NASA briefing on lunar lander from Firefly.

NASA holds a virtual audio-only media teleconference to highlight the NASA science flying onboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign. Participants include:

• Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters.

• Ryan Watkins, program scientist, Exploration Science Strategy and Integration Office, NASA Headquarters.

• Jason Kim, CEO, Firefly Aerospace

Pick and place bots autonomously doing household chores. Progress!

The idea of a robot that does a wide range of household chores, from unloading the dryer to folding laundry to cleaning up a messy table, has long seemed like pure science fiction—perhaps most famously embodied by the 1960s fantasy that was Rosey in The Jetsons.

Physical Intelligence, a startup in San Francisco, has shown that such a dream might actually not be so far off, demonstrating a single artificial intelligence model that has learned to do a wide range of useful home chores—including all of the above—by being trained on an unprecedented amount of data.

The feat raises the prospect of bringing something as magical and generally capable as other AI models like ChatGPT into the physical world.

Now AI Agents can do low-level work on your laptop. Paper pushers are on notice: the bots are coming for your job.

Anthropic just showed off a new trick — its AI assistant Claude can now take over your computer’s mouse and keyboard, clicking and typing its way through tasks while you sit and watch. All you have to do is tell it what you want done.

In a video, Developer Relations lead Alex Albert walks through a process where Claude performs multiple website development steps autonomously. The AI navigates Chrome, interacts with web interfaces, and even engages in a unique AI-to-AI interaction.

When Alex asks Claude to create a 90s-themed homepage, the AI springs into action: it opens Chrome, searches for Claude.ai, and types in a prompt asking its AI counterpart to generate the retro website. It’s like a ghost is sitting in front of the computer. Within moments, “Claude.ai returns some code, and that gets nicely rendered in an artifact on the right-hand side.”

ROBOT ACHIEVEMENT DAY! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kepler-debuts-forerunner-k2-h…00317.html

SHANGHAI, Oct. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Shanghai Kepler Robotics Co., Ltd. (“Kepler Humanoid Robot”) has recently launched its full-sized, general-purpose humanoid robot, the Forerunner K2, at GITEX GLOBAL 2024, which began on October 14.

Kepler Humanoid Robot is dedicated to transforming productivity through cutting-edge technology and delivering industry-leading, high-IQ blue-collar humanoid robots. Hu Debo, CEO of Kepler Humanoid Robot, said, “The Forerunner K2 represents the Gen 5.0 robot model, showcasing a seamless integration of the humanoid robot’s cerebral, cerebellar, and high-load body functions. At Kepler, we understand that innovation is driven by application. That’s why we prioritize deep integration of customer needs, solutions, and product development. From the outset, we have forged close collaborations with key customers, jointly formulating commercialization strategies and working alongside industry stakeholders to accelerate the deployment of humanoid robots.”

This sounds very promising! The researchers are investigating the use of nuclear microreactors to power faster and more efficient electric propulsion systems.

To develop spacecraft that can “maneuver without regret,” the U.S. Space Force is providing $35 million to a national research team led by the University of Michigan. It will be the first to bring fast chemical rockets together with efficient electric propulsion powered by a nuclear microreactor.

The newly formed Space Power and Propulsion for Agility, Responsiveness and Resilience Institute involves eight universities, and 14 industry partners and advisers in one of the nation’s largest efforts to advance space power and propulsion, a critical need for national defense and space exploration.

Right now, most spacecraft propulsion comes in one of two flavors: chemical rockets, which provide a lot of thrust but burn through fuel quickly, or electric propulsion powered by solar panels, which is slow and cumbersome but fuel efficient. Chemical propulsion comes with the highest risk of regret, as fuel is limited. But in some situations, such as when a collision is imminent, speed may be necessary.

The goal of UBTech is to reduce human labor to only 10% by deploying humanoid robots, with human workers focusing on higher-level tasks such as collaboration and tool management.

UBTech aims for humanoid robots — like Walker S1 — to handle 20% of factory work, reducing human roles to 10%.

Although UBTech is leaving 10% of work for humans in management, other AI tech is being specifically developed for that niche: OpenAI’s new framework, Swarm, allows AI agents to collaborate and independently execute complex tasks, potentially boosting business efficiency.

Artificial intelligence agents are everywhere, quietly reshaping industries and automating tasks we didn’t think possible a few years ago. Unlike basic automation, these AI agents can handle complex jobs, think independently and learn from their environment. The result? Healthcare, finance and logistics businesses are seeing rapid gains in efficiency — and, in some cases, doing away with manual work altogether.

What are AI agents exactly? They’re software programs that carry out specific tasks without constant supervision. Whether handling customer requests, diagnosing medical conditions or predicting market trends, AI agents are versatile workhorses. Instead of waiting for humans to input every command, these agents operate autonomously, reacting to real-time data and adjusting their actions accordingly.

Microsoft recently unveiled new AI tools allowing healthcare organizations to build customized AI agents for appointment scheduling, clinical trial matching, and patient triage. These agents are designed to streamline workflows and improve efficiency, helping healthcare providers manage workloads and enhance patient care.

The dockworkers striking up and down the East Coast are, culturally and geographically, a world apart from the Hollywood actors and writers who staged a four-month walkout last year. But their protests share a common core principle: They don’t want bots taking their jobs.

It’s a fight you can expect to see playing out a lot more as advanced automation and AI creep into virtually every workforce.

Here’s the deal: The East Coast port strike is getting a lot of attention for its potential disruption to the economy — which is precisely the point. Longshore work can be grueling, and the people working at ports are vital to getting all of the stuff we want to buy onto store shelves. No dockworkers means no bananas (or whatever), which means no profits for the companies that produce and ship them.

Dr Shannon Curry said she believes humans will first land on Mars — at the earliest — in 2040, but more realistically 2050. And 2075 before Mars colonization! Very realistic prediction, and I enthusiastically agree.

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, led by scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder, was supposed to operate for one year when it entered orbit on September 21, 2014. Ten years later, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter has been a boon to scientists studying the red planet and they hope it will remain in operation for years to come.

In May, MAVEN researchers got to watch as a huge solar storm hit the planet along with a massive dose of radiation. The MAVEN spacecraft is an orbiter, so it won’t ever land on the surface of Mars like the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. Instead, it’s designed to examine the Martian atmosphere, which principal investigator Shannon Curry said “holds a number of secrets in terms of our past, present, and future.”

Here are some takeaways from Curry’s interview with Colorado Matters.

“I estimate that 80% of 80% of all jobs, maybe more, can be done by an AI,” famed investor and entrepreneur Vinod Khosla has warned. “Be it primary care doctors, psychiatrists, sales people, oncologists, farm workers or assembly line workers, structural engineers, chip designers, you name it.”

Say hello to a universal income and a 3-day week.