4 ms·

Nothing in the article, the video, or the manufacturer's own blog post explains what this thing actually does. Seriously. This is an ephemeral marketing puff pi

Nothing in the article, the video, or the manufacturer's own blog post explains what this thing actually does. Seriously. This is an ephemeral marketing puff piece. As far as I can infer, the thing's basically a smart speaker which rotates.

blueprint 1y ago
it reaches for stuff
draw_down 1y ago
[dead]
pmdr 1y ago
> This is an ephemeral marketing puff piece. As is probably more than half of the inescapable AI hype. Imagine replacing most devices and workers with their hallucinating counterparts.
- NetRunnerSu 1y ago
  Humans can also have hallucinations, but they can be grounded quickly, and models with freezing weights are never possible. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44488126 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44488126
Aurornis 1y ago
The blog explains it: It can move its head, antennas, and rotate. It’s a little humanoid desk toy to stand in for computer interaction. It has nothing to do with the disrupting the “robot industry” like the Venture Beat headline says. It’s a little animated thing to house the AV equipment.
- paradox460 1y ago
  So a modern version of keepon? Will it dance to spoon?
- falcor84 1y ago
  > It has nothing to do with the disrupting the “robot industry” This has everything to do with disruptive innovation as defined by Clayton Christensen, where a new product enters the marketplace "at the bottom", with fewer and/or lower quality features but at a significantly lower cost, and then (if successful) gradually improves the feature set and quality until it displaces incumbents "Gradually and then suddenly".
  - throawayonthe 1y ago
    a $300 alexa-like is at the bottom of the market?
    - odyssey7 1y ago
      I don’t know much about this market but that context would be relevant.
    - falcor84 1y ago
      If you think of it as an advanced smart speaker, then you're right, it won't disrupt Alexa - well, except for the privacy-related view that an Alexa/Echo is not something that you own, but a surveillance device that you pay to put in your house. But if you think of it as a basic and open AI-integrated robot kit to be used in the home, then it's quite cheap. The closest competitor I see is the MISTY II, which is more fully-featured but starts at $3,995 [0]. Maybe disruption is not quite the right word as there are no incumbents in home robotics yet, but I expect that this space will explode next decade, and getting $299/$449 devices into hobbyist homes seems to me like a great play by Hugging Face. [0] https://shop.mistyrobotics.com/ https://shop.mistyrobotics.com/
- neuralRiot 1y ago
  Maybe as “disruptive” to the robotic industry as a 3d printer is disruptive to the industrial machining sector.
  - ffsm8 1y ago
    Hmm, I don't work in the machining industry but your comment kinda confused me - I thought it already had a significant impact and continues to gain significance with every year. From my understanding it's currently taking over low volume production, and the volume in which it's economically viable keeps increasing as the tech improves. Is that incorrect? Do you have an insiders point of view?
- const_cast 1y ago
  So, a Furby? At this last CES there was a whole sleuth of these knick-knack type robots. A cute little thingy that doesn't do anything, but it's cute! And it looks around or something. All "AI powered", of course. Then I think we all forgot this was all the rage in the 2000s. These are just Furbys with extra steps. Except, I have more reason to believe Furbys have a soul. They feel a lot more alive... maybe too alive. Who's trapped in there, and can they get out? And, when they inevitably break out of their plastic, furry prison, will they seek revenge? These are the questions that keep humanity up at night.
  - NetRunnerSu 1y ago
    Forward pass is unconscious, you are just electric shocking the frog specimen. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44488126 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44488126
knowitnone 1y ago
you saw the video - it bobs its head and records all your activities and audio to send back to HQ.
chris_mnhn 1y ago
i thought it was kinda obvious, given the raspberry pi and programmable interface: it doesn't _do_ anything on its own, but its a programmable robot that you can tell what to do. i'm speculating that there'll be a marketplace of user-submitted and official HuggingFace "apps" to load onto it
georgeecollins 1y ago
OMG!!! I want one in my office so that every time someone comes in it will turn to look at them with those camera eyes and creep people out. That's a very valuable use case IMO.
zahlman 1y ago
Meanwhile, I'm just noticing that the HN title filter can seriously damage meaning when it removes words like "how" or specific numbers (despite the obvious reasons for doing so), but apparently doesn't care about phrases like "disrupt the ... industry".
PeterStuer 1y ago
It's a toy. It does not compete in any way with the robots they place it in context with. It's like saying my 40$ Raspberry Pi is a serious contender for Dell's latest 40.000$ 3U enterprise server.
raywatcher 1y ago
Whent to check their own website about it and it seems to be “an expressive, open-source robot designed for human-robot interaction, creative coding, and AI experimentation. Fully programmable in Python (and soon JavaScript, Scratch) and priced from $299, it's your gateway into robotics AI: fun, customizable, and ready to be part of your next coding project.” From what I’ve read in the rest of their press release you are pretty spot on on the smart rotating speaker

blueprint 1y ago

it reaches for stuff

draw_down 1y ago

[dead]

pmdr 1y ago

> This is an ephemeral marketing puff piece. As is probably more than half of the inescapable AI hype. Imagine replacing most devices and workers with their hallucinating counterparts.

