Incredible progress is being made in the field of humanoid robotics and it seems China’s military has now taken an interest. On the open battlefield, armed robots that move on tracks (a bit like a tank) are more stable and manoeuvrable. But in urban settings humanoid robots would have the advantage because they could replace humans in certain dangerous situations, like liberating hostages or neutralising booby traps. They could even navigate a staircase. Robotics researcher Kartikeya Walia examines the issue and says there needs to be an urgent international conversation about how to control them.
Increasingly, the data used by governments, hospitals, banks and technology companies to make decisions about the people they serve is not gathered directly from real people and events. It can be synthetic, which means it is generated by computer models. However, Maria Lucia Passador, an assistant professor of law at Bocconi University, believes that while synthetic data might give the illusion of objectivity, it can still carry the signature of human bias.
And September is the time of year when many young people go to university or college, often leaving parents and carers facing an “empty nest”. But this doesn’t just mean a quiet home, for the older generation there may be difficult questions about the next phase of their life.
