robot uprising

This Japanese Robot is as Cute as it is Soulless

This year was dismal for home robots, but that’s not deterring Japanese startup Groove X from announcing the Lovot, an adorable and cuddly robot designed to manipulate your emotions. I mean, look at this guy. It looks like it came straight from a Hayao Miyazaki film, a cross between a Minion and a seal, or…

Tech News Victoria Song Dec 20

The Viral Robot Video That’s Freaking Everyone Out Is Totally Fake

Have you seen this video of a very human-looking robot walking up a driveway? It’s gotten a lot of people online freaked out about the coming robot apocalypse. But you can rest easy… for now. This “robot” was created using computer graphics. As in, it’s totally fake. The video was created using the Unity video…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 20

I Can’t Stop Laughing at These Ski Robots Falling Down

If you saw that video of a robot skillfully opening a door yesterday, you might think that the robot uprising is just around the corner. But this new video of skiing robots falling on their faces might help you sleep at night. Or at least give you a good laugh. The video comes from the…

Sploid Matt Novak Feb 13

Power Company Sends Fire-Spewing Drone to Burn Trash Off High-Voltage Wires

What happens when your power lines get all kinds of trash hanging from them and it’s not safe to send up a human? In Xiangyang, China, you send in the drones. Specifically, the drones that shoot fire. Just in case you were worried that the robot uprising was delayed, fear no more. It appears to…

Tech News Matt Novak Feb 17

Helpless Bone Thug Becomes Latest Victim of Drone Menace

Go almost anywhere these days and they’re out there, lurking. At our festivals. By our pools. Even in our prisons. Drones have now infiltrated just about every area of human society, as a member of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony learned recently when a quadcopter savagely bonked him at his own concert. A video obtained by TMZ shows…

Tech News Hudson Hongo Sep 27

Atlas Is Done Taking Your Bullshit In The Best Terminator Mash-Up GIF Yet

Ever since Boston Dynamics released new video of the Atlas robot getting bullied with a hockey stick, people have been making mash-ups about the robot uprising. But I think Imgur user exgexg has made the best one yet. I won’t spoil the whole GIF for you. The shot above is just a sample. But you…

Tech News Matt Novak Feb 26

Robot Fights Break Out in New Hampshire, Sparking Fears of a Robot Uprising

Fights broke out today in New Hampshire between anti-Marco Rubio robots and pro-Rubio humans. It could not yet be confirmed whether the robot uprising has begun, but someone needs to tell that woman that you can’t strangle a robot. It only makes them stronger. https://gizmodo.com/are-chinas-robot-restaurants-a-threat-to-american-natio-1706036651 It’s believed that the robots oppose Marco Rubio because the…

Tech News Matt Novak Feb 9

Uh Oh, MIT Developed a Way To Make Robotic Hands Way More Like Our Own

Robotic arms have been around for decades now—but even though we humans like to compare these machines to our own bodies, robotic arms and hands are very, very limited when it comes to dexterity. According to a pair of MIT engineers, the key to making robotic hands more like our own is teaching them how…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Aug 5

Here’s Video of the Jerk Who Killed hitchBOT [Update: It’s a Hoax]

The hitchhiking robot known as hitchBOT was destroyed in Philadelphia over the weekend. And now we finally have footage of the jerk who did it. Vlogger Jesse Wellens posted the footage below to Snapchat. It shows a lone man in a sports jersey repeatedly kicking hitchBOT. Judging from the timecode, the person kicks hitchBOT at…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 3

When the Robots Rise Up, First They Will Fight the Felines

In this video, a combat robot goes up against a gang of ginger kittens. I couldn’t deprive you of the opportunity to watch this, even though it was filmed 2 years ago and all the cute kittens are now hardened, robot-destroying thugs.

Biology Annalee Newitz Feb 13

In This Short Film, The Robot Uprising Starts With Our Military Drones

In the future, the US government has removed human oversight from its drone missions, leaving unmanned military operations and surveillance to an AI. But the folks behind the project regret that decision when the AI starts targeting humanity at large. I.R.I.S. is another fun and stylish scifi short from director Hasraf HaZ Dulull, who also…

io9 Lauren Davis Nov 13

The 1930s Mechanical Man Who Tried To Start A Robot Uprising

Back in 1932, the world was awash in newspaper stories about a robot that had done the unthinkable: a mechanical man had shot its inventor. https://gizmodo.com/alpha-the-robot-shoots-his-inventor-1932-512626230 As you can imagine, the stories were a bit… shall we say, exaggerated. But, at a time when robots represented something fearful—a potent symbol of runaway automation and job…