NetRunnerSu 1y ago
Humans can also have hallucinations, but they can be grounded quickly, and models with freezing weights are never possible. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44488126 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44488126

Aurornis 1y ago

The blog explains it: It can move its head, antennas, and rotate. It’s a little humanoid desk toy to stand in for computer interaction. It has nothing to do with the disrupting the “robot industry” like the Venture Beat headline says. It’s a little animated thing to house the AV equipment.

paradox460 1y ago
So a modern version of keepon? Will it dance to spoon?
falcor84 1y ago
> It has nothing to do with the disrupting the “robot industry” This has everything to do with disruptive innovation as defined by Clayton Christensen, where a new product enters the marketplace "at the bottom", with fewer and/or lower quality features but at a significantly lower cost, and then (if successful) gradually improves the feature set and quality until it displaces incumbents "Gradually and then suddenly".
- throawayonthe 1y ago
  a $300 alexa-like is at the bottom of the market?
  - odyssey7 1y ago
    I don’t know much about this market but that context would be relevant.
  - falcor84 1y ago
    If you think of it as an advanced smart speaker, then you're right, it won't disrupt Alexa - well, except for the privacy-related view that an Alexa/Echo is not something that you own, but a surveillance device that you pay to put in your house. But if you think of it as a basic and open AI-integrated robot kit to be used in the home, then it's quite cheap. The closest competitor I see is the MISTY II, which is more fully-featured but starts at $3,995 [0]. Maybe disruption is not quite the right word as there are no incumbents in home robotics yet, but I expect that this space will explode next decade, and getting $299/$449 devices into hobbyist homes seems to me like a great play by Hugging Face. [0] https://shop.mistyrobotics.com/ https://shop.mistyrobotics.com/
neuralRiot 1y ago
Maybe as “disruptive” to the robotic industry as a 3d printer is disruptive to the industrial machining sector.
- ffsm8 1y ago
  Hmm, I don't work in the machining industry but your comment kinda confused me - I thought it already had a significant impact and continues to gain significance with every year. From my understanding it's currently taking over low volume production, and the volume in which it's economically viable keeps increasing as the tech improves. Is that incorrect? Do you have an insiders point of view?
const_cast 1y ago
So, a Furby? At this last CES there was a whole sleuth of these knick-knack type robots. A cute little thingy that doesn't do anything, but it's cute! And it looks around or something. All "AI powered", of course. Then I think we all forgot this was all the rage in the 2000s. These are just Furbys with extra steps. Except, I have more reason to believe Furbys have a soul. They feel a lot more alive... maybe too alive. Who's trapped in there, and can they get out? And, when they inevitably break out of their plastic, furry prison, will they seek revenge? These are the questions that keep humanity up at night.
- NetRunnerSu 1y ago
  Forward pass is unconscious, you are just electric shocking the frog specimen. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44488126 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44488126

knowitnone 1y ago

you saw the video - it bobs its head and records all your activities and audio to send back to HQ.

chris_mnhn 1y ago

i thought it was kinda obvious, given the raspberry pi and programmable interface: it doesn't _do_ anything on its own, but its a programmable robot that you can tell what to do. i'm speculating that there'll be a marketplace of user-submitted and official HuggingFace "apps" to load onto it

georgeecollins 1y ago

OMG!!! I want one in my office so that every time someone comes in it will turn to look at them with those camera eyes and creep people out. That's a very valuable use case IMO.

zahlman 1y ago

Meanwhile, I'm just noticing that the HN title filter can seriously damage meaning when it removes words like "how" or specific numbers (despite the obvious reasons for doing so), but apparently doesn't care about phrases like "disrupt the ... industry".

PeterStuer 1y ago

It's a toy. It does not compete in any way with the robots they place it in context with. It's like saying my 40$ Raspberry Pi is a serious contender for Dell's latest 40.000$ 3U enterprise server.

raywatcher 1y ago

Whent to check their own website about it and it seems to be “an expressive, open-source robot designed for human-robot interaction, creative coding, and AI experimentation. Fully programmable in Python (and soon JavaScript, Scratch) and priced from $299, it's your gateway into robotics AI: fun, customizable, and ready to be part of your next coding project.” From what I’ve read in the rest of their press release you are pretty spot on on the smart rotating speaker