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India Today
19 hours ago
- Automotive
- India Today
Your next roommate might be a robot: How embodied AI is reimagining home life
From voice-enabled devices on wheels to emotionally intelligent companions, embodied AI is quietly moving in and changing the way we waking up to a robot gently nudging you awake, offering coffee, and prepping your to-do list. This isn't science fiction anymore. Welcome to the age of embodied AI robots designed to live with us, serve us, and even connect with us robotics are no longer gimmicks. Companies are developing mobile assistants that vacuum, fetch groceries, monitor pets, and offer companionship. With AI embedded in physical bodies, the domestic landscape is changing. WHAT TECH TITANS ARE BETTING ONElon Musk predicts 'tens of billions' of personal robots in the future, claiming his company's humanoid bot might one day out value the car business. The robot aims to handle mundane tasks like carrying bags or cleaning up a literal helping hand. He made this statement during Tesla's AI Day in Son, founder of a leading Japanese tech conglomerate, envisions robots that make people smile. His humanoid creation can chat, dance, and recognise emotions. It's not just a device it's a personality. 'We want robots to be affectionate,' Son said at a 2015 SoftBank Robotics event, framing robotics as emotional, not just CARE, AND COMPANIONSHIPThe first generation of home robots focuses on simplifying life. Robot vacuums are now common. Some bots mow lawns or deliver medicine. Others, like kitchen assistants, stir soups or cook simple meals. In hospitals, robotic aides have helped doctors connect with isolated patients during the Musk argues that such technologies free people from menial tasks. 'Physical work will be a choice,' he said during Tesla's 2021 AI Day entrepreneur Jack Ma added a similar vision at the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, suggesting that AI may eventually reduce the human work week to just 12 hours, freeing people for hobbies, rest, or Japan, AI pets resembling dogs are popular among the elderly. These robotic pets bark, wag their tails, and respond to touch without ever needing a walk. Similarly, humanoid assistants have been used in elderly homes to entertain and talk to TOUCH, ROBOTIC HEARTOne reason these robots are gaining traction is their 'personality.' Designers give them faces, eyes, and voices to feel relatable. Some blink, beep, and react like friendly cartoon characters. Others bow and use gestures. These aren't just aesthetics they're psychological matters too. Unlike static voice assistants, embodied AIs use movement and expression to communicate. Some robots nod, apologise, or mirror human emotion. This makes them feel more like a helper than a Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., highlighted the importance of emotional sensitivity in AI during the 2021 Google I/O conference. He said AI must be inclusive and respectful, and that home robots should understand different accents, emotions, and family dynamics. It's not just about functionality it's about fitting into the human INTELLIGENCE BY DESIGNSome AI companions are now trained to detect feelings. A child-focused robot, for example, senses if a child is upset and adjusts its tone. Other robots can identify a frown and respond with a cheerful interactions aren't random. They're engineered to build trust and emotional rapport. Developers from Aldebaran Robotics, the original creators of one popular humanoid robot, have described their creations as 'kind and emotional companions,' a vision that underpins much of their product LEADS, THE WEST FOLLOWSJapan and South Korea are front-runners in adopting domestic robots. Their culture is more open to robotic companionship, and governments have supported initiatives like robot caregivers for contrast, Western consumers are cautiously optimistic. While smart speakers and appliances are widespread, humanoid robots are still niche. Yet the potential is huge. Smart home ecosystems could naturally evolve into mobile assistants that interact in deeper, more physical Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explored a similar idea when he built his own AI home assistant, 'Jarvis,' which controlled lights, music, and doors in his house. He documented this project in a 2016 Facebook post, showcasing the future of personal AI INVISIBLE HELPERThe ultimate vision is a seamless integration of AI into our homes. A fridge that talks to your robot about low groceries. A bot that syncs with your fitness tracker to plan meals. A holographic video call projected by your is the AI ecosystem companies are racing toward. Not flashy tech, but invisible convenience. Like electricity, it just works in the background, improving life without drawing course, challenges remain. Privacy is a major concern robots with cameras and mics in our homes raise alarms. Then there's reliability. A buggy bot could be more frustrating than are investing in stronger safeguards and user-friendly settings. Feedback from early adopters is helping shape more intuitive, secure REVOLUTION IN MOTIONEmbodied AI is not just a trend it's a shift in how we live. From cleaning floors to comforting the elderly, robots are entering our personal spaces with purpose. Visionaries like Musk, Bezos, and Son aren't dreaming they're future home will likely include at least one robot, moving silently through your routine, helping, adapting, and even amusing. And one day, much like smartphones, you may wonder how you ever lived without by Kashmik Singh Chouhan
The Star
