Technology

The Download: listening robots, and Google’s AI emissions

July 3, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. A way to let robots learn by listening will make them more useful Most AI-powered robots today use cameras to understand their surroundings and learn new tasks, but it’s becoming easier to train…

A way to let robots learn by listening will make them more useful

July 3, 2024
Most AI-powered robots today use cameras to understand their surroundings and learn new tasks, but it’s becoming easier to train robots with sound too, helping them adapt to tasks and environments where visibility is limited.  Though sight is important, for some of our daily tasks, sound is actually more helpful, like listening to onions sizzling…

The Download: mind-controlled prosthetics, and the price of AI training data

July 2, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. People can move this bionic leg just by thinking about it  What’s new: When someone loses part of a leg, a prosthetic can make it easier to get around. But most prosthetics are…

AI companies are finally being forced to cough up for training data

July 2, 2024
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. The generative AI boom is built on scale. The more training data, the more powerful the model.  But there’s a problem. AI companies have pillaged the internet for training data, and…

The Download: fish-safe hydropower, and fixing space debris

July 1, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How fish-safe hydropower technology could keep more renewables on the grid Hydropower is the world’s leading source of renewable electricity, generating more power in 2022 than all other renewables combined. But while hydropower…

How fish-safe hydropower technology could keep more renewables on the grid

July 1, 2024
Hydropower is the world’s leading source of renewable electricity, generating more power in 2022 than all other renewables combined. But while hydropower is helping clean up our electrical grid, it’s not always a positive force for fish. Dams that create reservoirs on rivers can change habitats. And for some species, especially those that migrate long…

Robot cats, dogs and birds are being deployed amid an ‘epidemic of loneliness’

June 30, 2024

In the early 1990s, a researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology began work on what would become Paro. More than 30 years after its development, the doe-eyed seal pup remains the best-known example of a therapeutic robot for older adults. In 2011, the robot reached the zenith of pop cultural […]

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Detroit Police Department agrees to new rules around facial recognition tech

June 29, 2024

As part of a legal settlement, the Detroit Police Department has agreed to new guardrails limiting how it can use facial recognition technology. These new policies prohibit the police from arresting people based solely on the results of a facial recognition search, or on the results of photo lineups conducted immediately after a facial recognition […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Download: AI video games’ research potential, and US government website redesigns

June 28, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How AI video games can help reveal the mysteries of the human mind Video gaming companies are applying large language models to generate new game characters with detailed backstories—characters that could engage with…