️ The Latest: Toyota trains AI breakfast bots in a ‘kindergarten for robots’

🤖 A Look Into the Future: Israel unveils new AI-powered super tank

📸 Business Spotlight: Google upgrades Bard chatbot, releases new DeepMind research

🚨 AI Roundup: Four quick hits

Read time: 3 minutes

🗞️ The Latest: Toyota trains AI breakfast bots in a ‘kindergarten for robots’

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) used generative AI to teach robots how to make breakfast at a “kindergarten for robots.”

What you need to know:

• Researchers gave the robots a sense of touch and plugged them into an AI model. They then showed the robots how to whisk eggs as you would a human being.

• The sense of touch makes it easier for the robots to carry out difficult tasks, as the model gathers more information when it can feel what it’s doing.

• Researchers say they’re attempting to create Large Behavior Models (LBMs) that learn by observation. The models would then generalize and perform new skills they’ve never been taught.

• Toyota’s team has already trained over 60 challenging skills, including “pouring liquids, using tools, and manipulating deformable objects.” They aim to up that number to 1,000 by the end of 2024.

• Google and Tesla are conducting similar research.

Why it matters: Teaching robots human motor skills is a notoriously tough task. This would typically take hundreds of hours of coding and bug fixing. Researchers hope that AI-trained robots will eventually be able to carry out tasks with little to no instruction other than general directions (e.g. “clean that spill”).

🤖 A Look Into the Future: Israel unveils new AI-powered super tank

Israel just unveiled the IDF’s new AI-powered “Barak” super tank. Barak is already being incorporated into the Armored Corps starting with Battalion 52.

Key points:

• Israel’s Defense Ministry says the new tank has been in development and production for more than five years.

• With new targeting abilities, Barak is programmed to zero in on and target enemy forces before they are able to attack the tank.

• The system uses the Elbit Systems IronVision helmet to enable the tank’s crew to “see through the vehicle’s armor.”

• Barak is designed to keep advancing as warfare and the battlefield develop.

What’s new: The tank features advanced targeting systems that combine data processing and independent scanning abilities, improved firing abilities that allow precise targeting in daylight and at night, improved cameras for driving at night and radios.

Crucial quote: “The new era ushered in by the ‘Barak’ tank is an extraordinary leap and a clear expression of the technological capabilities that continually enhance and secure the qualitative advantage of the IDF, both in defense and offense,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.

📸 Business Spotlight: Google upgrades Bard chatbot, releases new DeepMind research

Google has been busy with AI this week, and the company’s AI firm DeepMind and AI chatbot Bard made headlines again yesterday.

Bard upgrades:

• Bard can now scan your Gmail, Docs and Drive to help find the information you’re looking for.

• Users can now ask Bard to find and summarize an email or highlight the most important parts of a document in Drive.

• The chatbot will also connect with Maps, YouTube and Google Flights. This allows users to pull up real-time flight information, find nearby attractions and surface YouTube videos right from Bard.

• Bard now features a “Google It” button that offers a way to verify its answers.

DeepMind research:

• DeepMind has used AI to identify changes in human DNA that might cause diseases.

• AlphaMissense, DeepMind’s new system, can tell if the letters in a string of DNA will produce the correct shape.

• This development is expected to speed up diagnosis and help in the search for better treatments.

• Google DeepMind’s Pushmeet Kohli says the new model pushes the percentage of classified mutations up from 0.1% to 89%.

🚨 AI Roundup: Four quick hits

• Full Transparency: TikTok introduces a way to label AI-generated content.

• Leveling Up: OpenAI launches a red teaming network to make its models more robust.

• More Medical AI: Chan Zuckerberg initiative is building a new AI GPU cluster for medical research.

• Democratizing AI: SambaNova introduces new chip designed to handle a five trillion parameter model and reduce costs.

Have questions or thoughts on today’s newsletter? Reply to this email and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for reading The Daily Update!

Jack

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