Robots

This Robot Reads WikiHow Guides to Learn How to Make Breakfast

As robots become more common in offices and homes, more humans will need to communicate with them. Sadly, bots still can’t converse or read or write well—yet. A European research project is looking to fix this limitation with a WikiHow-skimming kitchen robot that uses text and voice commands to throw together grub. The European research…

Artificial Intelligence Bryan Lufkin

When Robots Throw A Party, They Make It Super Creepy

This short film, What A Nice Party from Matt Ingebretson could be the premise of a weird horror film: a robot invites a bunch of strangers over, and tells them how to party, literally. The results are very, very awkward. [Vimeo]

io9 Andrew Liptak

I Wish These Tiny Plastic BattleBots Were Sold at Toy Stores

Fetch Robotics is best known for its warehouse bots that can autonomously fill orders. But soon the company might actually be better known for its Weaponized Plastic Fighting League that sees its engineers designing and building plastic toy battle bots that fight to the death. The company’s private league is like a smaller scale, and…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Here’s A Book That Adds a Fascinating New Dimension to Posthuman Space Opera

By now, the stories of humans transcending their limitations in space have become pretty much ubiquitous. We’ve had space cyborgs, space immortals, and tons of other posthumans in space. But the new novel Edge of Dark by Brenda Cooper still represents a fascinating new approach. In Edge of Dark, a young woman named Nona goes…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

This Is the Curiosity Rover’s Newest Selfie—and There’s Something Unusual About It

The Curiosity rover has snapped a brand new self-portrait and, like any good newbie selfie-taker, it’s figuring out its best angles—not only to show itself off, but also to show us something new about the Martian landscape it lives on. This newest selfie was made, like the others, by stitching together panoramic shots from the…

io9 Ria Misra

This is How US Challengers Plan to Wreck Japan’s Giant Robot in a Duel

America’s first giant combat robot needs funds to ready it for a hand-to-hand melee with Japan’s own battle mecha. And the funds—and big name support—are rolling in. In June, Oakland-based MegaBots and its battle bot Mk.II (pronounced “Mark 2”) challenged Japanese robotics company Suidobashi Heavy Industries in a brawl to robot death. A week later,…

Tech News Bryan Lufkin

We Should Not Dismiss the Dangers of “Killer Robots” So Quickly

Earlier this summer, more than a thousand prominent thinkers and specialists signed an open letter calling for a ban on autonomous killing machines. Since then, a number of critics have condemned the motion, citing it as both dangerous and useless. Optimization researcher Toby Walsh explains why we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the dangers.…

io9 Toby Walsh

This Robot Builds Other Robots, Learns From Failures, Builds Better Robots

Darwin probably didn’t expect basic principles of evolution to apply to machines, but here we are: Researchers have created a “mom” robot that independently reproduces “children,” passing beneficial features along to the next generation. The experiment was carried out at the University of Cambridge in collaboration with ETH Zurich, and the results were published today…

Tech News Bryan Lufkin

This Robot Uses the Power of Evolution to Produce and Improve New Robots

Roboticists have developed a “mother” robot that can build and evaluate her own “children,” and then decide which version performs best to inform the design of the next generation. Remarkably, the system doesn’t require any human intervention. Unlike biological species that evolve autonomously over time, robots are dependent on humans for reproduction and refinement. To…

io9 George Dvorsky

The Rise of the Robo-Meteorologist

Machines can do lots of things better than your average human brain. Hell, a $5 calculator is more gifted at math than I’ll ever be. And now machines can even predict the weather more accurately than your local bag-of-bones meteorologist. Microsoft researchers Ashish Kapoor and Eric Horvitz are using machine learning to make more accurate…

Tech News Darren Orf

A Human Master Gives This Robot Perfect Balance and Lightning Reflexes

Creating a humanoid robot that’s as agile and fast as an adult human—not a toddler—is a huge challenge as the recent DARPA challenge illustrated. So researchers at MIT have designed a robot that acts more like a puppet, relying on a human operator for dexterity, speed, and balance. You can think of this robot as…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Will This Adorable Patrol Robot Ever Find What It’s Looking For?

