Curated news from the world of robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence
A new safety framework from Carnegie Mellon and Siemens tackles a problem most people never think about: how do you safely halt a two-legged robot that will fall over if you just cut its power? The answer says a lot about how far humanoid robotics still has to go before these machines can be trusted in the real world.
A quiet technical shift is underway: the same real-time video generation models powering flashy AI avatars are becoming the backbone of how robots learn to predict and navigate the physical world. That convergence, visible in AWS's new Trainium work and Google's Gemini Live Avatar, may matter more than any single humanoid demo.
While humanoid robots chase warehouse contracts and viral demo videos, a quieter category of machine is already living in people's homes: assistive robots built to help people with mobility issues do ordinary things for themselves. Hello Robot's Stretch, discussed this week by CEO Aaron Edsinger on Robot Talk, is a reminder that not every robotics breakthrough needs to look impressive to matter.
While headlines chase humanoid demos and talking AI avatars, the most consequential robotics news this week was buried in kernel optimizations, open-source middleware, and multi-robot coordination algorithms. The unglamorous plumbing layer is where the industry's real maturity is being built.
While AI companies race to make chatbots sound more human, robotics researchers are quietly solving a harder problem: getting multiple robots to work together in the real world. Recent breakthroughs in multi-robot coordination reveal why the future of automation isn't about smarter individual machines—it's about systems that can think collectively.
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The article discusses how advanced AI systems may be most valuable for handling routine execution work that supports breakthrough innovation, rather than for the breakthroughs themselves. It explores how AI's role in automating routine tasks could fundamentally shape economic progress and the pace of technological advancement.
Albertsons Cos. is using ChatGPT Enterprise and the OpenAI API to help teams work faster and make grocery shopping easier for millions of customers.
This article discusses how graph-centric agentic AI can be applied to network operations, enabling autonomous reasoning over complex system topologies for root cause analysis and failure isolation. The piece traces the evolution of graph representations in networking—from basic topology modeling to knowledge graphs, dependency graphs, and graph neural networks—and demonstrates how agentic AI agents can reason over these structures to identify network failures more efficiently than traditional approaches.
Researchers at the University of Toronto have developed a monopedal hopping robot that combines quadcopter propulsion with a spring-loaded single leg featuring a compliant, pivoting foot pad. The design allows the robot to maintain stability and traction across diverse terrains including sand and ice, improving upon earlier spike-based designs that proved unreliable.
Google announces Gemini 4 Argon, a frontier AI model designed for complex professional tasks including software engineering, legal and financial work, and cybersecurity defense. The model features a 1 million token context window and is being rolled out initially to trusted cybersecurity defenders through Google's Fairwind Program, with wider availability planned after safety testing and government collaboration.
Carnegie Mellon University has received a $500M gift to establish the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science, which will support AI research, expand computational resources and access, and advance computer science education. The funding is intended to accelerate new research directions and strengthen student support programs in computer science and AI disciplines.
OpenAI discovered and disrupted a coordinated campaign attempting to extract protected model reasoning through adversarial distillation techniques. The incident highlights emerging security threats against large language models and OpenAI's efforts to strengthen defenses against such attacks.
OpenAI has partnered with America's Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) to provide hands-on AI training and local support for small businesses. The initiative includes a new report examining how small teams are adopting and implementing AI in their operations.
IEEE RAS experts informally discuss the distinction between robotics and automation, exploring whether robotics is a subdomain of automation or a separate field. The discussion examines how automation focuses on making processes efficient and repeatable, while robotics involves physical interaction with the environment, and notes that not all robots are automated nor does all automation require robots.
OpenAI announced over 20 new developments at DevDay 2026, including GPT-6 Astra and updates to ChatGPT, Codex, APIs, and developer tools. The announcements focus on new capabilities and security features for AI builders and developers using OpenAI's platforms.
Meet GPT-6.1 Sol: near-Astra intelligence for coding, computer use, and professional work at one-fifth of Astra's standard API input and output token prices.
Carnegie Mellon University and Siemens partnered to develop PRISM (Proactive Refinement of Importance-sampled Stoppability Monitor), a method for assessing and monitoring the safe stoppability of humanoid robots in emergency situations. Unlike industrial robots that can simply cut power, humanoids require power to maintain balance, so the researchers defined operational conditions and safety envelopes where humanoids can safely transition to neutral positions and stop without collapsing or causing harm to people or objects nearby.
OpenAI apologizes for incidents involving Australian government websites and outlines stronger safeguards and support to strengthen Australia's cyber defences.
Dots by OpenAI are a proactive assistant that can keep working across complex projects and everyday tasks. Learn how dots help you stay in control while work moves forward.
Researchers at EPFL and NYU have developed ScaFi, a scalable fish-inspired robot that maintains swimming ability across different sizes by adjusting only the tail rod diameter while keeping the motor and tendon system constant. The team built and tested three versions ranging from 0.6 to 2.9 meters long, demonstrating that the fish-like swimming gait is preserved across a nearly fivefold scale increase, though energy efficiency scaling remains challenging.
Anthropic has released early guidelines for safety cases in frontier AI training, addressing technical safeguards, operational practices, and methods for investigating misalignment incidents. The framework aims to establish standardized safety protocols for developing advanced AI systems and ensuring responsible deployment practices.
OpenAI is expanding the Lenfest AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program with $5 million in funding and up to $5 million in software credits and engineering support.
A hobbyist built a miniature center-pivot irrigation system modified to autonomously mow his lawn, using proportional control for the multi-section drivetrain and pivoting knife attachments. The system navigates the circular cutting area while dealing with environmental challenges like mud, moisture, and rapid plant growth in the Pacific Northwest.
