Looking to get your kids interested in programming and coding, in a fun and engaging way? Check out the Vortex from DFRobot. Designed to teach children a variety of different STEM skills, The Vortex aims to combat the trend of over-reliance on virtual games and screen time, and instead allows children to combine physical and virtual play.
It’s more than just a programmable robot, too — The Vortex also comes with four pre-programmed games, including bumping fight, golf, driving, shaking/dancing, and soccer; all of which are designed for children aged six and up. The Vortex bot can also connect to the Vortexbot app on iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth. By downloading the accompanying programming app WhenDo, children have complete freedom to create, play, and program new games.
A pair of Vortex Robots are currently retailing for $169, but in honor of the launch, we’re giving away a pair for free! Good Luck. Contest over
Military working dogs charge into places the rest of us would flee. So, I understand why anyone would want to breed tougher, healthier dogs for the job.
Warhound, a new startup from Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, has stepped out of stealth with $200 million to clone and gene-edit working dogs for American troops, police departments, and emergency services (via TechCrunch).
AI can describe a picture, identify objects, and answer questions about what a camera sees. But when a blind user needs a quick answer, getting an entire spoken essay about the scene isn't exactly helpful. Researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have found that AI-powered visual assistance can leave blind users doing too much work to get the information they actually need.
The study, titled Say It My Way: Exploring Control in Conversational Visual Question Answering with Blind Users, examined how people interact with Be My AI, an AI-powered feature of the Be My Eyes app. The researchers found that users often received lengthy descriptions that didn't adequately address their immediate goals, forcing them to ask follow-up questions or find ways to steer the AI towards a more useful answer.
Platforms tend to shrug off AI clutter until it threatens what they sell. For Etsy, that thing is trust in the maker.
To protect that, Etsy has banned AI-generated how-to guides and listings made entirely by bots. Most sellers must show at least one unretouched photo of the item (via Etsy Seller Handbook).