Daily Archives: July 21, 2021

Jeff Bezos Couldn’t Qualify for Normal Astronaut Wings, So Blue Origin Invented Its Own – Futurism

Posted: July 21, 2021 at 12:38 am

Along with three other passengers, Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos rocketed high into the upper atmosphere on what the company is calling its first crewed mission to space.

The companys New Shepard rocket,dubbed the RSS First Step, launched from the West Texas desert and reached three Gs and a blistering speed of 2,233 mph during the trip.

Its actually a pleasurable experience, Bezos said during a press conference following the launch. He also noted that his expectations were dramatically exceeded and that zero gravity felt so normal.

During the press junket, Bezos, his brother, 18-year-old Oliver Daemon, and 82-year-old pilot veteran Wally Funk got their Blue Origin astronaut wings, awarded by Jeff Ashby, former NASA Space Shuttle astronaut and Blue Origins chief of mission assurance.

In reality, its arguably a bit of a stretch to use the term astronaut here. If you zoom out, it looks an awful lot like Bezos and co couldnt qualify for normal astronaut wings so it invented its own.

To be sure, the United States Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps award the astronaut badge to those who fly above just 50 miles.

But while the rockets passengers successfully traveled to 62 miles, an arbitrary line drawn by the Fdration aronautique internationale (FAI) over half a century ago, they were passengers, not actual crew members.

The use of the term is controversial, considering the four were taken for a ten minute joyride and werent ever in control over the vehicle.

None of them became NASA astronauts today, eitherdespite the fact that Funk more than deserves her certification after being put through the space agencys rigorous Woman in Space Program gauntlet in the early 1960s, even though none of the program participants were ever selected to go to space.

NASA reserves the right to award the wings to only those who complete a set of specific requirements. Eligible US citizens need to possess a masters degree in a STEM field, have two years of relevant professional experience or complete at least 1,000 hours pilot-in-command time on jet aircraft.

They also need to be able to pass the NASA long-duration flight astronaut physical, which, among many other things, requires them to have 20/20 vision, a blood pressure of below 140/90 while sitting and a standing height between 62 and 75 inches, according to official documentation.

The crew also missed the chance to be awarded wings designed for those who fly to space on commercial spacecraft. Bezos and company didnt end up qualifying for the Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) Commercial Astronaut Wings, due to the fact they were passengers, not flight crew.

The FAAs Commercial Astronaut Wings Program was designed to recognize flight crewmembers who further the FAAs mission to promote the safety of vehicles designed to carry humans, according to the agencys website.

Crews have to demonstrate a safe flight and return from space on a mission licensed by the FAA. They also have to meet other specific requirements for flight crew qualifications, including the ability to withstand the stresses of space flight, which may include high acceleration or deceleration, microgravity, and vibration, as well as training and flying above 50 miles above the surface of Earth.

The FAA awarded the first Commercial Astronaut Wings licensefor the launch of the spaceplane SpaceShipOne (SS1) back in 2004, an aircraft launch system now operated by Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic.

The FAA also approved todays Blue Origin launch last week but despite the approval, the administrations wings are still out of reach for Bezos and company.

The administration also requires crew members to perform a job while on the flight to qualify as flight crew and dont award them to spaceflight participants, CNN reports.

Branson, interestingly, did qualify for FAA wings during his maiden voyage earlier this month, as he was tasked with evaluating the private customer experience during the launch.

In fact, Virgin Galactic pilots Mark Forger Stucky and CJ Sturckow were also awarded FAA Commercial Astronaut Wings by the US Department of Transportation after flying the spaceship VSS Unity into space, an apogee of 51.4 miles, back in 2018.

Blue Origins New Shepard spacecraft flew entirely autonomously today, meaning that nobody on board had to act as the pilot or flight crew, as Axios points out.

18-year-old Oliver Daemon, son of a equity firm CEO, who bought himself a ticket on the flight, wont get the FAAs astronaut wings either.

So its no wonder that Blue Origin, a company that tasked itself with sending wealthy paying customers to the edge of space, had to come up with an alternative solution: its own astronaut wings.

Its certainly a very generous use of the term that is bound to ruffle some weathers, particularly when it comes to those who committed much of their life to further space exploration over decades.

A ten minutes and ten seconds-long thrill ride just doesnt really compare.

More on the launch: 82-Year-Old Woman Becomes Oldest Person in Space

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Eggy Served Up Westport: Beyond These Walls With Futuristic Dine… – NYSMusic

Posted: at 12:38 am

On Thursday, July 15, Eggy demonstrated precision and class on the precipice of a new era for live music at Levitt Pavilion in Westport, CT, continuing to carry momentum outside the pandemic incubator.Eggy Levitt Pavilion Westport, CT

Beauty in venue, music, fashion, and love between the tight community of attendees had fans feeling the warmth of hope; regardless of the viewers GPS coordinates. Most importantly, Eggy has acted as path leaders for many to forget the beast we might have been and focus on all that we are capable of with dedication and practice.Goose fans enjoyed playing a game of Wheres Ted? for each drone shot

The nugs.net stream and drone footage made a case for Levitt Pavilion as one of the most beautiful venues of any northeastern live stream to date.Nugs.net held it down with visually enticing imagery of the stunning venue. The live stream experience could arguably be preferred by some. It provides a solution for those that do not want to be physically taxed by consuming live music. For those who like to consume their music without the distraction of chatty neighboring fans, the stream had excellent audio quality as well. Endless playback allows for this to be revisited any time. For those that love the social aspect, but need to wake up early, there was an active chat going through the whole stream.Friends supporting friends

Despite technology and all of its improvements, there was an absolute magic to attendance. To feel the love between attendees towards each other and the band was the stuff we have been dreaming about since shutdown. The sunset and the venue evoked a feeling of dreaminess and provided cheerful, yet soothing for all we have been through.Dani Batatt

Eggy keyboard/vocalist Dani Batatt introduced a song called BeyondThese Walls. Written during the throws of shutdown about imagining what after might look like while simultaneously appreciating the gift of time spent with loved ones.After sharing space during shutdown, Dani and Jake share keyboards.

During shutdown, many of us were forced to push ahead without the input of our usual critiques and cheerleaders. Not having it clearly created access to new pathways of thinking with complete authenticity for Eggy.Jake Brownsteins debut with this new addition to the Eggy Family

Far from single note show, the tightened up band showed enough comfort to switch instruments, and play styles of music ranging from Crosby, Stills and Nash all the way to deep grooves peppered with what streamer Gleb described as, some serious stank on [that] jam. It kept the whole show filled with engagement.Bassist Mike Goodman glistening in the cinematic golden hour heat.

Eggy has grown as a band from a place of abundance, In the words of bassist/vocalist Mike Goodmans mom, We were so worried, but look at them now. They shot right out of the box.Preferred is the discussion.

This show and stream felt like a real glimmer of hope for musicians after they have endured so much. What a relief for the many months of secret admirers to finally attend an Eggy show and for the band to see how much they are loved.Green Eggs and Fam.

The shutdown incubator yielded an opportunity for the band to practice more than just their music. They clearly have worked on themselves as individuals and as a team to create a vision that is sophisticated in its technicality and product, but never too serious.Breaking out of the egg?

Eggy Levitt Pavilion, Westport, CT July 15, 2001Setlist: 12 Pounds Of Pain, Between You And Me, Time Loves A Hero (Little Feet), Finding And Losing, Broken Bluff, Beyond These Walls, Beauty And The Beast (Alan Menken), Teach Your Children (Crosby Stills, Nash & Young), Moments Passed, Interior People (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard)

Encore: Last of Kin, Upside Down

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Good News: NASA Says It Managed to Fix the Hubble Space Telescope – Futurism

Posted: at 12:38 am

"Hubble is back!"Lease on Life

After a month-long saga, NASA says that the iconic Hubble Space Telescope is back online.

Hubble is back! said Tom Brown, the head of the Hubble Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said this morning in an email obtained by Science.

The 31-year-old space telescope went dark in mid-June after its computer control system went down. Initial attempts to resuscitate the orbital observatory were unsuccessful, leading to the possibility that it was dead for good.

