Three and half years ago, I stood on the corner of West Street and gasped as two window washers clung to life at the end of a rope a thousand feet above. By the time rescue crews reached the men on the 69th floor of 1 World Trade they were close to passing out from…
Liability in robotics: inside the legal debate
I was dumbfounded by the XPONENTIAL 2018 keynote speech by Professor Zeynep Tufekci of the University of North Carolina. To paraphrase, ‘In the future, we will no longer need two pilots, planes will have just one captain and a dog. The dog will be there to bite the human in case he touches anything.’ Walking the…
Can robots save retailers from an apocalypse?
The lights are going out at malls across the United States with more than 20 major retail bankruptcies in 2017. As of today, store closures have skyrocketed to 7,000 doors throughout the nation, affecting such iconic brands as Toys R Us, Walgreens, Gap, Sam’s Club, The Children’s Place, Hallmark, Stride Ride, Aeropostale, Wet Seal, The…
How will automation affect the future of work?
Several years ago, Canary Pete’s political cartoon flooded email inboxes and social media pages. The humorous illustration showed a middle-aged executive walking into a typical job interview, with the exception that he had to build his own office chair (since he was applying to work at IKEA). Pete’s satire might be short-lived, as last week…
Drones playing critical role in emergency response
In a basement of New York University in 2013, Dr. Sergei Lupashin wowed the room of 100 leading technology enthusiasts with one of the first indoor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) demonstrations. During his presentation, Dr. Lupashin of ETH Zurich attached a dog leash to an aerial drone while declaring to the audience, “there has to be…
Lessons Learned from Robot Failures
Pundits are already speculating that the fatal crash by Uber’s autonomous taxi will set the driverless car industry back decades. As the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) deconstructs the accident to report on the technological breakdown, it is clear that the redundant systems failed – from the safety driver’s ability to react in time to…
Biased Data the Real Danger of AI
The Robotics Summit and Showcase is just a couple months away. Find out all about our agenda here and register by April 20 for a 20% discount to learn from the best in the robotics industry. Robot Lightsabers duel light vs dark side at @Universal_Robot #SXSW show floor. Is there a robot with a lightsaber…
Regulatory Challenges Holding Back Healthcare AI
It was the last question of the night, and it hushed the entire room. An entrepreneur expressed his aggravation about the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) antiquated regulatory environment for AI-enabled devices to Dr. Joel Stein of Columbia University. Stein, a leader in rehabilitative robotic medicine, sympathized with the startup, knowing that tomorrow’s exoskeletons…
Self-Driving Cars Have Power Consumption Problems
I recently chaired a UJA Tech Talk on “The Future Of Autonomous Cars” with former General Motors Vice-Chairman Steve Girsky. The auto executive enthusiastically shared his vision for the next 15-25 years of driving – a congestion-free world of automated wheeled capsules zipping commuters to and from work. Girsky stated that connected cars with safety…