iRobot danger, Meta endangering privacy, and Nintendo's Lego Game Boy | The Express Tribune
Key Takeaways
- iRobot founder Rodney Brooks dismisses current humanoid robot development as an "expensive fantasy" due to safety and dexterity limitations.
- Brooks advocates for non-humanoid robot designs, such as wheeled bots with specialized sensors, instead of mimicking human form.
- Meta will begin using user conversations with its AI to personalize ads starting December 16th, with no opt-out available.
- The mandatory data usage by Meta is raising significant user privacy concerns, despite assurances against using highly sensitive information.
- A user successfully converted a Lego Game Boy into a mostly functional device capable of running games using original hardware chips.
iRobot founder Rodney Brooks strongly criticized the current industry trend of developing large, bipedal humanoid robots, labeling the investment as an "expensive fantasy" due to inherent safety risks associated with their size and unpredictable behavior stemming from current power systems.
Brooks further argued that these humanoids lack the necessary dexterity because their training relies only on visual data, unlike humans who learn multisensorily, suggesting future robots should resemble functional, non-humanoid designs like a wheeled bot.
In unrelated tech news, Meta is implementing a policy effective December 16th where user inputs to its AI will be mandatory for personalizing ads and content, a move users cannot opt out of, which critics see as a major privacy overreach despite Meta's assurances about sensitive data.
Concerns about data privacy are amplified by past incidents where AI platforms exposed private chats, leading to worries about what Meta's smart glasses might record and use for targeted advertising.
Meanwhile, a creative user successfully modified the recently released Lego Game Boy, designing a custom printed circuit board with a pocket CPU and RAM to run games using original chips, rather than just emulation.
Although the modification is "mostly functional," the user still needs to resolve issues with button inputs, suggesting a fully operational version may be forthcoming.
