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How Google built its Gemini robotics models
- dachworker 2y agoThe "how" is completely missing, but if they can get this to work semi reliably it will be ChatGPT x100 in terms of impact.
- WXLCKNO 2y agoI had never heard of Unitree (Chinese robotics company) before today. A lot of their videos look like CGI but apparently the product is real. What stuck with me the most browsing their website on the G1 model was seeing "Price from $16k" Now I'm not sure if these are actually purchasable or what the value would be, but it's my first time seeing an actual normal-ish price attached to a humanoid robot that seems to be for sale. With the rate of advancement we're seeing across the board, it honestly feels like people will have robot assistants at home much sooner than I thought.
- _ea1k 2y agoTBH, I still wonder if some of their videos are CGI. They offer real versions for sale, but they seem to be significantly more limited than the videos imply. Have they actually demonstrated the more dramatic stuff at any in-person demos?
- _ea1k 2y agoIt is funny that this is getting downvoted. AFAICT, the answer to my question is actually "no". :)
- Balmbli 2y agoI'm really shocked tbh. I can't imagine the progression of ai and in particular robots but I assumed that the first robot would cost min 6 figures if not 7 but would still be worth it due to 24*7 and initial invest vs long term. But the fact how good Gemini robotics is already and how cheap the first models are I do believe what will hinder us more than tech is people learning about it, testing it out and doing it but not technology. I believe the world will look relevant different in 10 years.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- DoctorDabadedoo 2y agoTake any of these videos with a grain of salt. In demos these robots only need to do well once and it can take hours to record. In real life, a failure rate of 80% is unnacceptable, but perfectly fine to edit out in the final cut media. I hope they do well, this area is incredibly hard, but it will take a lot more than what people imagine.
- noosphr 2y ago>A lot of their videos look like CGI but apparently the product is real. I bought their robot dog as part of a project to build embodied AI models back in 2022. Their SDK was far more open than anything else on the market and the stock firmware was on par with competitors, this includes products that were x10 the price. The robot itself scared dogs in the park, but kids loved it. At $3k it's on par with a mid range drone and quite fun to hack on.
- SirYandi 2y agoSame price as some pure bred dogs too
- ecesena 2y agoThe humanoid is $20k-ish without hands. Each hand currently costs another $20k (and not sure if these are available to everyone or only for research).
- adrian_b 2y agoTheir robots are real enough, and they are well designed. You can see more details in this video "Tearing Down the Unitree Go2: A Robotics Expert's Deep Dive": https://youtu.be/YjVbW6Fc11Y https://youtu.be/YjVbW6Fc11Y
- AndrewKemendo 2y agoI own three of their systems, one since 2019 They are far and away the leader in quality affordable robots that are able to be used in real life at a reasonable price point You can hack on em and add a lot of capability I’ve worked with a lot of robots and they are leaps ahead of everyone, and have a good supply chain that can actually deliver All of their control policies are developed with RL too so they are improving all the time
- MPSFounder 2y agoI am hoping they keep lots of their work open source. This is especially the case since hardware would be too expensive for competition to pull off, but it would be interesting to see how they circumvented some problems
- exe34 2y agoit's a common trope in blogs - "how we did X" means "we did X, it's a good thing, we're great people", etc.
- cozyman 2y agojust curious, what would it do if you asked it to kill someone? does it follow the laws of robotics?
- cannonpr 2y agoUsually when someone brings up the laws of robotics I like to point out that they were mostly designed as an interesting example as to how direct instructions that seem clear to people would mostly result in perverse instantiation of AI especially if the AI lacked an emotional/contextual subsystem. They were also written to make for interesting scifi books.
- LeoPanthera 2y agoAsimov's laws of robotics would not, and cannot, work in real life because terms like "harm," "human being," and "inaction" are highly subjective and context-dependent. There are entire novels about how the interaction between the hierarchical laws have unexpected outcomes. They're a narrative device. Not practical instructions.
- cozyman 2y agointeresting, thanks.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- anon84873628 2y agoPut another way, impossible to program if you wanted to. These are highly abstract concepts that only manifest at the highest level of cognition. The governance module would need to be programmed at that same level using those tokens, but that doesn't seem to be how things are shaping up to work. Instead we start with low level programming that learns and builds up concepts on top. Essentially you would need some sort of independent adversarial sidecar mind that monitors the robot's actions at a high level. And that just kicks the can down the road a bit.
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- harmmonica 2y agoEven if Google's robotics technology (software and hardware) is leading edge does anyone think they'll actually be able to productize it? Seems similar to how they were the pre-product leaders in transformers and then fumbled any advantage they had to ChatGPT. It seems like something's missing from Google where they can't get from research to product effectively. Waymo perhaps a good counterexample if you think where they are today is product/market fit, but I can't shake the feeling that Google more often than not can't seem to get things to market or even if they do they give up on them before they take hold. Just wondering if anyone has a strong feeling or, better yet, insight on this regarding their robotics efforts.
