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AI and Robots: Where are we headed? A case study on Boston Dynamics and Humanoid Robots!

Updated: Feb 20, 2022

So the past decade has been the decade of technology. The exponential growth of technology seen in this decade was never seen in any other. Imagine it yourselves, compare the technology of 2010 to that of 2020, you would see what I mean. From simple dumb phones to the 6 inch tall 'Smartphone' inside your pocket, from low performance computers back in 2010 to the super powerful INTEL and AMD chips with which the computers of today are juiced up, from robots being an area of rigorous experiments to robots serving food in restaurants, EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED. So after all this, humanity is bound to ask itself, "WHERE ARE WE HEADED?"


WHY DO WE NEED ROBOTS?


You don't need me to tell you this. You all know it, robots perform the tasks given to them very efficiently. There is very little doubt on it. They do not judge a person in front of them, that is another reason. They make our overall life easier. But with the growing population, they also are a problem to many peoples' jobs. And by many, I mean MANY. Only the top skilled people will remain in their posts and the AI will become a threat to those also when it advances in the upcoming years, and trust me, it definitely will.

With all this said, let us measure the true potential of the robots, and of course, the AI.


DEVELOPMENT IN THE DECADE -


Let's begin with robots. What were robots back in 2010, the answer is dumb physical machines that were full of errors and bugs. They performed any task with just too much error. But now, it is a whole different picture. You might not know of the company BOSTON DYNAMICS, they specialize in robots and have made many 'dog robots' in the past 2 decades. You just need to look at the images of their different robots one by one to understand the development.


Amazing right? How have they progressed from ugly looking full of error BIG DOG of 2004 to decent looking SPOT CLASSIC of 2015. But SPOT CLASSIC is not their latest robot. It is SPOT of 2016. Take a look at how have they fantastically changed it from spot classic -



Now that is beautiful right? And the change is not just in looks. It is also in performance, intelligence, build quality, durability and most of all, practical usefulness. Let me give you the links of two videos, one by Boston dynamics themselves, which is somewhat the intro video of spot, and one by Marques Brownlee, which is the actual review of the dog. You should go and watch them 'AFTER READING THE BLOG' to fully appreciate this robot.

LINKS -

Okay, so now that we have appreciated the robots, let's get to our next topic, a topic which some people adore and some hate.


ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)


AI has been a controversy since it came in the limelight. AI is very different from simple order obeying mindless robots. AI has a thinking of it's own. It now even has an opinion of it's own. AI has really come a long way. Today there are AI virtual babies, which do not show any less tantrums than a real baby! There are virtual AI celebrities on Instagram, which of course, are non-existent in real world but are present virtually on Social Media and continuously post their videos too.


And of course, how can we forget Sophia, the AI Humanoid Robot, which is one of the most advanced humanoids in specific and robots in general to be ever built. She has her own opinions and desires and has become quite a celebrity due to her advanced Artificial Intelligence.

You might be amazed to know that she had become the 'FULL CITIZEN' of Saudi Arabia in 2017, the first ever humanoid robot to achieve such a thing. And let's not forget that she wishes to climb Mount Everest one day!




'Vyom Mitra' is the name of the Half-humanoid robot Indian Robot, who is to go in the 'Gangayaan' spacecraft of ISRO in 2022. Isn't that amazing? Yes it is.




So what do we learn from all this? We can't escape the future. Technology is developing very very fast and anything we do will not be able to stop it as it is the future and let's not forget that our planet isn't too happy with us. And even if humanity survives the wrath of Earth, which it has brought on itself, then also after about 5 billion years, the Sun would run out of Hydrogen nd would become a white dwarf. This would be the end of humanity. And it is not even our biggest problem right now. Every now and then asteroids pass through Earth. No one has hit it, or passed under the dangerous zone yet since the last 2 centuries, but trajectories of many asteroids say that they will pass very closely in the next 50,000 years. And humans are intelligent, I know, but it is also known that we are not capable yet or even near it to dodge such a threat to our Planet. We need help, and that's why we need robots, and of course, the AI.


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