09-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Getty's landmark UK lawsuit on copyright and AI set to begin
FILE PHOTO: An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo LONDON (Reuters) -Getty Images' landmark copyright lawsuit against artificial intelligence company Stability AI begins at London's High Court on Monday, with the photo provider's case likely to set a key precedent for the law on AI. The Seattle-based company, which produces editorial content and creative stock images and video, accuses Stability AI of breaching its copyright by using its images to "train" its Stable Diffusion system, which can generate images from text inputs. Getty, which is bringing a parallel lawsuit against Stability AI in the United States, says Stability AI unlawfully scraped millions of images from its websites and used them to train and develop Stable Diffusion. Stability AI – which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and in March announced investment by the world's largest advertising company, WPP – is fighting the case and denies infringing any of Getty's rights. A Stability AI spokesperson said that "the wider dispute is about technological innovation and freedom of ideas," adding: "Artists using our tools are producing works built upon collective human knowledge, which is at the core of fair use and freedom of expression." Getty's case is one of several lawsuits brought in Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere over the use of copyright-protected material to train AI models, after ChatGPT and other AI tools became widely available more than two years ago. WIDER IMPACT Creative industries are grappling with the legal and ethical implications of AI models that can produce their own work after being trained on existing material. Prominent figures including Elton John have called for greater protections for artists. Lawyers say Getty's case will have a major impact on the law, as well as potentially informing government policy on copyright protections relating to AI. "Legally, we're in uncharted territory. This case will be pivotal in setting the boundaries of the monopoly granted by UK copyright in the age of AI," Rebecca Newman, a lawyer at Addleshaw Goddard, who is not involved in the case, said. She added that a victory for Getty could mean that Stability AI and other developers will face further lawsuits. Cerys Wyn Davies, from the law firm Pinsent Masons, said the High Court's ruling "could have a major bearing on market practice and the UK's attractiveness as a jurisdiction for AI development". (Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
The Star
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Cornelis Networks releases tech to speed up AI datacenter connections
FILE PHOTO: An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Cornelis Networks on Tuesday released a suite of networking hardware and software aimed at linking together up to half a million artificial intelligence chips. Cornelis, which was spun out of Intel in 2020 and is still backed by the chipmaker's venture capital fund, is targeting a problem that has bedeviledAI datacenters for much of the past decade: AI computing chips are very fast, but when many of those chips are strung together to work on big computing problems, the network links between the chips are not fast enough to keep the chips supplied with data. Nvidia took aim at that problem with its $6.9 billion purchase in 2020 of networking chip firm Mellanox, which made networking gear with a network protocol called InfiniBand, which was created in the 1990s specifically for supercomputers. Networking chip giants such as Broadcom and Cisco Systems are working to solve the same set of technical issues with Ethernet technology, which has connected most of the internet since the 1980s and is an open technology standard. The Cornelis "CN5000" networking chips usea new network technology created by Cornelis called OmniPath. The chips will ship to initial customers such as the U.S. Department of Energy in the third quarter of this year, Cornelis CEO Lisa Spelman told Reuters on May 30. Although Cornelis has backing from Intel, its chips are designed to work with AI computing chips from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices or any other maker using open-source software, Spelman said. She said that the next version of Cornelis chips in 2026 will also be compatible with Ethernet networks, aiming to alleviate any customer concerns that buying Cornelis chips would leave a data center locked into its technology. "There's 45-year-old architecture and a 25-year-old architecture working to solve these problems," Spelman said. "We like to offer a new way and a new path for customers that delivers you both the (computing chip) performance and excellent economic performance as well." (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler)
The Star
29-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Exclusive-Grammarly secures $1 billion from General Catalyst to build AI productivity platform
An AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Grammarly has raised $1 billion in non-dilutive financing from General Catalyst to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, aiming to grow into a comprehensive productivity platform, the companies told Reuters. Grammarly, known for its popular writing assistant tool, plans to use the capital to fund sales and marketing costs and strategic acquisitions. It looks to use AI to build more communication-based productivity tools and even hosts third-party tools on its platform by leveraging access to its 40 million daily users. The investment, one of the biggest out of General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund (CVF), could help late-stage tech companies like Grammarly accelerate growth by using dedicated capital to acquire new customers. By reallocating funds typically tied up in sales and marketing, Grammarly can invest more in product development. In return, General Catalyst doesn't receive an equity stake in Grammarly, but will get a capped return linked to revenue generated through using this capital. This is structured as a percentage of the revenue generated from the fund being used in customer acquisition. Founded in 2005, Grammarly has an annual revenue exceeding $700 million and is profitable. In December, Grammarly appointed Shishir Mehrotra, previously CEO of the acquired productivity platform Coda, as its new leader, signaling a push into broader AI-powered workplace tools. "As Grammarly is going through a huge transformation of going from being a what is mostly known as a single-purpose agent to being an agent platform, it just felt very important for us to be able to bet big in our product development and in M&A as well as in our growth strategies," Mehrotra said in an interview. He added said the company has an eventual goal to go public, although no imminent plans. "I'm right now just focused on making sure we're innovating with new products, growing as fast as we can. But when we feel ready, we'll go public," Mehrotra added. The dedicated growth investment, if it pays off, could also benefit the valuation of Grammarly and General Catalyst's stake in the company, as it has also been an equity investor in Grammarly's series B funding in 2017. San Francisco-based Grammarly has raised over $550 million in venture capital, according to PitchBook. It was last valued at $13 billion in 2021. General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund operates by drawing capital from the firm's main investment fund, including a newly raised $8 billion. This approach is part of a strategic evolution for the investment firm, led by CEO Hemant Taneja, as it seeks to grow beyond the traditional venture capital model, including creating innovative funding mechanisms. Its customer acquisition fund has invested in nearly 50 companies, including Lemonade and Fivetran, as it leads on growth metrics to a more predictable path to returns. "Companies like Grammarly basically have a machine where they can invest dollars in sales and marketing and generate a very consistent return," said Pranav Singhvi, Managing Director at General Catalyst, "With this wave of AI, giving Grammarly the firepower to actually go and invest could land those customers beyond the 40 million." (Reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; editing by Giles Elgood)
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
2025 Brand Global Communication Conference held in Shanghai
SHANGHAI, May 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On May 12, the 2025 Brand Global Communication Conference was held in Shanghai, highlighting the theme of "Brands bring better future for the world." More than 100 representatives from well-known domestic enterprises, government agencies, and academic institutions gathered to discuss and analyze the going-global of Chinese brands, aiming to enhance the global influence of domestic brands entering overseas markets. A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on this link. A report on global brand communication capability of Chinese brands was released at the conference. The report provides reference pathways for promoting high-quality brand going-global and effectively presenting the story of Chinese brands. Since 2024, urban culture, finance, and the gaming and toy sectors have shown significant progress in brand development, industry innovation, and international communication. The report has focused on these three key areas, introducing a global communication capability ranking of Chinese brands in the specific realms. Notably, the report marks the first in-depth regional analysis by unveiling the 2025 Shanghai cultural brand global communication capability ranking. The top ten brands encompass key sectors, including cultural tourism, design, film and television, technology, and urban intellectual property. Shortlisted brands such as the Shanghai International Film Festival, World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Shanghai International Design Week, and World Cities Day prominently illustrate the outstanding performance of Shanghai's cultural brands in the global public discourse, social media landscape, and industrial ecosystem. This is the third consecutive year that the conference unveiled an edition of the research report on the global communication capacity of brands. The report focuses on the overall ranking and changing characteristics of Chinese brands' global communication capability over the past three years, compiling data from the 2023 and 2024 rankings while highlighting the ascendancy and contribution of Chinese brands in global communication during this period. The data indicates strong performances in the automotive, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics sectors. The conference is launched by the office of Xinhua Brand Reimagine, the Shanghai Branch of Xinhua News Agency, and the News & Information Center of Xinhua News Agency, with the News & Information Center's Shanghai branch and China News Development Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch serving as organizers. Source: China News Development Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch CONTACT: Contact person: Ms. Liu, Tel: 86-10-63074558Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