But NASA had more tricks up its sleeve, ultimately settling on a plan to switch over to a backup computer installed by a Space Shuttle crew in 2009 which, as of today, officials say was successful.

According to a NASA update this morning, the space agency is now monitoring the backup system to ensure that its working properly. Its also switching the telescopes science instruments back out of safe mode.

The long term prognosis of the Hubble is less clear, though. Back in the days of the Shuttle program, NASA could send astronauts to physically repair the space telescope. But now it has no spacecraft capable of reaching it meaning that the next hardware problem could knock it offline for good.

READ MORE: Hubble is back! Famed space telescope has new lease on life after computer swap appears to fix glitch

More on the Hubble: Theres Officially Hope for NASAs Broken Hubble Space Telescope

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Farmworker Justice and the United Farm Workers Foundation comments to USDA on how to advance racial justice – The Packer

Posted: at 12:35 am

How can the U.S. Department of Agriculture advance racial justice, equity, and support for underserved communities?

The agency is collectingcomments on that question, and a recent comment was submitted to the agency from Farmworker Justice and the United Farm Workers Foundation.

"We applaud the Administrations commitment, set forth in Executive Order 13985, to addressing the entrenched disparities in our laws and public policies, as well as our public and private institutions, that have denied equal opportunity to underserved individuals and communities. We write to emphasize that, for USDA, such a commitment requires a focus on the challenges and concerns of the roughly 2.4 million farmworkers who labor on our nations farms and ranches.

The Departments Request recognizes that too many American communities have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of the nations economic, social, and civic life. It lists several groups that have faced such adversity: Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.

Almost every farmworker in the country falls into at least oneif not moreof these underserved categories, and in many cases, their status as agricultural workers exacerbate other existing patterns of discrimination.

The history of agricultural labor in the United States is a history of racism, beginning with the era of slavery and persisting to this day. For example, the racism that pervaded the agricultural sector during the Jim Crow era remains enshrined in our modern labor laws. During the New Deal period of labor reforms in the 1930s, President Roosevelt and his allies obtained the support of southern congressmen by excluding farmworkers and domestic workers from key labor protections. Members of Congress at the time were explicit that they did not believe Black people deserved the same wage protections as white people.

The exclusion of farmworkers from key labor protections was wrong then, when most farmworkers were Black, and it is wrong now, when an estimated four out of every five farmworkers are Hispanic/Latino.

Many farmworkers also experience serious harms because of our countrys broken immigration system. More than three-quarters of farmworkers are immigrants, mostly people of color from Mexico as well as other nations. More than half are undocumented or here on precarious temporary work visas. Without permanent legal status, these workers are vulnerable to employer exploitation and abuse. Every time an undocumented worker bravely chooses to speak up about dangerous conditions or unfair treatment, she risks retaliation in the form of deportation.And when workers do challenge unfair practices, they generally find that they have little recourse. For the most part, the federally funded legal aid programs which have been designated to provide legal services to indigent farmworkers are prohibited from representing undocumented immigrants.

It is no coincidence that the denial of equal labor protections in agriculture and the infliction of harm on agricultural workers through our nations broken immigration system affect a population that is predominantly people of color.

Approximately one-third of farmworkers report family incomes below the poverty line. As a result of their poverty, many farmworkers live in substandard homes in crowded conditions.

Further, many farmworkers experience food insecurity, unable to access or afford the fruits and vegetables they harvest. And despite living in poverty, many farmworkers immigration status denies them access to benefits that can support their health and well-being, such as SNAP or Medicaid.

Mortality among agricultural workers due to climate change is yet another indicator of socioeconomic and health disparities in agriculture. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that compared to all other civilian occupations, crop workers are 20 times more likely to die of heat-related causes, and the majority of these deaths occur among immigrant workers.

Given the nature of agricultural work, farm workers are on the frontlines ofexposure to extreme temperatures and wildfires, and they lack refuge from the elements. This year, as temperatures rose to well over 100 degrees in the West and the Plains, the recommendations of state and local officials to stay indoors and seek climate-controlled spaces stood in sharp contrast with the reality of farmworkers, who were performing strenuous work under scorching temperatures.

