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 | | The Tesla Bot. | | Tesla | |
| The robots are coming, and Elon Musk wants to usher in their arrival. |
| The Tesla CEO revealed the Tesla Bot this week during an event devoted to advances in artificial intelligence. Described as "the next generation of automation" on the Tesla website, the humanoid robot is "capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring." |
| That makes sense as there are many jobs needing done but humans don't want to do, Musk says. "What is the economy? At the foundation it is labor," he said during the event. "So, what happens when there is no shortage of labor?" |
| Musk hopes to have a prototype ready for release next year. He also noted that the robot, which is 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds, would not be physically threatening. "At a mechanical level, at a physical level, you can run away from it – and most likely overpower it," Musk said to laughter during the presentation. |
| ►Con artists are after your info: Why you can't ignore data breaches like the one at T-Mobile |
| ►Is Amazon heading to shopping malls?: Online giant plans to open department stores, reports say |
| A more well-known robot made an appearance this week, too: the Boston Dynamics humanoid Atlas, which has been shown in previous YouTube videos that it can jog, jump and dance, along with the company's robotic dog. |
| Now Atlas is capable of doing parkour and gymnastics, the company detailed in a new video and blog post from the company. |
| The Atlas robot is shown moving through obstacles – jumping and running along uneven platforms and a balanced beam. Then, two robots spin and do two flips, synchronized and mirroring the other. |
| The robotics company previously has shown how its robot dogs can go down stairs and open doors. And the dogs are being used by some police departments. |
| All this robot activity led some on Twitter to be concerned about the future. "Elon Musk says they're making 'friendly' robots, and then immediately proceeds to affirm that they'll be easy to 'run away from' if, you know, it comes to that," one person posted. |
| Another joked – we hope – to put actor Will Smith, who fought intelligent robots in the 2004 film "I, Robot," on alert. |
What else happened in tech? |
| • The Federal Trade Commission refiled its antitrust case against Facebook, alleging the social network giant resorted to "an illegal buy-or-bury scheme to maintain its dominance" in buying companies such as Instagram and WhatsApp, after failing to develop innovative features on its own. Meanwhile, Facebook also introduced Horizon Workrooms, an app for its Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset to let colleagues collaborate in a VR office. |
| • T-Mobile confirmed this week that it was hit by a "highly sophisticated cyberattack" that exposed names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and driver's license information for more than 40 million consumers who had applied for credit with the carrier. |
| • Dish Network and media company Sinclair temporarily extended their contract, which expired Aug. 16. The deal kept more than 100 of Sinclair's local TV stations on the pay-TV service. |
Game break |
| Roblox may be exploiting the very game developers who have made the online gaming platform so popular: kids. A new report, covered in Wired and released by YouTube channel People Make Games, entitled "How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers," charges young developers are encouraged but set up to fail, to Roblox's benefit. |
This week on Talking Tech |
| On the Talking Tech podcast, the topics included NFL stars investing in technology, video game coaches who can help you up your game, and Donkey Kong's birthday. |
| Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider. |
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