AI in the News — #26

Sanbot, (TechXplore)

Sanbot is a general-purpose domestic robot, made in China. It looks rather neotenous, as now seems standard for helper ‘bots, keeps its general intelligence on cloud servers, but has a suite of local apps as well. For some reason, it has flippers for arms that appear useless except for gesturing.

AUDREY, the Firefighter’s Friend (Phys.org)

You may have seen movies in which the action hero has a sidekick who is an off-stage advisory voice. AUDREY, an AI assistant, is such a sidekick for an entire team of firefighters. She tracks the firefighters by GPS, scans the burning building with remote sensors, and keeps everyone updated on who is where, and where the danger is.

Initiative (Phys.org)

This rather rambling article surveys the various tensions surrounding the issue of how much initiative we really want domestic robots to show.