Moreover, some farmworkers are paid for what they produce, not by hour. These piece rate wages create a perverse incentive for workers to push the body beyond what it is meant to endure, as taking necessary breaks for water or rest means lost income.

Informed by this outreach, other concrete actions that USDA could take to respond to the needs of farmworker communities include:

Prioritize programs, policies, funding and research that address the needs, conditions, and aspirations of farmworkers. Ensure that farmworkers and their organizations receive funding to help address the COVID pandemic and the devastating impact it has had on farmworkers and their communities. Coordinate with other relevant agencies such as EPA, OSHA, and HHS to address the health risks that environmental factors like pesticides, heat stress, and wildfires pose to farmworkers and their families. Adopt procurement policies and practices that incentivize better working and living conditions for farmworkers. Support legislation that seeks to reform our broken immigration system by providing farmworkers a path to citizenship. Support legislation that ends discrimination against farmworkers by ensuring they have equal access to labor protections, and support regulatory policies and actions that implement wage, occupational safety and other protections. Support legislation which guarantees farmworkers right to engage in collective bargaining. Support worker-centered corporate social responsibility projects and promote employers that adopt strong workplace protections and provide farmworkers with a voice at work.

As USDA seeks to transform its approach to vulnerable communities in the agricultural sector, it cannot leave behind the farmworkers who labor on our farms and ranches. It is past time for USDA to recognize farmworkers as the essential stakeholders that they are, responding to their concerns and ensuring that agency programs do not benefit employers at workers expense.

TK: All in all, there are points given that reasonable people shouldendorse. I especially like the point in the comment about promoting employers who adopt strong workplace protections and provide farm workers with a voice at work. Credit should be given where credit is due.

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Construction to Make Black Lives Matter Plaza Permanent Is Starting Today – Washingtonian

Posted: at 12:35 am

Photograph by Dan Swartz.

Black Lives Matter Plaza is once again open only to pedestrians, starting today. All traffic lanes are closing to car traffic while the city undertakes work to make the plaza a permanent installation. Construction is expected to run through October.

Sidewalks and access to businesses will remain open during the project. But all northbound and southbound lanes will be closed on 16th Street NW between H and K streets NW.

While the lanes are closed, the Districts transportation department will install roadway pavers, bollards, and the permanent BLM mural. A rendering of the design, below, shows two exterior lanes for car traffic, and an interior pedestrian plaza sectioned off by the bollards.

The Plaza was previously opened to traffic in March, and then paved over in May when the yellow paint began to fade.

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Marion Smith: Marxist Black Lives Matter here’s why it supports Cuba’s communists over the protesters – Fox News

Posted: at 12:35 am

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The ongoing mass protests in Cuba are a clarifying thing and not just about the brutal nature of that countrys communist regime. They have equally shown the true colors of Black Lives Matter in the United States.

As the past few days have demonstrated, the supposed social justice group cares far more about advancing the red banner of Marxism than protecting Black and Brown people.

The truth became clear on Thursday morning, when Black Lives Matter (BLM) released its official statement about the Cuban protests. Its telling that it took so long for the group to issue any statement at all the protests started Sunday, and the regime crackdown not long after. Whats more telling is what the statement said. It was full of blame for the United States, and full of praise for Cuban communism.

GREG GUTFELD: CUBANS WAVING AMERICAN FLAGS OFFENDS STUDENTS, PRO ATHLETES AND OLYMPIC HAMMER THROWERS

BLM minced no words: "The people of Cuba are being punished by the U.S. government." Apparently, through a decades-long embargo, the U.S. has "instigated suffering for the countrys 11 million people of which 4 million are Black and Brown." The group simultaneously claimed that "Cuba has historically demonstrated solidarity with oppressed peoples of African descent."

Both claims are false obviously so.

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To start, the United States is not oppressing the Cuban people. That distinction belongs to the communist regime founded by Fidel Castro and the U.S. embargo is a response to Cubas tyranny.

