- The Daily Update
- Posts
- Tesla reveals new humanoid robot
Tesla reveals new humanoid robot
Spotlight: France embraces AI video surveillance ahead of Olympics
Jack Shields
December 18, 2023
Welcome back!
We’re kicking off another week in AI with big news from Tesla, which just unveiled the latest version of its humanoid robot. France is also preparing to deploy AI video surveillance ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, raising ethical questions about the use of AI to fight crime.
Let’s dive in.
In today’s Daily Update:
🗞️ Tesla reveals Optimus Gen 2 robot
🤖 Stability AI releases new image-to-3D model
📸 France embraces AI video surveillance ahead of Olympics
🚨 AI Roundup: Four quick hits
Read time: 2 minutes
TOP STORY
🗞️ Tesla reveals Optimus Gen 2 robot
Last week Tesla unveiled its second-generation Optimus humanoid robot, which demonstrated major improvements that bring it closer to futuristic functions.
The details:
In a video shared on X, Optimus Gen 2 can be seen flexing its individual fingers and hands, walking around Tesla’s factory, doing squats and even dancing.
The robot’s dextrous hands feature tactile sensors on each fingertip, allowing it to carefully handle objects like eggs.
Optimus Gen 2 also showed off enhanced mobility. The robot is 20% lighter than its predecessor and walks 30% faster.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk previously told shareholders that the robot would account for “a majority of Tesla’s long-term value.”
The significance: Optimus Gen 2 is a noticeable upgrade from Tesla’s previous versions of humanoid robots. The company has yet to show off any real-world applications for its dextrous robot, but this is significant progress toward deploying robots in the workforce.
AI TOOL OF THE DAY
🤖 Stability AI releases new image-to-3D model
Source: Stability AI
Stability AI just released an image-to-3D model called Stable Zero123 for non-commercial and research use.
Key points:
The model can take a single image input and generate a 3D object that can be displayed from different angles.
Zero123 was built on an improved training dataset and features higher quality rendering than previous models.
Stability AI released the model on Hugging Face for researchers and non-commercial users to download and experiment with it.
The relevance: The image-to-3D space is moving incredibly quickly, and Stability has achieved yet another impressive rollout with Zero123. Given the current pace of development, text-to-video game creation may be possible within the next few years.
INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
📸 France embraces AI video surveillance ahead of Olympics
Generated by Adobe Firefly
France is planning to deploy AI video surveillance as it prepares to host the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
What you should know:
France is testing technology that can detect sudden crowd movements, abandoned objects and someone lying on the ground.
The city of Nice has trialed facial recognition software so accurate it can tell the difference between identical twins.
Hundreds of smart cameras in Paris and other cities will monitor crowds during the Games this summer.
Although facial recognition is banned in most cases, France has expanded the legal applications of algorithmic video surveillance before, during and after the Olympics.
The debate: Digital rights activists argue that this kind of observation is intrusive, and worry that algorithmic video surveillance could be extended indefinitely if its Olympic “test run” succeeds. French officials insist that their efforts are key to thwarting an attack like the bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
The bottom line: Western governments will spend the next few years confronting ethical questions about the use of AI and facial recognition as crime-fighting tools.
MORE TRENDING NEWS
🚨 AI Roundup: Four quick hits
Generated by Adobe Firefly
Smart Streaming: Spotify confirms it is testing a prompt-based AI playlists feature.
Inclusive AI: Nvidia staffers warn CEO about threats AI could pose to minorities.
Level Up: Instagram introduces background editing tool powered by generative AI.
Misinformation: Researchers say Bing Chat made up facts about European elections.
THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY