Technology is always advancing and reinventing itself. What we consider a major breakthrough today will become as old and clunky as an IPod Nano. Regardless of this, there are some advancements that will be impactful and stay interesting no matter what. These are advancements that pave the way for others and will remain a staple for years to come. In the past couple of months, some remarkable strides have been made in technology by major innovators and some unlikely competitors.
The Tesla Bot
In August, Tesla announced their new AI technology, the Tesla Bot. The AI is modeled after the technology Tesla uses for its autonomous vehicles and the head of the AI bot will have an autopilot camera used by the cars. The Tesla Bot is described by Tesla to be “capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring.”
Although the bot is supposed to be able to do unsafe jobs, Elon Musk called the bot easy to overpower. This is important since a common concern regarding AI technology is that one of the many dystopian sci-fi movies might become a reality. That is to say that robots might become unstoppable.
Musk said, “Essentially, in the future, physical work will be a choice. If you want to do it, you can, but you won’t need to do it.”
Although this is great news for many people, it fails to account for the many thousands of people who still work in the manual labor market. A large part of the discussion around AI is how it replaces jobs done by humans. Although Musk did not specifically address this issue, it still remains a factor to be decided.
The Tesla Bot prototype will be ready in 2022 according to Musk.
Delta Airlines Facial Recognition
Delta Airlines has recently announced the development of its facial recognition software. The advancement will allow customers to “travel from curb to gate, completely hands – and device – free” according to Delta’s News Hub.
Byron Merrit, Delta’s Vice President of Brand Experience Design said “Delta has been a leader in testing and implementing facial recognition technology since 2018 as part of our vision for building airports that are effortless.”
Delta plans to build Delta-customer-specific check-in areas and security check-in areas where only facial recognition is required. It is being branded as a completely hands-free and paperless check-in process.
Delta’s new stride is one of the first areas of society where facial recognition technology is not being used for security or law enforcement but rather for the average citizens convivence.
“Delta teams are working to expand the airline’s facial recognition-enabled offerings both in scale and scope so more customers can experience a hands-free journey in the future,” said Delta’s News Hub.