For more than 60 years, the countrys leaders have denied all basic freedoms, imprisoned people for their political views, and systematically pillaged the countrys wealth. And while the BLM statement claimed the U.S. is "undermining Cubans right to choose their own government," it is in fact the Cuban authorities that protect the communist regime at any cost even violence toward the countrys citizens.

Thats whats happening right now, and it directly disproves BLMs second claim. The Cubans marching in the streets want nothing more than libertad, yet the regimes response has been to shoot at protesters, raid homes, and kill at least one person, though my sources in Cuba tell me the true number of deaths is much higher.

And who, pray tell, are authorities punishing in this crackdown? Among others, Black and Brown Cubans. These are the very people for whom BLM claims to advocate. Yet the arbiters of racial justice cant muster a word of criticism against the communist regime.

The question is why BLM tolerates such obvious injustice. The answer is the same ideology that animates the Cuban regime Marxism.

Two of Black Lives Matters founders are trained Marxist agitators, according to one of them, and the organization itself reflects it. Its operational agenda is essentially to overthrow American society, which it deems irredeemably unjust, and build a new one in its place.

If Black Lives Matter truly cared about Black and Brown people, it would condemn the Cuban regime with same fervor it currently reserves for the United States.

It has made perfectly clear what it wants in this brave new world: A state with the power to punish anyone it pleases, and penitents forced to publicly repent their privilege.

What is that vision, if not a Marxist state with struggle sessions? Such countries already exist, like China. Another example is the country BLM refuses to denounce: Cuba.

Theres a reason the groups recent statement condemns the U.S. for trying to "crush [Cubas] Revolution." Its the same reason one of BLMs founders has stood side-by-side with Nicolas Maduro, the dictator who has brought Cuban-style socialism and oppression to Venezuela.

If Black Lives Matter truly cared about Black and Brown people, it would condemn the Cuban regime with same fervor it currently reserves for the United States. That it refuses to do so points to its real goal the same goal that Marxists have sought since the Russian Revolution and in every Marxist movement since. They want nothing less than power, and theyre willing to obtain it by any means.

The proof is playing out on the streets of Havana, Santiago, Camaguey and countless other Cuban cities. In the fight to tear down the U.S., what does it matter if Black and Brown Cubans must be killed in the streets?

Josef Stalin may not have actually said "you cant make an omelet without breaking a few eggs," but that sentiment animates the leadership of BLM. For them, the suffering of minorities on that communist island nation is not in vain, because it provides an opportunity to further undermine the locus of liberty in the world.

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By backing Cuba and bashing the U.S., Black Lives Matter is standing in the way of Cubas liberation. So are BLMs allies, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who make similar arguments. Their defense of the indefensible and criticism of their own free country have dangerous effects. It intimidates Americans from supporting the Cuban people and may even block the Biden administration from punishing the Cuban regime for its oppression.

Whether Black, Brown or any other color, the Cuban people deserve the libertad for which theyre chanting in the streets. The same is true for the American people, who also deserve better than dangerous hypocrisy of Black Lives Matter.

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Path Robotics raises another $100M – TechCrunch

Posted: at 12:33 am

In May, Path Robotics announced a $56 million Series B. It was a sizable raise, as far as robotics rounds go. But the Columbus, Ohio-based startup is already back for more, raising a pre-emptive Series C a mere two and a half months later.

And its a biggie. The firm has raised $100 million, led by Tiger Global and featuring participation from Silicon Valley Bank, an existing investor. The deal brings the robotic welding firms total funding to $171 million.

Image Credits: Path Robotics

Path cites a longstanding shortage of skilled welders as a primary driver in interest around its tech. The problem dates back before the global pandemic (though thats likely only exacerbated the issue, as it has with so many other labor issues). Once again, it notes a study by the American Welding Society that says the U.S. alone will experience a shortage in the welding workface of around 400,000 by 2024.

From the sound of it, the company is already looking beyond welding. After all, construction is a huge business, with massive opportunities for the right robotics organization. And, of course, having an infusion of $100 million certainly doesnt hurt your growth plans.