Tech News Matt Novak Nov 8

Retro Propaganda Posters from the Robot Uprising

Animator and illustrator Tom Kyzivat reaches all the way back to Metropolis to create the classic feel for his series of Murderous Automaton posters. The massive mechanical rebels on his propaganda posters are menacing, but their quest to usher in the Atomic Age would be inspiring if they weren’t trying to exterminate us humans. Kyzivat…

io9 Lauren Davis Mar 3

Robot behavior reveals the fundamental structure of deception

We’ve invented robots who can obey you. And now we have ones who can just pretend to obey you. Over at Georgia Tech’s Mobile Robot Lab, researchers have spent over a decade studying potential military uses for robots. And what could be better for stealthy ops than a robot who is programmed to lie? Using…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 5

Noodle-shaving robots are replacing human cooks, and look pretty evil doing it

According to Chef Cui Runquan, young people in China no longer want to take jobs as noodle shavers, so he created the “Chef Cui” robot to handle the slicing duty in noodle shops. Now, he has an entire army of Ultraman-ish robot slicers, and they look poised for a delicious robot uprising. For around $1,500…

io9 Lauren Davis Sep 2

This is how a real robot uprising would play out

XKCD’s Randall Munroe has a pretty serious background in robotics. As a kid he designed underwater ROVs and programmed battlebots. As a college grad, he worked on robots for a little organization called NASA. Maybe you’ve heard of it. This foundation is what qualifies him to address the following question: “What if there was a…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 2

Musicians Wage War Against Evil Robots

After the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, all bets were off for live musicians who played in movie theaters. Thanks to synchronized sound, the use of live musicians was unnecessary — and perhaps a larger sin, old-fashioned. In 1930 the American Federation of Musicians formed a new organization called the Music Defense League…

Tech News Matt Novak Feb 10

IBM Simulates 4.5 Percent of the Human Brain and Might Make You Obsolete by 2019

Machines have been outperforming the human brain for a while now. Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov, Watson vs. Ken Jennings, Siri vs. my hungover inability to operate technology. Now IBM’s Blue Gene is trying to not just outperform, but simulate the whole damn human brain. It’s 4.5 percent of the way there. The Blue Gene…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Oct 25

Watch a horrifying car ad that shows our robot-dominated future

When robots control our entire existence, life will be bleak and joyless, according to this recent Dodge ad, crafted by Carl Erik Rinsch, director of the hot science fiction short The Gift and the upcoming 47 Ronin. The message of the spot: Humans may allow robots to control our diets, our clothing and our personal…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 2

Meet Suzette, the chat program that convinced an expert she was human

Have you met Suzette? If you have, you might not know it — because Suzette has passed the Turing Test. This chatbot convinced a judge that she was a human. The Loebner Prize is given out every year for the machine that can fool a judge they’re talking to a person for the space of…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 26

robot uprising

This Japanese Robot is as Cute as it is Soulless

The Viral Robot Video That’s Freaking Everyone Out Is Totally Fake

I Can’t Stop Laughing at These Ski Robots Falling Down

Power Company Sends Fire-Spewing Drone to Burn Trash Off High-Voltage Wires

Helpless Bone Thug Becomes Latest Victim of Drone Menace

Atlas Is Done Taking Your Bullshit In The Best Terminator Mash-Up GIF Yet

Robot Fights Break Out in New Hampshire, Sparking Fears of a Robot Uprising

Uh Oh, MIT Developed a Way To Make Robotic Hands Way More Like Our Own

Here’s Video of the Jerk Who Killed hitchBOT [Update: It’s a Hoax]

When the Robots Rise Up, First They Will Fight the Felines

In This Short Film, The Robot Uprising Starts With Our Military Drones

The 1930s Mechanical Man Who Tried To Start A Robot Uprising

Retro Propaganda Posters from the Robot Uprising

Robot behavior reveals the fundamental structure of deception

Noodle-shaving robots are replacing human cooks, and look pretty evil doing it

This is how a real robot uprising would play out

Musicians Wage War Against Evil Robots

IBM Simulates 4.5 Percent of the Human Brain and Might Make You Obsolete by 2019

Watch a horrifying car ad that shows our robot-dominated future

Meet Suzette, the chat program that convinced an expert she was human

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