Science, Space, & Robotics

Elon Musk says that every single human being on the planet will want one -- or even two -- of Tesla's new humanoid Optimus robots, and that we can expect 500,000+ of the Optimus robots to be made in 2027.

In a new interview with the SpaceX and Tesla boss, who said: "Humanoid robots will be the biggest product in history. Every human will likely want one-or even two. My guess is a 3:1, 4:1, or even 5:1 ratio of robots to humans, meaning 20-30 billion robots worldwide. In the good AI scenario, we won't need universal basic income. We'll have universal high income".

Elon added: "Our Optimus robot is the most sophisticated humanoid robot in the world. We aim to build several thousand this year, test them at Tesla factories, then scale to 50,000-100,000 next year, and 500,000 in three years. Maybe we should think of them in Roman legions-5,000 robots per legion".

Samsung's Ballie, a spherical robot that was first revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in 2020 is finally coming to market, putting to bed the longstanding assumption that Samsung will never release the peculiar robot.

CES 2024 is littered with prototype concepts that will never make it to market for various reasons, and since its unveiling and lack of release, Samsung's Ballie has fallen into that category. However, it appears that is no longer the case as CNET reports Samsung will be releasing the AI-powered companion sometime in 2025. For those who don't know, Ballie is a stay-at-home robot companion that is capable of greeting its owners at the door, projecting video/images on surfaces, and being able to control other Samsung smarthome devices.

Ballie communicates with users through a text-based app, but users can also throw commands at the AI robot with their voice. Additionally, through its array of cameras and sensors, Ballie is able to determine the best viewing angle for its projected image/image based on the location of the users face.

The human brain is truly and incredible piece of wetware that even the smartest of researchers have yet to fully understand, but when it comes to speed researchers have found the human brain is quite slow, especially compared to something as ubiquitous as Wi-Fi or a phone call from a smartphone.

According to new calculations that were published in a recent entry into the scientific journal Neuron, the human brain processes a thought at just 10 bits per second, which is remarkably slow when compared to an average Wi-Fi connection in the US being capable of 260 million bits per second, or even a simple phone call at approximately 64,000 bits per second.

To arrive at this number the team looked at feats of human achievement and applied methods from the field of information theory, and what they found was even mentally intensive activities that are blended with minimal physical movement barely breached the 10 bits per second mark.

Current Backyard has just unveiled its new Model P Smart Pizza Oven at CES 2025, an all-electric smart pizza oven that can be used both indoors and outdoors, has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and costs just $599. Check it out:

The company says its new Model P smart pizza oven can reach a maximum temperature of 850F, of which is the temperature that can cook a Neapolitan-style pizza in two minutes. Current Backyard says that the internal design of its new smart pizza oven uses an algorithm alongside top-mounted graphite and under-stone circular calrod elements to ensure uniform heating across the pizza.

Current Backyard also says that the construction used also eliminates the need for their future smart pizza oven owners to rotate their pizzas while they're cooling, with a cordierite cooking stone helping with the even doneness, which helps to get that delicious crispy crust.

The world of robotic vacuum cleaners is still evolving, and at CES 2025 a company has unveiled a new roomba that comes with a robotic arm designed to help clean up household rubbish.

The company Roborock has unveiled the Saros Z70, which will be debuting at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. The new robotic vacuum cleaner has already been demoed to select publications that report the arm does work as advertised, meaning its capable of picking up items such as socks, rubbish, etc, but it's unfortunately extremely slow at completing the task.

The Verge reports the Saros Z70 arm takes approximately 1 minute to pick up and move an item in its way. Additionally, the publication reports the arm is only capable of picking up specific items, which currently are socks, tissues, small towels, and sandals that weigh under 300 grams. Roborock said that more items will be added to the list of items the Saros Z70 is capable of picking up, but the company didn't give specifics on if the total weight of the item would be increased.

SpaceX is making some big upgrades to its Starship test flight program, with the next flight to test payload deployment for the first time ever, and will launch new Starlink satellites into space.