Most robots merely repeat what they are told, with no ability to improve themselves. The future of manufacturing hinges on highly capable, flexible robotics, CEO Andrew Lonsberry said in a statement. Robots that can truly see and learn.

Image Credits: Path Robotics

What, precisely, those future plans are, the company doesnt say, but it plans to build them atop of its imaging and AI, presumably to build a sort of modular ecosystem for the construction robotics category.

Tiger Global partner Griffin Schroeder hints at those plans in a statement. Paths innovative approach to computer vision and proprietary AI software allows robots to sense, understand and adapt to the challenges of each unique welding project. We believe this breakthrough technology can be adopted for many other applications and products beyond just welding, to serve their customers holistically.

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OpenAI disbands its robotics research team – VentureBeat

Posted: at 12:33 am

All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now. Watch now.

OpenAI has disbanded its robotics team after years of research into machines that can learn to perform tasks like solving a Rubiks Cube. Company cofounder Wojciech Zaremba quietly revealed on a podcast hosted by startup Weights & Biases that OpenAI has shifted its focus to other domains, where data is more readily available.

So it turns out that we can make a gigantic progress whenever we have access to data. And I kept all of our machinery unsupervised, [using] reinforcement learning [it] work[s] extremely well. There [are] actually plenty of domains that are very, very rich with data. And ultimately that was holding us back in terms of robotics, Zaremba said. The decision [to disband the robotics team] was quite hard for me. But I got the realization some time ago that actually, thats for the best from the perspective of the company.

In a statement, an OpenAI spokesperson told VentureBeat: After advancing the state of the art in reinforcement learning through our Rubiks Cube project and other initiatives, last October we decided not to pursue further robotics research and instead refocus the team on other projects. Because of the rapid progress in AI and its capabilities, weve found that other approaches, such as reinforcement learning with human feedback, lead to faster progress in our reinforcement learning research.

OpenAI first widely demonstrated its robotics work in October 2019, when it published research detailing a five-fingered robotic hand guided by an AI model with 13,000 years of cumulative experience. The best-performing system could successfully unscramble Rubiks Cubes about 20% to 60% of the time, which might not seem especially impressive. But the model notably discovered techniques to recover from challenges, like when the robots fingers were tied together and when the hand was wearing a leather glove.

This was the culmination of over two years of work. In May 2017, OpenAI released Roboschool, open source software for controlling robotics in simulation. That same year, the company said it had created a robotics system, trained entirely in simulation and deployed on a physical robot, that could learn a new task after seeing it done once. And in 2018, OpenAI made available simulated robotics environments and a baseline implementation of Hindsight Experience Replay, a reinforcement learning algorithm that can learn from failure.

The sad thing is, if we were a robotics company, the mission of the company would be different, and I think we would continue. I believe quite strongly in the approach that [the] robotics [team] took and the direction, Zaremba added. But from the perspective of what we want to achieve, which is to build [artificial general intelligence], there were some components missing.

OpenAI has long asserted that immense computational horsepower is a necessary step on the road to artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that can learn any task a human can. While luminaries like Milafounder Yoshua Bengio and Facebook VP and chief AI scientist Yann LeCunargue that AGI cant exist, OpenAIs cofounders and backers among them Greg Brockman, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, and former Y Combinator president Sam Altman believe powerful computers in conjunction with reinforcement learning, pretraining, and other techniques can achieve paradigm-shifting AI advances.

AsMIT Technology Reviewreported in 2020, a team within OpenAI called Foresight runs experiments to test how far they can push AI capabilities by training algorithms with increasingly large amounts of data and compute. According to that same report, OpenAI is developing a system trained on images, text, and other data using massive computational resources that the companys leadership believes is the most promising path toward AGI.

One of the fruits of this effort is DALL-E, a text-to-image engine thats essentially a visual idea generator. Given a text prompt, the OpenAI system generates images to match the prompt, filling in the blanks when the prompt implies the image must contain a detail that isnt explicitly stated. DALL-E can combine disparate ideas to synthesize objects, some of which are unlikely to exist in the real world like a hybrid of a snail and a harp.

