Benchmarking Robots with Dog-Inspired Barkour

Inspired by dog agility courses, a team of scientists from Google DeepMind has developed a robot agility course to test the abilities of four-legged robots called “Barkour.”Since the 1970s, dogs have been trained to nimbly jump through hoops, scale inclines, and weave between poles in order to demonstrate agility. To take home ribbons at these competitions, dogs must have not only speed but keen reflexes and attention to detail. These courses also set a benchmark for how agility shou

Artificial intelligence agent instructed engineer to take actions that exposed user and company data internallyAn AI agent instructed an engineer to take actions that exposed a large amount of Meta’s sensitive data to some of its employees, in the latest example of AI causing upheaval in a large tech company.The leak, which Meta confirmed, happened when an employee asked for guidance on an engineering problem on an internal forum. An AI agent responded with a solution, which the employee i

Dr Simon Williams says the UK is trying to build a quantum ecosystem while hollowing out the academic pipeline that produces the talentLiz Kendall is right to warn that the UK must not let quantum computing talent slip through its fingers (UK must learn lessons from AI race and retain its quantum computing talent, says minister, 17 March).However, UK Research and Innovation’s current funding decisions risk doing exactly that. Continue reading...

A chatbot won’t fix your family drama, but it might help you hear what someone’s really trying to saySign up for AI for the People, a six-week newsletter course, hereLast autumn, I was pacing my living room with my phone on speaker, trapped inside one of those looping conversations with my mother, the kind that starts politely and ends in static.We were talking about land and legacy – what gets passed down, and what doesn’t – that familiar terrain where ideals and i

Academics discover black people ‘significantly more likely’ to be identified when compared with other ethnic groupsEssex police have paused the use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology after a study found cameras were significantly more likely to target black people than people of other ethnicities.The move to suspend use of the AI-enabled systems was revealed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which regulates the use of the technology deployed so far by at

Iran war and its impact on energy and fertiliser costs is the main risk to the global economy, report saysBusiness live – latest updatesAn extended period of high oil prices as a result of war in the Middle East could “crimp” the AI boom, the World Trade Organization’s chief economist has warned.The war and its impact on energy and fertiliser costs is the main risk to the global economy identified in the WTO’s latest Global Trade Outlook. Continue reading...

Paul Griggs says senior staff at consulting firm who are not ‘paranoid about being AI-first’ are likely to be replacedBusiness live – latest updatesThe US boss of PricewaterhouseCoopers has warned that partners who do not get to grips with AI have no future at the consulting firm.Paul Griggs said senior staff who were not “paranoid about being AI-first” would probably be replaced by others who were ready to embrace the technology. “I don’t think anyone g

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Visual spectacle overwhelms the human drama in the choreographer’s tech-heavy double billTechnology can sometimes seem to take on its own life and sideline the people it is nominally assisting. That tension, even conflict, is the subject of Mirror, a new duet by Alexander Whitley, who has good form with choreographic deployments of digital, generative and VR technologies.In black and white leotards studded with motion-capture markers, Gabriel Ciulli and Da

AI videos let young people adopt the guise of DFS agents, sparking debate over glorifying corruption and impunityYoung people in Mexico are taking to TikTok to imagine themselves as agents from the country’s 1970s secret police, the DFS – a force which was infamous for torturing, murdering or disappearing thousands during the country’s “dirty war”.The trend, which has sparked condemnation by some users on the social media platform, has seen young people use AI to tr

$800-a-day position involves exposing a chatbot’s inconsistencies as it forgets, fudges or hallucinatesImagine a day at work where your main task is to pick a fight with a computer. No meetings, no emails – just you, a chair and a chatbot with the maddening tendency to think it has the cleverest mind in the room.The job title alone raises an eyebrow: “AI bully”. But this is precisely what a California startup called Memvid is offering: $800 to spend eight hours testing th

A technical examination of the sensing, motion control, power, and thermal challenges facing humanoid robotics engineers — with component-level design strategies for real-world deployment.What Attendees will LearnWhy motion control remains the hardest unsolved problem — Explore the modelling complexity, real-time feedback requirements, and sensor fusion demands of maintaining stable bipedal locomotion across dynamic environments.How sensing architectures enable perception and safety

Long-awaited Alexa+ aims to get Britons re-engaging with their devices – but it may have its work cut out“Commiserations, mate, Chelsea lost 3-0 in the Champions League last night against Paris Saint-Germain,” says Alexa as it attempts to break the news gently to an awaiting Blues fan.Such is the injection of personality and understanding that Amazon hopes will lead to Britons re-engaging with their millions of Alexa devices, restoring it to the cutting edge of voice assistants

Driverless ‘robotaxis’ will be accepting fares in Britain’s biggest city by the end of next year. Can they deal with London’s medieval roads, hordes of pedestrians and errant ebikers? I got in the passenger seat to find out‘I’m really excited to show you this,” says Alex Kendall, the CEO of Wayve, as he gets behind the wheel of one of the company’s electric Ford Mustangs. Then he does … nothing. The car pulls up to a junction at a busy road

How close are we to the sci-fi vision of autonomous humanoid robots? I visited 11 companies in five Chinese cities to find out Chen Liang, the founder of Guchi Robotics, an automation company headquartered in Shanghai, is a tall, heavy-set man in his mid-40s with square-rimmed glasses. His everyday manner is calm and understated, but when he is in his element – up close with the technology he builds, or in business meetings discussing the imminent replacement of human workers by robots &nd

Glasses use verbal cues and floating text to assist wearers and are expected to be available in early 2027AI software that can be embedded into smart glasses has won a £1m prize for technology to help people with dementia.Built into chunky, black-rimmed frames that have a camera, microphone and speakers, the tech – known as CrossSense – guides wearers through everyday life by means of a chatty assistant called Wispy. Continue reading...

Government no longer has ‘preferred option’ on copyright, technology secretary says, after backlash from artistsActors, musicians and writers have welcomed the UK government’s decision to backtrack on plans to let AI firms use copyright-protected work without permission.Technology secretary Liz Kendall said it no longer had a “preferred option” on copyright reform, having previously supported a proposal allowing tech companies to take copyrighted work – unless

Nick Timothy said an event attended by the mayor of London that included prayers was an ‘act of domination’Polanski says the government should be doing more to improve home insulation, and on the drive towards renewable energy.And he says the government should commit to ensuring energy bills do not rise above the April-June price cap.The government should guarantee right now that it will not allow energy bills to rise beyond the April-June price cap – instead setting aside appr

University professors and Amazon workers are wrestling with profound shiftsHello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, chuffed about One Battle After Another’s big win at the Oscars. This week, we’re examining how artificial intelligence is changing the everyday reality of white-collar work in the US, the roots of the current appetite for AI in war, and the United Kingdom’s phantom datacenters. Continue reading...

Use AI as a brainstorming partner and organizer, but don’t outsource your judgmentSign up for AI for the people, a six-week newsletter course, hereThree years on from the release of ChatGPT, two broad camps have formed: those people who refuse to use it, and those who use it every day.A 2025 survey by the Pew Research Center found that one-third of US adults say they have been using ChatGPT. This includes 58% of US adults under 30 – roughly double the share two years ago. Continue re