Boston Dynamic’s got a talking dog and… it’s British?
If you’ve been on the internet before, you’ve probably heard about Spot – the walking, jumping and now talking robot dog built by Boston Dynamics. That last was made to happen with the help of ChatGPT, the artificially intelligent LLM, which was installed into Spot’s ‘brain’ back in April. We’re not wholly convinced that we’re not seeing the beginning of the end here, but you’ve got to admit – it’s cool.
Boston Dynamics shared a video of Spot in its new get-up; a top hat, moustache and a pair of googly eyes as it leads interested onlookers through the robotic company’s facility, babbling on in a distinguished British tone.
Spot won’t just be walking through the space on a pre-planned path. Boston’s use of the ChatGPT LLM alongside a couple of open-source models allows Spot to actually chat with its guests, answering questions in an almost humanlike way. It’s made eerier by the dog’s puppet-like mouth implying real speech even if it’s all just coming from a speaker somewhere amongst the robotics.
Boston’s kept this Spot on a short leash, providing it only with a “very brief script” for each of the facility’s rooms. It’s capable of switching personalities faster than James McAvoy, moving from a British butler to a stuck-up teenager to a time traveller from the days of Shakespeare. It’s unnerving and this is only Boston’s first attempt. We’re morbidly curious to see what’ll be coming out the company’s doors in a few years.
Hooray! More AI
Because everything in 2023 needs an AI tagline on the box, Google’s slowly making its way through its catalogue of products and injecting the world’s favourite letters where needed. This time, it’s Maps’ turn to get the AI treatment with a plethora of new features heading to the app, says the search giant.
Probably the feature that’ll get the most fanfare is Immersive View for Routes, which will let AI dig its claws into Google’s Maps data and provide users with a more detailed preview of the trip before heading out. And we’re not quite sure why.
Google’s Chris Phillips best describes the feature: “Say you want to bike along the water to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Just request cycling directions, then tap the Immersive View preview to see your route in a stunning, multidimensional view from start to finish.” It’s a feature for sure, and one that some might even find a use for. We’ve just seen a robot dog pretend to be a Shakespearean time traveller, and this is all we’re getting from Google?
Fortunately, that wasn’t all that was in store. Google’s gone and added Lens in Maps, which brings a more advanced Search with a live View feature. The whole idea is to help people orient themselves more easily in unknown places. Just raise your phone with Lens, scan the world around you and Google will give you helpful tips about the restaurants, ATMs, stores and train stations it sees.
Google’s made plenty more minor improvements to Maps, all of which can be found here.
The Beatles is dropping their last song ever
The world is about to hear the last song to ever come out of The Beatles. Yup, in 2023. “But, but, how is that possible?” If that’s a question that came to your head, you’ve obviously not been paying attention. The Beatles are using artificial intelligence to put out “Now and Then” – a song that never left the cutting room floor from back in the ‘70s.
We have Disney’s The Beatles: Get Back – the docuseries that used WingNut Film’s machine-assisted learning tech to revive some of the band’s long-gone voices – to thank for getting us new music at all. WingNut Film’s tech is being used again to restore John Lennon’s voice from an old cassette tape that housed the unheard “Now and Then” according to a press release.
The group announced the track would be released as a fully produced song and will be released alongside Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song as a 12-minute-long documentary surrounding the track’s history as a demo song to a fully-fledged release 50 years later.
You’ll be able to stream the song from 2 November 2023 or buy it as a double A-side vinyl single that’s coupled with the band’s very first song on the flip side. As for the documentary, that’s hitting The Beatles YouTube channel on 1 November to drum up some hype, with the song’s music video going live on 3 November.
Apex Legends finally gets cross-platform progression
You might still be enamoured with Valve’s recent release of CS:GO 2 but there’s still plenty of other fish in the sea if you don’t have a PC handy. One of those is Apex Legends, the game that took the world by storm for about a week before falling out of the zeitgeist almost entirely. We’re being overly hyperbolic, but that’s the general path Respawn Entertainment’s battle royale has suffered. That might be changing.
But… probably not. Respawn Entertainment announced that, along with the new season going live on 31 October, the game is finally getting cross-platform progression. It’s a massive change for the game’s loyal fanbase but won’t do much to draw in new or returning customers. And that’s okay.
Players logging into the game after the new season drops will be greeted by EA with a message explaining the situation and how it all works. The profile rocking the highest level will be deemed as a player’s primary account. That’ll be the one that sees its level, cosmetics, achievements and badges transferred to a new console should you ever want to make the switch. You’ll need an EA ID to get the ball rolling, though.