This little patrol robot was recently spotted at a transformer substation in Chuzhou, China. But will it ever find what it’s looking for? Maybe it’s over to the right. Nah, not there. Maybe it’ll find what it’s searching for over to its left. Not there either. Well, what if it gets a little closer while…

Tech News Matt Novak

How We Won the World Robot Soccer Championship

My team from UNSW Australia defeated team B-Human from Germany 3-1 last week to claim back-to-back Robocup SPL World Championships. Here’s how we did it. The competition involves fully autonomous robots, with no remote control, competing against each other in 5-on-5 soccer. Each team uses the same robots, so the competition is focused on software…

Artificial Intelligence Sean Harris

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

Whoever Found hitchBOT Brought Him to Meet Kevin Smith Last Night

The hitchBOT story just keeps getting weirder. After getting beheaded in Philly this past weekend some people thought he’d be lost forever. But that little hitchhiking robot has popped up again. This time hitchBOT made an appearance in Brooklyn with director Kevin Smith. Apparently whoever found hitchBOT contacted the Canadian researchers that made him and…

Tech News Matt Novak

Things That Are Pranks and Things That Are Not Pranks

For your consideration… Things that are pranks: Reprogramming hitchBOT to sound like HAL from Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey Taking hitchBOT to Mount Rushmore and leaving him on Teddy Roosevelt’s moustache Making hitchBOT a real boy through magic and/or sorcery Auditioning hitchBOT for the lead role in a buddy comedy opposite David Spade Things that…

Tech News Matt Novak

This Robot Is a Loom For Weaving Carbon Fiber Into Rocket Parts

When one robot leaves the world, another enters it. There’s plenty of carbon fiber in space right now. It’s the best bet we have for making spacecraft lighter—and it’s going to be key on deep space missions where every gram of food, water, and fuel is carefully planned. But making these parts isn’t easy, or…

Space & Spaceflight Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

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

Vlogger Claims to Have Surveillance Cam Footage of hitchBOT’s Death

Beloved hitchhiking robot hitchBOT was destroyed by vandals in Philadelphia over the weekend, and everyone wants to know who would do such a thing. We may soon have an answer. Vlogger Jesse Wellens claims to have security camera footage of hitchBOT’s demise. Wellens, whose video blog BFvsGF has over 7.3 million subscribers, was among the…

Tech News Matt Novak

Hitchhiking Robot Lasts Just Two Weeks in US Because Humans Are Terrible

When hitchBOT the hitchhiking robot started his journey in Boston two weeks ago he wanted to see the entire country. Unfortunately, he never made it out of the Northeast. The researchers who built hitchBOT announced today that they need to stop the experiment because hitchBOT was vandalized in Philadelphia. From the researchers who built hitchBOT:…

Tech News Matt Novak

This Robot Reads WikiHow Guides to Learn How to Make Breakfast

When Robots Throw A Party, They Make It Super Creepy

I Wish These Tiny Plastic BattleBots Were Sold at Toy Stores

Here’s A Book That Adds a Fascinating New Dimension to Posthuman Space Opera

This Is the Curiosity Rover’s Newest Selfie—and There’s Something Unusual About It

This is How US Challengers Plan to Wreck Japan’s Giant Robot in a Duel

We Should Not Dismiss the Dangers of “Killer Robots” So Quickly

This Robot Builds Other Robots, Learns From Failures, Builds Better Robots

This Robot Uses the Power of Evolution to Produce and Improve New Robots

The Rise of the Robo-Meteorologist

A Human Master Gives This Robot Perfect Balance and Lightning Reflexes

Will This Adorable Patrol Robot Ever Find What It’s Looking For?

How We Won the World Robot Soccer Championship

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

Whoever Found hitchBOT Brought Him to Meet Kevin Smith Last Night

Things That Are Pranks and Things That Are Not Pranks

This Robot Is a Loom For Weaving Carbon Fiber Into Rocket Parts

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

Vlogger Claims to Have Surveillance Cam Footage of hitchBOT’s Death

Hitchhiking Robot Lasts Just Two Weeks in US Because Humans Are Terrible

Amazon Clears Out the Chefman Indoor Pizza Oven at 50% Off, Pizza Stone and Peel Included

‘Maul: Shadow Lord’ Will Return for Season 2

Artemis 2 Day 2: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

Shark FlexStyle Air Styling System Holds at 31% Off While Dyson Airwrap Returns to Full Price After the Spring Sale

Sonos Ace ANC Headphones Quietly Drop Again to a New Low Right After the AirPods Max 2 Launch

Could Dave Filoni’s ‘Star Wars’ Cameo Have an Important Role in ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’?

Amazon’s 50-Inch Smart Fire TV Is Still 40% Off After the Spring Sale, Price Could Jump Back Anytime

Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta Glasses Now on GlassesUSA With 50% Off Lens Upgrades, Get Vision AI Glasses for Less

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

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