Robotics - The Batch | DeepLearning.AI

Colored blocks on a grid under a robotic arm, labeled left and right, reflect robotics advancements.

Machine Learning Research

Video Models Steer Robots: Black Forest Labs’ Flux 3 Action applies video expertise to a World-Action Model

Many companies that build image and video generators have pivoted to robotics, extending their expertise in world models to action.

Accuracy chart of robot tasks: screw bulb 36%, unscrew bulb 92%, tie trash bag 44%, dustpan 32%, ziplock 40%.

Machine Learning Research

Google’s Robotics Model Has Legs: Gemini Robotics 2 gets Google closer to true multi-embodiment

Google’s latest vision-language-action model can walk a humanoid robot across a room, crouch to a low shelf, and close a five-fingered hand around a light bulb.

Robot arm successfully places pot on cloth, demonstrating reward verification and scoring effectiveness.

Machine Learning Research

Better Reward Models for Robots: Inside RoboReward, a family of vision-language reward models that train robots to take action

When you’re training a robot via reinforcement learning, a handcrafted reward function is labor-intensive to build but often dispenses rewards more effectively than a general-purpose reward model based on a vision-language model. Researchers built reward models that narrowed the gap.

Diagram showing sequential task learning steps with images of robotic tasks and flow arrows.

Machine Learning Research

Robots That Adapt to New Tasks: Sony and university researchers train robots on new tasks without catastrophic forgetting

Neural networks can forget how to perform earlier tasks as they learn new ones.

A humanoid robot with teal and white elements handles metal parts in bins on a factory floor.

Machine Learning Research

Humanoid Robots Work Factory Floors: Agility Digits humanoid robots fetch and carry bins at a Schaeffler auto-parts factory, displacing humans into higher-level jobs

A small number of humanoid robots have made their way into industrial settings, where they’re roughly matching the cost of human labor and propelling some workers into higher-level roles.

A dimly lit studio with an idle camera and an illuminated exit door signaling OpenAI's retreat from video.

Business

OpenAI Exits Video Generation: OpenAI will shut down Sora, its once state-of-the-art video model

OpenAI plans to shut down its video generator Sora in a sudden retreat from the video market.

GIF showing a robotic arm picking up glasses on a table and handling tools on a kitchen countertop.

Machine Learning Research

Coherent, Interactive Worlds: Runway’s GWM-1 models generate videos with consistent physics for robots and entertainment

Runway’s GWM-1 family of video-generation models respond to user input in real time while producing scenes that remain consistent regardless of the camera’s position.

In a lab, four robots move a metal frame using graph neural network coordination on a platform.

Machine Learning Research

Coordinating Robot Teams: Google DeepMind’s RoboBallet project blends GNNs with RL to drive 8-armed robots

In factories, where teams of robotic arms work in tight spaces, their motions are programmed by hand to keep them from interfering with one another. Researchers automated this programming using graph neural networks trained via reinforcement learning.

Image shows MolmoAct system processing "Put the plate in the dishwasher" through spatial reasoning.

Machine Learning Research

Better Spatial Perception for Robots: MolmoAct creates spatial maps for robots to plot their actions before executing text directions

Robot control systems that accept only text input struggle to translate words into motions in space. Researchers developed a system that enables robots to plan spatial paths before they execute text instructions.

Hangzhou skyline with modern skyscrapers, the golden sphere of Intercontinental Hotel, and the silver dome of Qianjiang complex.

Business

China’s Emerging AI Hub: Inside DeepSeek and the other "little dragons" transforming Hangzhou into China's Silicon Valley

Hangzhou, a longtime manufacturing hub in eastern China, is blossoming into a center of AI innovation.

Researcher adjusts sensors on a quadruped robot disguised as a Tibetan antelope in a high-altitude reserve.

Robotics

Robot Antelope Joins Herd: Chinese scientists disguise modified robot dog as antelope to study herd behavior

Researchers in China disguised a quadruped robot as a Tibetan antelope to help study the animals close-up.

A fully autonomous surgical robot clips and cuts a bile duct in an ex-vivo gallbladder removal experiment using the da Vinci system, guided by AI.

Machine Learning Research

Robot Surgeon Cuts and Clips: Doctors at Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and Optosurgical operate on animal organs without human intervention

An autonomous robot performed intricate surgical operations without human intervention.