- MPSFounder 2y agoI agree. The current leadership of Google (especially Sundar) is mediocre and comes from a consulting background. They will fail at making a tangible product out of this, similar to glass or Inbox or a multitude of other examples. This is particularly sad, as I know a few remarkable engineers at Google that share this frustration. However, Google's leadership folded to Indian managers and is now run as a circus
- meta_ai_x 2y agoSundar Pichai got into IIT Kharagpur in the 90s (one of the toughest engineering/technical school to get into). So he has more technical chops than many self-proclaimed engineers that seem to diss on his McKinsey credentials
- MPSFounder 2y agoA school being tough to get into due to an abundance of population (too many applicants) means little. There has been not one significant person coming out of those institutions (compared to the many figures coming out of the US, despite a population 5x smaller). I would not hire Sundar as a junior engineer in my team. Of course, you might see something in Google's current leadership which I do not see. Time will tell how performant the company will be long term. Again, I believe skills that make one successful in consulting rarely translate to success in the engineering field.
- lima 2y agoThey can do that, yet somehow, Gemini Assistant on Pixel phones still fails to reliably set timers or add shopping list items :-) (which worked fine with Google Assistant)
- _the_inflator 2y agoBring up dates and times if you want to wreak havoc on any AI. :D Developers around the world's most beloved topic, how to handle date and time correctly, is still a topic of great misunderstanding. AI and AI agents are no different from that. LLM seems to help a little, but only if you know what you are doing, as it usually needs to be the case. Some things won't change so fast; at one point or another, data must match certain building blocks.
- droopyEyelids 2y agoOne would think the arcana of time zones and the occasional leap second would not interfere with an individual setting egg timers often enough to become a burden
- pixl97 2y agoPeople ask why AI will exterminate human kind. The answer is because we wouldn't universally adopt zulu time.
- kelvinjps10 2y agoBut this feature was already implemented in normal google assistant
- ashoeafoot 2y agoSupporting existing projects is the oilsand mining of the promotion world. Low, old buzzword content, little reward. Implenting new buzzwords, wirh streetcred rich frameworks , thats the fracking. Efficiency ,capabilties or customer satisfaction are irrelevant .
- ikiris 2y ago
- free652 2y agoApril 1st!
- otherayden 2y agoIt's terrifying to think that robots like this will probably be used in the defense industry at some point. If the robot understands something as general as "put the erasers away", imagine "kill all enemies".
- umeshunni 2y agoWhenever I watch videos of robot dogs climbing all terrains (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS1n99yruVU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS1n99yruVU), I'm convinced that half of these robotics companies are defense funded, whether in the US or China.
- j_timberlake 2y agoPeople are always talking about AI in terms of economic impacts (jobs, productivity, etc.), but military should be the first use-case they care/worry about. They'll probably freak out once they finally realize the implications of cheap drones + smart AI + auto-aim guns.
- barbazoo 2y ago> They'll probably freak out once they finally realize the implications of cheap drones + smart AI + auto-aim guns. Hopefully in the US. People seem to not care about the development toward AI controlled weapons everywhere in the world. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240210-israel-deploys-new-military-ai-in-gaza-war https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240210-israel-deploy... https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/10/17/israel-deploys-ai-powered-robot-guns-that-can-track-targets-in-the-west-bank https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/10/17/israel-deploys-ai-p...
- piokoch 2y agoExactly. Robodog that costs 5K USD, which is probably less than one month of cost of the infantry soldier, and can be sent to fight in the trenches is something generals would dream of. Ukraine, that is experiencing soldiers shortage will go in that direction, at the beginning with something simple like remotely steered land drones.
- hansmayer 2y ago"Pick up the basketball and slam-dunk it". The killer use-case we've been waiting on for so long :)
- barbazoo 2y ago> Sounds like someone will get some help with those chores — eventually. Aaaaw that's nice. Except it's all military under the hood but nice that they try to make us think they'll fold our laundry instead.
- abidhusain 2y agoThe advancements in AI and robotics are incredibly exciting! With complex systems like Gemini, companies will need to rely on specialized teams to bring these innovations to life. Outsourcing specific roles such as AI research or robotics engineers can help companies bring top-tier talent into the fold without the burden of full-time recruitment. It's fascinating to see how outsourcing can complement R&D in cutting-edge industries like robotics. Curious to see how this shifts the industry, especially in terms of scalability and speed to market
- bglazer 2y agoAre you posting chatgpt output as comments?