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Google wanted to sell AI-powered robotic arms, but they failed Larry Page’s ‘toothbrush test’

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Google has been using AI and neural networks to help robotic arms to learn for quite some time now. Back in March the company published a report detailing how its software-enabled robotic arms were being taught to learn how to pick up objects by themselves, and the Mountain View company further detailed this research just last week in a blog post showing off a few more different approaches for general-purpose skill learning — like opening doors.

It’s impressive tech, but as with many of Google’s other impressive tech experiments, it seems like this one is never going to actually become a source of revenue for the company — at least not directly. The Google robotics group wanted to sell the arms to manufacturers, but that plan ultimately got turned down by Alphabet executives because they failed the “toothbrush test” (via Bloomberg)…


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Former Google X company Verily’s health tracking watch is now a real, working prototype

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While Google is rumored to be prepping up to two new in-house made Android Wear smartwatches — which may or may not be featured in next week’s event — a spinoff of Alphabet‘s former Google X named Verily is still actively working on its health-tracking watch (via MIT Technology Review), which is slowly advancing towards being a finished product…


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Google is about to start dropping Chipotle burritos from drones to college students

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Project Wing, a unit of Alphabet, the holding company formerly known as Google, announced today that it will begin delivering Chipotle via Drones to Virginia Tech college students in Blacksburg. You aren’t dreaming. This is real.

My first reaction was checking the calendar (not April 1st) and then lamenting that I grew up in the wrong era. But immediately after that I began wondering if even Google is going to be able to scale this to meet demand…


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Google’s X division hires top SFMTA executive to help shape the future of automation

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X, Google’s special division previously known as “Google X“, is on to big things. It’s not called a “moonshot factory” without reason; from crazy stuff like Project Wing to giant internet-delivering hot-air balloons and self-driving cars, you can tell that there’s some not-so-hidden ambition there.

And speaking of autonomous vehicles, it looks like the Mountain View firm is working hard to make sure that talent is always being looked after…


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Google formulates real-life version of Asimov’s three laws of robotics for safe & reliable AI

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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 …


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Report: Google may finally get government’s blessing to test Project Loon in India

In this June 10, 2013 photo released by Jon Shenk, a Google balloon sails through the air with the Southern Alps mountains in the background, in Tekapo, New Zealand. Google is testing the balloons which sail in the stratosphere and beam the Internet to Earth. (AP Photo/Jon Shenk) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

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.


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Google’s plan to cure short-sightedness: replace your eye’s lens with a computerized one

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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 …


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Alphabet-owned SCHAFT shows off a stair climbing bipedal robot [Video]

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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.


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Alphabet selling Boston Dynamics due to lack of ‘marketable product’ in the next few years

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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.


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Project Loon team shows off its impressive Puerto Rico-based autolauncher in action

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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…


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Project Loon has successfully delivered video-capable speeds as it moves into carrier testing

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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 …


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U.S. government says that Google’s self-driving car system will be treated like a normal driver

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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.


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Transport chiefs want Google self-driving car trials in London, UK

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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…


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‘Project Watch’ & ‘Gcam’ projects detailed on new Alphabet X site, Project Aura now official

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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…
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Report: Google’s ‘X’ lab renewing focus with project evaluation team & a buttery smooth logo

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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.”
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Here’s a first look at the logo for Google’s forthcoming Project Aura

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

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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…


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Former Google X moonshot Flux Factory raises $29 million in funding

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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.


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Report: Google X absorbing robotics division and Titan drone project as Alphabet re-org continues

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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.


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Nat & Lo give us a brief look into the history (and future) of Google[x]’s Project Loon [Video]

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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…
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Google’s latest FCC filing hints at more extensive Project Loon testing in the U.S.

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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).


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Get a closer look at Alphabet Life Sciences’ ‘capicola’ health tracker in FCC photos [Gallery]

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The then-under-Google X Life Sciences team made its “capicola” health tracker official in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, but until now we’ve only seen one stock image of the device. Andy Conrad, head of the life sciences team, was quoted at the time as saying that this device is to be used primarily for medical purposes, such as prescribed to patients or used in clinical trials. Now, we have another look at the device — which has the FCC ID A4R-CAP1 — in a little more detail…
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Alphabet partners w/ three carriers to bring Project Loon service to Indonesia

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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.


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Google has registered two delivery drones with the FAA for testing over US soil [Updated]

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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…
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