These new model spacecraft will travel on the same trajectory as the upper stage aka Starship, and will splash down into the Indian Ocean. The new V3 satellites will be the first-ever payload that Starship flies, as SpaceX has been using its Falcon 9 rocket to get Starlink satellites into space, but that changes with this new Starship launch and the next-gen V3 satellites.

The new V3 satellites are reportedly much heavier than the current V2 Mini spacecraft, but Starship has an insane amount of payload capacity, making it far easier to strap in 60 x V3 satellites per Starship launch, adding 60Tbps capacity to the Starlink network each time. Each V3 Starlink satellite has 1Tbps of downlink speed, and 160Gbps of upload capacity, which is an upgrade of 10x the downlink speed, and 24x the uplink capacity compared to SpaceX's current-gen V2 Mini satellites.

NVIDIA is betting big on robotics of the future, where it will launch its latest generation of compact computers -- Jetson Thorr -- in the first half of 2025 which is said to be the "ChatGPT moment for physical AI and robotics".

In a new post from FT, we're learning that "the ChatGPT moment for physical AI and robotics is around the corner" according to Deepu Talla, NVIDIA's vice president of robotics in a recent chat with the Financial Times. He believes that the market has reached the elusive "tipping point" and that Jetson Thor is going to push it over the edge.

NVIDIA entering the robotics industry is going to be huge, but the shift from making all of its cheddar form data center revenue -- including its AI GPUs -- makes up around 88% of its overall sales in Q3 2024 with $35.1 billion. However, Talla says that the shift in the robotics market is driven by two technological breakthroughs: the meteoroic rise in generative AI models, and the ability to train robots on these foundational models, using simulated environments.

ASUS chairman Jonney Shih has said that they are already in "full swing" developing its first humanoid robot, something that would compete with Elon Musk and his Tesla Optimus robot we've been hearing more and more about lately.

Shih recently said: "we are already in full swing on this part and have launched plans internally", but ASUS already has its Zenbo robots... but its new adventure is with a humanoid robot that should better resemble the Tesla Optimus humanoid robot sometime in the future.

Elon Musk recently chatted to TSMC boss C.C. Wei asking for a massive, and stable supply of chips for his Optimus robots, but now it looks like ASUS is stepping into the next big thing for AI. The real big breakthroughs for AI are constrained for now, with artificial general intelligence (AGI) only obtained by using large language models (LLMs), and without a physical body, we are limited by the potential of these robots.

SpaceX is undoubtedly celebrating the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarding the company a launch license for its upcoming 7th test flight of Starship.

The celebration isn't for the license itself but more so for the speed at which it was obtained, as the FAA only took about a month to evaluate the previous launch of Starship and issue the new license. This kind of timing is unheard of and has even resulted in SpaceX and company CEO Elon Musk publicly slamming the FAA and its regulatory hurdles for holding up the development of Starship. However, the license issuing for Flight 7 stands as an example of the FAA improving internal efficiencies.

SpaceX hasn't confirmed when Flight 7 will take place, but given the history of previous flights, they typically occur within weeks of the launch license being obtained. However, with Christmas around the corner, it might not be until mid-January we see Starship take flight again. As for the mission objective, while SpaceX hasn't released any details about Flight 7, it would be a reasonable guess that it will include another catch attempt of the Super Heavy booster, as unforeseen problems that emerged in Flight 6 resulted in a catch attempt having to be abandoned.

SpaceX's Dragon capsule was recently undocked from the International Space Station (ISS), and the moment was captured by a NASA astronaut who was situated at a peculiar angle.

The Dragon capsule undocking from the International Space Station is simply business as usual for both NASA and SpaceX, with the recent footage capturing the 31st commercial resupply the company has performed for NASA. The launch to the ISS from SpaceX involved carrying 2,700 kilograms (5,952 lb) of supplies for the crew aboard the floating laboratory, along with experiments and other various miscellaneous items that are useful in zero gravity.

As for the undocking video, the Dragon capsule was carrying all of the "spoils from our research," according to NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who posted the video to his personal X account. The time-lapse showcases an incredible angle of the Dragon capsule departing the ISS, showcasing the trajectory of its journey back down to Earth, where it splashdowned off the coast of Florida on Tuesday, December 17.