Brockman and Altman in particular believe AGI will be able to master more fields than any one person, chiefly by identifying complex cross-disciplinary connections that elude human experts. Furthermore, they predict that responsibly deployed AGI in other words, AGI deployed in close collaboration with researchers in relevant fields, like social science might help solve longstanding challenges in climate change, health care, and education.

Zaremba asserts that pretraining is a particularly powerful technique in the creation of large, sophisticated AI systems. At a high level, pretraining helps the model learn general features that can be reused on the target task to boost its accuracy. Pretraining was used to develop OpenAIs Codex, a model thats trained on billions of lines of public code to power Copilot, GitHubs service that provides suggestions for whole lines of code inside development environments like Microsoft Visual Studio. Codex is a fine-tuned version of OpenAIs GPT-3, a language model pretrained on over a trillion words from websites, books, Wikipedia, and other web sources.

When we created robotics [systems], we thought that we could go very far with self-generated data and reinforcement learning. At the moment, I believe that pretraining [gives] model[s] 100 times cheaper IQ points,' Zaremba said. That might be followed with other techniques.

OpenAIs move away from robotics might be a reflection of the economic realities the company faces. DeepMind, the Alphabet-owned AI research lab, has undergone a similar shift in recent years as R&D costs mount, moving away from prestige projects in favor of work with commercial applications, like protein shape prediction.

Its an open secret that robotics is a capital-intensive field. Industrial robotics company Rethink Robotics closed its doors months after attempting unsuccessfully to find an acquirer. Boston Dynamics, considered among the most advanced robotics firms, was acquired by Google and then sold to SoftBank before Hyundai agreed to buy a controlling stake for $1.1 billion. And Honda retired its Asimo robotics project after over a decade in development.

Roughly a year ago,Microsoft announced it would invest $1 billion in San Francisco-based OpenAI to jointly develop new technologies for Microsofts Azure cloud platform. In exchange, OpenAI agreed to license some of its intellectual property to Microsoft, which the company would then package and sell to partners, and to train and run AI models on Azure as OpenAI worked to develop next-generation computing hardware.

In the months that followed, OpenAI released a Microsoft Azure-powered API that allows developers to explore GPT-3s capabilities.(OpenAI said recently that GPT-3 is now being used in more than 300 different apps by tens of thousands of developers and producing 4.5 billion words per day.) Toward the end of 2020, Microsoft announcedthat it would exclusively license GPT-3 to develop and deliver AI solutions for customers, as well as creating new products that harness the power of natural language generation.

Microsoft recently announced that GPT-3 will be integrated deeply with Power Apps, its low-code app development platform specifically for formula generation. The AI-powered features will allow a user building an ecommerce app, for example, to describe a programming goal using conversational language like find products where the name starts with kids.'

As for projects like DALL-E and Jukebox an AI system that can generate music in any style from scratch, complete with vocals they also have obvious and immediate business applications. OpenAI predicts that DALL-E could someday augment or even replace 3D rendering engines. For example, architects could use the tool to visualize buildings, while graphic artists could apply it to software and video game design.

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Why Did OpenAI Disband Its Robotics Team? – Analytics India Magazine

Posted: at 12:33 am

Last month, OpenAI cofounder Wojciech Zaremba said the company has disbanded its robotics team in a Weights & Biases podcast. I was actually working for several years on robotics. Recently, we changed the focus at OpenAI. I disbanded the robotics team. There are actually plenty of domains that are very rich with data. Ultimately that was holding us back, in the case of robotics, said Zaremba.

The decision was quite hard on him, but he later realised that this was best from a companys perspective (to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI)). When we created robotics, we thought that we could go pretty far. We had self-generated data and reinforcement learning. But, at the moment, I believe that actually pre-training allows to give model 100x cheaper IQ points, and that might follow with other techniques, said Zaremba.

Citing GPT-3, Zaremba said pre-training in language models includes training machine learning models on unsupervised tasks such as next word predictions. But, in the case of robotics, we do not have such data, he added.

Initially, when OpenAI started robotics projects, Zaremba said they lacked clarity on how and what they wanted to build. But, over time, they got more clarity on things they wanted to focus on.

