![]() Tesla tried but has thus far only shown Optimus in small doses - and likely for very good reason. ![]() Boston Dynamics’ extremely adept social marketing is probably the closest we’ve seen as far as eliciting a public reaction. Though even as investing interest has increased dramatically, the fact that most of the real-world applications are industrial has likely gone a ways toward adjusting some consumer expectations. Robotics is certainly not immune from these hype cycles. Image Credits: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images And, again, as a sentient cluster of 30 trillion cells, I won’t always get it right. Nor is unnecessarily piling on technology for the sake of getting clicks (as much as the people whose job it is to watch traffic might disagree). There are plenty of great industry cheerleaders out there, but breathless reporting isn’t my function in all of this. So, too, is spelling out both positive and negative consequences. As someone who attempts to approach this stuff with an objective lens, calibrating expectations is a part of the job. I’ve written in the past about the ways in which fictional portrayals have set unrealistic expectations about technology - both positive and negative. I do, however, believe that we’re complex beings with evolved brains who are capable of being both excited and realistic about technology all at once.Ĭovering robotics has presented a similar issue. Certainly we can’t rely on the companies to be outwardly pragmatic about their own products. And as a human reporter, a big part of my - and our - job is to set realistic expectations. We’re not talking FTX levels of distrust here - and I’ll be the first to admit that I, a human reporter, am far from perfect - but these are the sorts of things that raise issues. Meanwhile, Google’s Bard platform shared some of its own mistakes in an ad demo. ![]() Bottom line, in an era of rampant mis- and disinformation, it’s probably not the best idea to “experiment” in a public forum on a well-regarded news platform. Important questions around the nature of art and plagiarism have emerged, and sites like CNET were understandably put through the wringer for its implementation of “robot journalists.” I have no doubt that it will be possible to automate large swaths of my job in my lifetime.īut the site’s self-declared “experiment” got the company in hot water over mistakes introduced in the process. The results are impressive in many cases - and more so when those tools are suddenly accessible to the public.Īn upside of this is that some of these ideas are entering mainstream consciousness, and people are rightfully engaging in philosophical and ethical debates. People were already understandably excited by the arrival of DALL-E, ChatGPT and their ilk. To paraphrase the great Chuck D, don’t believe it - or, at the very least, temper your expectations.Īny doubt that AI was going to be next to fill in that crypto-shaped hole in tech news coverage was laid to rest by this week’s back-to-back Microsoft and Google events in Seattle and Paris, respectively. That, at least in part, is impacting metaverse fortunes. Bad early experiences go a long way toward putting people off long term. All of these demos were impressive, but I think we’ve all (rightly) become cautious in what, precisely, that means for the category. I tried out the latest headsets from Meta, HTC, Magic Leap and Sony last month at CES. The technology has largely advanced in those intervening years, but broad questions of cost, market and content persist. This one seemingly crops up every year like clockwork. Nor does this prelude another potential hype cycle from arising. That technology certainly still exists, but the industry has contracted, interests have shifted toward industrial applications and certain pragmatism has settled in. I’m a veteran of the great consumer 3D printing wars, as an editor for Engadget several years ago. Crypto, in most of its countless iterations is, for better or worse, still around. None of this is to say, of course, that the end of a specific hype cycle always represents the end of the associated technology. Sprinkle in legitimately bad actors and platforms that allow such actions to thrive, and you’ve got a recipe for catastrophic implosion. You so badly wish for the success of a concept that you lose the thread. FTX obviously served as the most prominent recent example of what happens when the tech community believes its own hype. The age-old question in my industry is, “Where are we in a given hype cycle?” For now, crypto news cycle dominance has, thankfully, died now, largely through its own self-destructive tendencies.
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