The return of Westworld is perfect timing for the flattery-oriented age of AI

The post Robots can't fly Southwest anymore following battery fire concerns appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Southwest Airlines now blocks humanoid and animal-like robots from traveling in the cabin or as checked baggage. The carrier confirmed the ban in an update to its website. The move came after multiple incidents involving robots on Southwest flights drew attention online. Viral incidents forced Southwest Airlines to ban humanoid robots A Southwest flight out of Oakland sat on the tarmac while the crew figured out how to secure a humanoid machine someone brought aboard. The robot started as carry-on luggage. The flight only took off after the robot was moved to a window seat and its battery was pulled out. In another case, Aaron Mehdizadeh, a Dallas entrepreneur, bought a separate seat for his 3.5-foot humanoid robot “Stewie” on a Las Vegas to Dallas flight instead of shipping it as freight. “Most people were very excited to see a robot flying and provided so much entertainmen

The post JAL trials bipedal robots for baggage and cabin cleaning appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Japan Airlines (JAL) kicked off a three year trial of humanoid robots at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. The airline partnered with GMO AI & Robotics to deploy two Unitree Robotics units for baggage handling, container transport, and cabin cleaning. The machines cost about $15,400 each. JAL went with the humanoid form because airports were designed around people, not wheeled machines. Bipedal robots can navigate the existing layout without forcing costly infrastructure changes. Japan’s shrinking workforce drove the decision Japan’s working age population is projected to drop 31% between 2023 and 2060. Haneda processes around 85.9 million passengers a year. JAL employs ~4,000 ground handling workers, and the Japanese government wants to hit 60 million inbound tourists annually by 2030 (up from 42.7 million in 2025). Demand for airport labor keeps climbing. The number of people available to do

Insider Brief UK robotics startup Humanoid has announced a deployment and supply agreement with Schaeffler to bring humanoid robots into live manufacturing operations. According to Humanoid, the agreement calls for phased deployment of Humanoid’s wheeled humanoid robots across Schaeffler facilities, with the first systems expected to begin operating at plants in Germany before the end […]

Nanoleaf teased a trio of new products focused on embodied AI as it looks to move its brand beyond smart lighting. | Image: Nanoleaf Smart lighting company Nanoleaf has been unusually quiet recently. While competitors such as Govee and Philips Hue have been pumping out new products and innovative features at an impressive pace, Nanoleaf has launched just a handful of smart lighting products in the last two years. There's a reason for this lull - the company has been going through a "brand evolution" focused on wellness, robotics, and, of course, AI. "The smart home is getting kind of boring," says the ever-candid Gimmy Chu, CEO and cofounder of Nanoleaf, which he now doesn't want me to call a smart lighting company. "Our brand needs to evolve to incorporate some of the … Read the full story at The Verge.

Insider Brief PRESS RELEASE — China has launched its 15th Five-Year Plan by placing robotics at the heart of its modern industrial system. The aim is to pivot its AI research towards physical applications with robots as main drivers for economic growth. This is a next step in the country´s strong automation development: China´s manufacturing […]

Insider Brief AI research group Allen Institute for AI, or Ai2, announced it is releasing a new open-source robotics model and large training dataset aimed at improving how robots perform physical tasks in real-world environments. The updated system, called MolmoAct 2, is designed to help robots better understand spatial environments and respond to instructions while […]

Insider Brief Today’s AI safety guardrails may not be enough once robots begin operating around people in the physical world, according to a new study warning that AI-powered machines require far more context-aware safety systems than chatbots. Researchers from University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Oxford, report finding that safety techniques […]

Governance around Physical AI is becoming harder as autonomous AI systems move into robots, sensors, and industrial equipment. The issue is not only whether AI agents can complete tasks. It is how their actions are tested, monitored, and stopped when they interact with real-world systems. Industrial robotics already provides a large base for that discussion. […] The post Physical AI raises governance questions for autonomous systems appeared first on AI News.