Lugh

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A team of researchers across 20 separate labs just unveiled Genesis, an open-source physics engine that combines generative AI with ultra-fast simulations, potentially transforming how AI learns to interact with the physical world.

Genesis runs 430,000 times faster than real-time physics, achieving 43 million FPS on a single RTX 4090 GPU.

It’s built in pure Python, it's 10-80x faster than existing solutions like Isaac Gym and MJX.

The platform can train real-world transferable robot locomotion policies in just 26 seconds.

The platform is fully open-source and will soon include a generative framework for creating 4D environments.

Why it matters: By enabling AI to run millions of simulations at unprecedented speeds, Genesis could massively accelerate robots' ability to understand our physical world. Open-sourcing this tech, along with its ability to generate complex environments from simple prompts, could spark a whole new wave of innovation in physical AI.

Commentary from 'The Rundown' Newsletter

I follow a lot of tech news, and one of the most common biases I see in most commentary is its 'Venture- Capital-Centredness'. Almost everybody mostly just talks about VC-funded start-ups. Meanwhile, often the most important trends are happening outside of those spaces.

Open Source's role in AI and robotics is a prime example of this. Players in the AI space are using it to 'poison pill' their competitors. Investors are pouring hundreds of billions into companies like OpenAI, but every time they have a chance to justify that cost with a revenue stream, someone ruins it by open-sourcing the tech and making it free-to-use.

These 20 academic institutions aren't motivated the same way, but they will have the same effect. Former robotics leaders like Boston Dynamics have lost their advantages. Now small companies in China's industrial zones have the same as them, but at no cost.

The result? Married to Chinese manufacturing, future robots will be cheap, ubiquitous, and it's likely no one Big Tech player will own the space. Will there be an Apple version of robotics? A company able to make hundreds of billions from high end products? Perhaps. But even if there is, most robots will still likely spring from open-source and many different manufacturers.

 

Press Release

Youtube Demo

It's only a matter of time before tech like this becomes widespread for grieving families. Eerie to think that in preparing for death some people will create their own afterlife personas to best comfort the people who care about them they are leaving behind.

More prosaically it makes a great alternative to regular phone messaging and emails. If you can trust the AI "You" to say the right thing in responses.

If you thought the proliferation of virtual boyfriends and girlfriends was sad already, prepare to get sadder.

 

Market share data courtesy of yipitdata.com.

There are others, but Waymo in the US and Badiu's Apollo Go in China, now seem ready for take-off with robo-taxis. From now on the only constraints to growth will be how quick they can deploy new vehicles to new markets. When this explosive growth is finished, there will be tens of millions of robo-taxis in every town and city on planet Earth.

The real revolution will be the global displacement of tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of human driver jobs. We are rushing headlong into this future without anyone preparing for it, yet it's going to happen whether people like it or not, and it's heading straight for us.

[–] Lugh 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah I would definitely think that better LIDAR would be the answer for the problems with dawn and dusk, but the problems with turning might be trickier. It seems there are so many unpredictable variables at play in every situation, that it's hard to model for all of them. But even with that, I would assume eventually with enough modeling that problem will be fixed.

[–] Lugh 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, it would probably reassure some people. I'm sure lots of AI will get anthropomorphised to make it seem cuddly and approachable.

[–] Lugh 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Mmm, not sure how I feel about this. It just seems to add an unnecessary layer where things might go wrong.

[–] Lugh 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

how these robots probably will be used for military purposes as well.

Yes, and not to mention what non-state actors will be able to do with this technology. I'm sure there will be a day in the future when a terrorist attack is carried out by hacked robots.

Despite all that I'm an optimist. I think reducing things like medical expertise to near zero cost will be such a huge boon to humanity, and I suspect most of this robotics power will be relatively decentralized. I don't really believe in dystopian narratives where corporate overlords own the world and the rest of us are reduced to serfs.

[–] Lugh 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

In fairness the rethinkx people are doing a better job than most in drawing attention to this issue.

However, I still think the term cowardice is merited, and not just for them.

We constantly hear Silicon Valley types talk about disruption like this, but they’re always afraid to follow through with logical conclusions. I think it's because they know the only two choices are some sort of socialism, or chaos.

