The Shoelace Revolution: Why Google's "Simple" Robot Breakthrough Could Change Everything
In what might be one of the most underappreciated technological breakthroughs of our time, Alphabet's Google DeepMind has accomplished something deceptively difficult -- teaching a robot to tie shoelaces.During her highly anticipated annual trends presentation at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, Amy Webb -- founder and CEO of Future Today Strategy Group -- highlighted this achievement as a pivotal moment in robotics history. While it might seem mundane compared to flashier AI developments, Webb insists this breakthrough is "hard to overestimate" in its importance and serves as "a huge harbinger of what's to come."The challenge of shoelace-tying illustrates perfectly why robotics has struggled with tasks humans find simple. As Webb explains in the video interview with Motley Fool analyst Rex Moore below, the process requires sensing and managing tension in specific ways, finessing materials with different properties, and executing movements that typically require lived experience.Continue reading
In what might be one of the most underappreciated technological breakthroughs of our time, Alphabet's Google DeepMind has accomplished something deceptively difficult -- teaching a robot to tie shoelaces.
During her highly anticipated annual trends presentation at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, Amy Webb -- founder and CEO of Future Today Strategy Group -- highlighted this achievement as a pivotal moment in robotics history. While it might seem mundane compared to flashier AI developments, Webb insists this breakthrough is "hard to overestimate" in its importance and serves as "a huge harbinger of what's to come."
The challenge of shoelace-tying illustrates perfectly why robotics has struggled with tasks humans find simple. As Webb explains in the video interview with Motley Fool analyst Rex Moore below, the process requires sensing and managing tension in specific ways, finessing materials with different properties, and executing movements that typically require lived experience.