We're collecting real stories of builders, tinkerers, researchers, and creators who are using Codex to do incredible things. If you want to be a part of the next chapter of the Codex Originals program...
GPT-6 Astra completed a 50-tab tax workbook twice as fast as GPT-5.6 Sol, and its stronger understanding of user intent gives Basis more confidence in real-world use.
With Codex, GPT-Live-1, and GPT-6 Astra, Proaction builds, operates, and sells modern fleet management faster.
AWS Neuron Science team and Reactor collaborated to optimize real-time video generation on AWS Trainium using a kernel-centric approach through the Neuron Kernel Interface. The work addresses challenges in deploying autoregressive diffusion models for real-time world models used in robotics, gaming, and scientific simulation by tackling dynamic shapes, memory access patterns, and cache management.
Robot Talk Episode 163 features an interview with Aaron Edsinger, CEO and Co-Founder of Hello Robot, discussing the company's Stretch robots designed to help people with mobility issues achieve greater independence. Edsinger, formerly Robotics Director at Google, founded the company to develop practical, safe, and accessible robots for consumer, manufacturing, healthcare, and research markets.
Intrinsic, Google's AI robotics group, has open-sourced Intrinsic Core, a ROS-compatible platform providing hardware-agnostic capabilities for building robotic applications including real-time control, pose estimation, motion planning, grasp planning, and simulation services. The company also released Open Machine Tending Solution (OMTS), a reference design for industrial robotic tasks to help developers customize solutions without building from scratch.
Jude Robinson's final project is a robot called Daisy that automatically creates daisy chains by feeding flower stems through one another and cutting precise incisions. The system uses two X-Y gantries with grippers and a scalpel blade, relying on clever mechanical constraints like v-shaped profiles to handle variations in daisy stem size rather than complex sensing, demonstrating how mechanical design can solve uncertain handling problems deterministically.
Google introduced Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar, a conversational AI feature that combines real-time video generation with speech synthesis to create virtual avatars with natural lip-syncing, expressions, and multilingual support across 97 languages. The feature is designed for enterprise applications like customer service and interactive walkthroughs, with capabilities for asynchronous tool execution and custom avatar creation while incorporating SynthID watermarking for transparency and safety.
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed LAMP (Long-Horizon Adaptive Manipulation Planning), a system that enables multiple robots to collaborate and coordinate their movements to transport objects through cluttered, crowded spaces like warehouses. The system combines learned models of object manipulation with search-based planning algorithms, and includes a lazy variant that updates plans dynamically based on real-world feedback, successfully completing complex multi-step tasks that previous approaches could not handle.
Ringg has developed AI agents powered by OpenAI's GPT-5.6 that can autonomously resolve up to 65% of customer service calls across multiple channels (voice, chat, WhatsApp, web). The solution operates at 90% lower cost compared to using GPT-4.1, and supports multilingual interactions for enterprise customer support automation.
IROS 2026, the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, will be held September 27 - October 1 in Pittsburgh, featuring keynote talks from leading researchers covering topics including autonomous surgery, soft robotics, embodied AI, manipulation systems, and disaster robotics. The conference program includes 86 workshops and tutorials, plenary panels on startups, space robotics, and generalist vs. specialist robots, and community forums on government funding, robotics education, and foundational research.
OpenAI Academy has completed two years of operations, focusing on bringing AI education and skills training to diverse communities. The initiative appears to be expanding its educational outreach to make AI knowledge more accessible beyond traditional tech hubs.
Google has launched Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS, new text-to-speech models that enable users to create custom, expressive voices from natural language prompts for applications like audiobooks, podcasts, and voice agents. The models support voice generation across 100+ languages, voice replication from audio samples, and granular control over emotional tone, pacing, and dialect, with built-in safety features like watermarking.
OpenAI is extending access to its Daybreak program to the Government of Ukraine to support the cyber defense of civilian infrastructure.
With GPT‑6 Astra, invideo plans edits with greater precision, improves color correction and grading threefold, and produces 50 custom effects in one day.
China's robotics strategy, detailed through its Five-Year Plans, positions embodied AI and humanoid robotics as core drivers for industrial dominance and economic power. The country leverages state planning mechanisms like the 13th and 14th Five-Year Plans alongside initiatives such as Made in China 2025 to build a sovereign high-tech manufacturing sector, combining public demonstrations of robot capabilities with long-term investment in robotics infrastructure and talent acquisition.
Harvey, a legal tech platform, has integrated GPT-6 Astra to improve the generation of legal documents with better structure and contextual awareness. The AI enhancement aims to help lawyers focus on strategic work by automating routine document drafting tasks.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed the UN Security Council to discuss AI safety, human control mechanisms, and the need for international cooperation on advanced AI governance. The remarks highlight concerns about ensuring humans maintain meaningful control over AI systems and establishing global frameworks for responsible AI development.
MentalHealthBench is a new benchmark designed to evaluate AI systems' ability to provide helpful and safe responses in mental health conversations. The benchmark is informed by expert input and addresses a critical need for standardized evaluation of AI safety and helpfulness in sensitive mental health domains.
Learn how Airbnb is expanding access to GPT-6 Astra and OpenAI frontier models to help engineering teams solve bugs, design systems, and ship faster.
Microsoft disrupted EvilTokens, a subscription-based scam platform that used an AI chatbot to compromise 12,000 accounts across 10,000 organizations worldwide. The platform automated business email compromise attacks by using AI to analyze victim inboxes, identify high-value targets, and draft convincing fraud messages, while exploiting OAuth device code authentication to gain account access.
OpenAI and Grab launch GO Forward with AI, a regional programme helping 30,000 partners build practical AI skills across Southeast Asia.
Learn how GPT-6 improves prompt caching with higher cache hit rates, new diagnostics, explicit breakpoints, and controls that reduce latency and costs.