It makes them frauds as well as cowards. On the one hand taking billions from private investors for AI; with the other hand creating a world where the stock market probably won’t exist, or will survive only as a shrunken relic.

[–] Lugh 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

the marginal cost of labor will rapidly approach zero.....................................Moreover, history shows that although capital (in the form of facilities, machinery, and knowledge) have substituted and thus displaced labor time and time again, labor has nevertheless evolved to remain complementary to that capital.

This illustrates the problem I always have with these discussions. It's even more frustrating in this article, as it clearly states facts, but in the most cowardly of fashions avoids honest implications. How are we supposed to have a free market economy based on capitalism when there is zero value for labor either physical or intellectual?

Every single part of our financial system is based on that; from banking to mortgages to consumer spending to the stock market having valuations to property having valuations. If every single job you can imagine, even the future ones, can be done by machines that are vastly cheaper than humans on the minimum wage, you cannot possibly have an economy that is anything like today's. Yet cowards that they are, the authors of this article lead us all they way to that conclusion, but are too scared to say it.

[–] Lugh 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are many theories linking consciousness and quantum physics, and it's important to say that this research doesn't prove any of them. However, if the research can be replicated in a proper peer reviewed way, it will provide startling new correlations between observed effects of consciousness and quantum physics.

These tryptophan networks are common in microtubules, structural components widespread in all cells. Although no one knows why anesthetics cause people to lose consciousness, there is evidence for them having effects in these microtubules. There is also existing research that seems to show correlations between quantum behavior in these microtubules and the actions of anesthesia. With this fresh research, now it seems there may be a further link between these microtubules and quantum physics.

Its possible implications for AI may be huge too. Some assume current approaches to AI will lead to some form of machine consciousness; this suggests that belief may be misplaced, as 3D structures like microtubules may play a role in creating it.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Ultraviolet Superradiance from Mega-Networks of Tryptophan in Biological Architectures

[–] Lugh 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Huge error? No, but sloppy,

Sure, but maybe that is a distraction from what is significant here.

Assuming this finding is valid, and can be replicated in a peer-reviewed way, then the link between quantum effects in the tryptophan networks in tubules and the action of anesthetics, is at the very least a startling coincidence.

[–] Lugh 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The wonderful science YouTuber Anton Petrov has done a great video giving an overview of this finding. He discusses it primarily in the context of anesthesia and consciousness, but the discovery could have wider implications.

There are many theories linking consciousness and quantum physics, and it's important to say that this research doesn't prove any of them. However, if the research can be replicated in a proper peer reviewed way, it will provide startling new correlations between observed effects of consciousness and quantum physics.

Its possible implications for AI may be huge too. Some assume current approaches to AI will lead to some form of machine consciousness; this suggests that belief is misplaced.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Ultraviolet Superradiance from Mega-Networks of Tryptophan in Biological Architectures

[–] Lugh 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

DK has both the research and manufacturing capacity to make these claims credible. Earlier this year they outlined an improved chemistry for lithium ion batteries that might boost their capacity between 10 and 40%.

The ceramics in these batteries are too delicate for batteries that large, even so small wearable devices that need to charge much less often will be very commercially popular.

[–] Lugh 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The human intestine is 6 meters long. It can be useful to locate problems with millimeter precision as this approach claims to do.

[–] Lugh 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Edible robots and robotic food — edible systems that perceive, process, and act upon stimulation — could open a new range of opportunities in health care, environmental management, and the promotion of healthier eating habits. For example, they could enable precise drug delivery and in vivo health monitoring, deliver autonomously targeted nutrition in emergencies, reduce waste in farming, facilitate wild animal vaccination

I think this is one of those ideas, that when you first hear about it you scratch your head thinking what on earth could that be useful for?, but then the more you think about it, actually these researchers have a point.

It would be silly to have large edible robots but what if the future is filled with trillions of tiny insect-sized robots? There are already drones being built this size. From that perspective, this makes more sense. For a start they are biodegradable. It gives them all sorts of uses in monitoring health and delivering medicine to animals. Suddenly you can have a whole layer of monitoring tiny robots in the environment and not have to worry about pollution when they come to the end of their useful life span. Not to mention this is a targeted way of delivering food to vulnerable species that may be affected by climate change emergencies.

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