Google X

Any SF fan will be familiar with Asimov’s famous Three Laws of Robotics, designed to ensure that robots were safe to be around. Scientists at Google, OpenAI, Stanford and Berkeley have just published a paper proposing the real-life equivalent for AI systems.

In a blog post summarising the proposal, Google Research’s Chris Olah says that while the team believes that AI will greatly benefit humanity, the risks do also need to be considered …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google is finally about to get the go ahead from the Indian government to run a pilot of Project Loon in India according to a report from the Economic Times. According to the sites source, an anonymous “top government official”, the nation is keen to test as many alternative methods of providing internet connectivity as possible. One of which is Google’s high-altitude balloons.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google has in the past explored more than one type of electronic contact lens, but a patent published yesterday takes eye-based electronics to a whole new level. The company believes it can cure short-sightedness by removing the inferior biological lenses from your eyes and replacing them with motorized ones controlled by tiny computers.

The planned device […] contains a number of tiny components: storage, sensors, radio, battery and an electronic lens. The eyeball device gets power wirelessly from an “energy harvesting antenna.” The patent describes what looks like an external device to interface with the eyeball computer. The two will communicate through a radio and the ”interface device” contains the processor to do the necessary computing.

The description is not for the squeamish, especially when it comes to the insertion process …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Update: Google has said that the robot is designed to be a ‘low-cost, low-power, compact device.’

While Alphabet is rumored to sell Boston Dynamics due to a lack of “marketable products”, it still owns quite a few robot companies. This morning one of them called SCHAFT showcased a bipedal robot that is capable of climbing stairs, balancing, and walking on difficult terrain.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Before former Android head Andy Rubin left Google, he headed up Google’s robotics efforts. In 2013, Google acquired numerous companies and added 300 robotics engineers. The crown jewel was Boston Dynamics, already known for their animal- and human-like robots. However, Bloomberg is now reporting that Alphabet is selling Boston Dynamics.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Project Loon is undoubtedly one of Google’s most inventive and ambitious projects to date. Formerly part of the Google X group, now under the ‘X’ Alphabet sub-division, these airborne signal boosters will provide high speed LTE coverage to rural areas in a number of developing markets. Sri Lanka and Indonesia are set to be among the first regions to get these stratospheric floating towers. In a G+ post, the team showed off how they get the balloons off the ground…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google’s parent company Alphabet told a TED conference in Vancouver that its Project Loon Internet-delivery balloons had successfully delivered speeds of 15Mbps – fast enough for streaming video. It is preparing for carrier tests in Indonesia and elsewhere this year.

Alphabet X head Astro Teller said that the company tried a lot of unsuccessful balloon designs before finally finding one that was up to the job, reports Re/code.

There were shiny balloons and round balloons and balloons that looked like giant pillows. But eventually the company found a design that could be made cheaply and still navigate precisely. That balloon, Teller said, last year travelled around the world 19 times over 187 days last year.

Teller also shared a key part of the company’s approach to Alphabet X projects, along with details of two which the company has abandoned …

Expand
Expanding
Close

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, has announced today that it will recognize Google’s self-driving car system as a legal driver. The announcement comes after Chris Urmson, the head of Google’s self-driving car project, petitioned that the government treat the initiative the same as it does normal driver cars.

Expand
Expanding
Close

While Google has expanded its US-based autonomous vehicle trials to include both Texas and Kirkland, WA since its launch in Mountain View, it seems the company is being courted by another city across the pond. London transport officials are said to be in “active discussions” with Google to convince the tech giant to test its driverless cars in England’s capital…

Expand
Expanding
Close

We told you a couple of weeks ago about how Google[x] recently got a new coat of paint (now under the Alphabet umbrella and simply known as “X”), and now that coat of paint has hit the web. The site has a brand new design, a new logo, and within you’ll find a rundown the group’s newly refocused mission. Additionally, the new Graduated Projects page seems to mention some projects we’re familiar with and some that we haven’t heard of previously…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google’s secretive Google X division is getting a new focus at the company that includes rebranding and a new logo, Recode reports.

Among the changes for Google X, according to the report, is a rebranding to simply “X” and the new butter-like yellow logo pictured above. But perhaps more importantly, behind the scenes there will also be a renewed focus including a team put in place specifically to “steer moonshots through the life-or-death throes.”
Expand
Expanding
Close

Update: The first business card for a Project Aura team member has popped up on Instagram.

We know that Project Aura is the successor to Glass — or at least a project that’s being built by some of the same people that built Glass — but now we have our first look at the logo that Google designed for this new venture. A person familiar with the project tells us that the logo is meant to resemble a new wearable device that wraps around the head…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Flux Factory Inc. was founded back in 2010 in the Google X Labs. Shortly thereafter, the moonshot candidate was spun out into a private company. For those unfamiliar with it, Flux Factory provides collaborative design software for the architecture design and construction industry. Now, 5 years after being founded as a moonshot in Google X, Flux has raised $29 million in Series B funding.

Expand
Expanding
Close

The Alphabet re-org is still ongoing and we likely won’t get official confirmation of what the spin-off companies are until the next financial earnings report in the new year. According to a report by Re/Code, Google’s robotic division and one of their internet projects is being moved to Google X.

Expand
Expanding
Close

If you don’t follow Google as closely as we do here at 9to5Google (chances are you probably don’t), Nat & Lo’s videos are a great way to get yourself acquainted with the happenings in and around the Mountain View company. This couple of Googlers use their 20% time to make videos about the inner workings of Google itself, and the end product is an easy-to-understand look at some of Google’s most obscure (and not-so-obscure) projects.

This week, Nat & Lo are taking us on a tour of Project Loon, one of Google’s efforts to bring internet to the entire world…
Expand
Expanding
Close

According to a recent filing with the FCC, Google is looking to test something with experimental radios that use a wireless spectrum in all 50 states and in Puerto Rico. The details on these tests are incredibly sparse at this point, but Google wants to start the process on January 1st and test for 24 months (via BI).

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google X’s incredibly ambitious Project Loon is expanding into another country soon. Parent company Alphabet today announced that it is teaming up with the three largest wireless carriers in Indonesia to test its Project Loon in Indonesia beginning next year. Google is targeting Indonesia because it is the fourth most populous country in the world, but two-thirds of its citizens lack access to Internet.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Update: A report out of Re/code says that these drones aren’t actually Project Wing drones. They’re rather being registered for the company’s other drone project, Project Titan, which intends to provide internet access to remote or disaster-stricken locations. Google’s Project Titan is not to be confused with Apple’s Project Titan.

A couple of months ago, a report surfaced suggesting that Google was sidestepping FAA regulations by getting special approval from NASA to test its Project Wing delivery drones in the US. Now, it looks like the company (via Engadget) is actually getting approval for at least a couple of drones, as evidenced by a couple of entries in the FAA’s official registry…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google’s X lab is famous for its ambitious undertakings building self-driving cars and balloons that beam Internet to the furthest reaches of the planet. Now all of its life sciences projects are moving on to greener pastures.

Expand
Expanding
Close