Besides the dearth of data, OpenAIs move away from robotics reflects the economic realities and capital intensive nature of the projects. Three years ago, Rethink Robotics shut down its operations. Last year, the maker of driverless trucks, Starsky Robot, also shut shop. Same year, SoftBank halted the production of its famed robot Pepper.

SoftBank acquired Boston Dynamics from Google in 2017 and recently sold the robotics company to Hyundai for $1.1 billion. Boston Dynamics caught the popular imagination with viral videos of its humanoid and dog-like robots.

Zaremba said building robots requires high computing capabilities. Plus, there are technical issues with running machines in real-time. There are two possibilities to successfully deploy robots. One is to collect a lot of data. Another possibility is that we need powerful video models like that of powerful text models, Zaremba said.

The notable powerful language models at present include Googles Switch Transformer, GPT-3, DistilBERT, Google Gshard, BAAIs Wu Dao 2.0, and GPT-J.

According to MITs The state of industrial robotics: Emerging technologies, challenges and key research directions, the key challenges holding back the robotics industry includes the high cost of integration, lack of standards, inflexibility, better balance of speed and safety, data protocols, and investments to enable technologies.

OpenAI first demonstrated its robotics work in October 2019, when it published research detailing a hand guided by an AI model with 13K years of cumulative experience, called Dactyl, which replicated a humans hand movement to solve the Rubiks cube. Our robot still hasnt perfected its technique though, as it solves the Rubiks Cube 60% of the time (and only 20% of the time for a maximally difficult scramble), according to OpenAI.

OpenAI, at the time, had said, as a result of ADR development, more developers will be able to divert from building task-specific robots to general-purpose machines. Indubitably, we are decades away from having a robot that will make its own decisions without human intervention, but leveraging ADR, developers can successfully attain it, as per OpenAI.

In April 2019, OpenAI hosted its first Robotic Symposium. The event brought together a diverse set of people from robotics and machine learning communities, alongside academics and industry leaders, to create a platform to exchange ideas and address open questions in building complex robot systems.

Four years ago, OpenAI had released Robotschool, open-source software for robot simulation, integrated with OpenAI Gym. In February 2018, it released eight simulated robotics environments and a Baselines implementation of Hindsight Experience Replay. OpenAI has used these environments to train models which work on physical robots.

Amit Raja Naik is a senior writer at Analytics India Magazine, where he dives deep into the latest technology innovations. He is also a professional bass player.

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Drone flying classes in Conemaugh Township offered to students across the area – Daily American Online

Posted: at 12:33 am

Drones were flying Friday in Conemaugh Township as six children participated in a "Drone Boot Camp."

The camp, which was being taught by staff and members of the Robotic Doges Team 8645, included learning how to fly the mini racing drones,an obstacle course and drone racing.A demonstration of the team's award-winning robot was also held.

The camp is meant for children who are at least 8 years old. Another camp session was held Monday, and additional camps are scheduled for 2-4 p.m. Friday and July 30, and for 6-8 p.m. July 26.

Team coach Michele Lamkin said that last year was the first year for these events.

"They were so much fun we decided to do them again," Lamkin said. "The kids had a lot of fun and, also, one of the kids that attended ended up joining our robotics team.

"This is a funevent we do just to let people know we are here."

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She said the goalof the team and other robotics programs isto spark studentinterestin technologycareers.

Rob Mishler attended Friday's boot camp with his 8-year-old son, Canyon. Rob said his son once had a drone that lasted"10 seconds."

"He's been interested in drones for a little while," the father said. "So we thought, 'Heck, let's give this a go.'"

Team member and homeschooled 10th grader Grant McClemens is in his second year on the team. He was one of the students teaching kids how to work the drones Friday.

He said he plans to pursue a career in engineering.

"I like flying drones a lot. It's a hobby of mine," he said. "Teaching other kids new stuff about drones is fun."

To register for one of the upcoming drone camps,visitlherobotics.org/drones.

Follow Eric Kieta on Twitter @EricKietaDA.

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