DeepMind’s robot can help you practice at table tennis

Welcome to this edition of Loop!

To kick off your week, we’ve rounded-up the most important technology and AI updates that you should know about.

‏‏‎ ‎ HIGHLIGHTS ‏‏‎ ‎

• The AI chip startup that’s challenging Nvidia

• Anduril’s new Arsenal facility that will mass-produce defence technology

• DeepMind’s new robot that can play table tennis

• … and much more

Let's jump in!

1. This startup is creating an air taxi network ahead of LA’s World Cup

Archer has announced plans to launch an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi network in Los Angeles.

The city is notorious for its traffic congestion and Archer is planning to reduce it ahead of such a huge sporting event.

Existing infrastructure, such as airports and rooftop helipads, will be used to create an eVTOL network that spans across the entire city.

The company is working towards commercial launches in six cities by 2025, which seems pretty ambitious.

They’re currently working with Stellantis to build a production facility in Georgia, which will be able to manufacture 650 aircraft every year.

With 233 flights completed to date and a target of exceeding 400 flights by the end of the year, Archer's plans don’t seem to be that far-fetched.

But they do need to secure certifications from the FAA, before this can be made a reality and brought to market.

2. Anduril raises $1.5 billion to challenge the status quo

The defence startup has secured a massive $1.5 billion funding round, which now values it at $14 billion.

The company is beginning to challenge the dominance of the five major American defence contractors - who are Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and General Dynamics.

Anduril has secured some wins recently, after they beat their competitors and secured a contract to develop small, unmanned fighter jets.

The startup will use this new funding to scale its "Arsenal" facility, which will use more advanced software tools to produce weapons at a faster rate.

The company's success has spurred interest in the defence tech sector, which was previously seen as a nightmare for new challengers - largely because it takes so long to get government contracts.

Andruil is a really interesting startup, which I’ve covered in-depth if you want to read more.

3. Tech platforms are facing much stronger regulations in the UK

For over a week, there were violent protests across England and Northern Ireland - with some of them fuelled by misinformation that was quickly spread online.

Given the scale of the rioting and disorder, it’s likely that the UK Government will draft new laws to be much tougher on online platforms - such as X and Facebook.

The UK Prime Minister has already confirmed that they will review the Online Safety Act (OSA), which was passed last year.

Under that law, platforms have to remove illegal content and protect UK users from harmful content.

If they don’t comply, there are penalties of up to 10% of global annual turnover.

But the UK isn’t alone in this. The EU is also leading an investigation into X and how they handle disinformation, which is something that Peter Kyle - the Minister responsible for technology - will be watching closely.

4. Uber stresses its autonomous vehicle program to reassure investors

Uber has reported strong second-quarter results and also chose to highlight the success of its autonomous vehicle program.

Their autonomous vehicles have now completed 6x more trips than the year before.

Back in 2023, Uber announced that they were partnering with Google’s Waymo to offer robotaxi rides in Phoenix.

And in July they partnered with a startup to provide autonomous trucks, which could be rented at a lower cost by shipping companies.

The figures for autonomous trips were included in the financial results to reassure Uber’s investors, who are becoming increasingly concerned about competition in the robotaxi sector.

Those investors are worried that Tesla could be in a position to disrupt Uber, which currently holds a dominant position in the transport market.

5. Groq secures $640 million to challenge Nvidia

This is a startup that’s developing AI accelerator chips and has been gaining a lot of attention recently.

The company is now valued at almost $3 billion and has secured Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, Yann LeCun, to serve as their technical advisor.

It’s a big deal for the company, who are hoping to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the sector.

Groq's own chips are being developed to run generative AI models, like ChatGPT, much faster.

These are known as LPUs and could be 10 times faster, while only using one-tenth of the energy of what we have today.

They’re working with Samsung to manufacture these next-gen LPUs, with a goal of deploying over 108,000 units by early 2025.

Figure’s new robot uses OpenAI models to understand humans

Figure has unveiled its latest humanoid robot, which is called the Figure 02. Naming is hard, I guess.

Their new robot is fitted with speakers and microphones, so that it can communicate with its human colleagues.

It also uses OpenAI models used to understand what was said and respond in a more natural way.

The robot's design includes six cameras, an onboard visual language model, an improved CPU/GPU computing, and hands that have 16 degrees of freedom.

Figure has recently begun pilot programs within BMW’s factories. The 02 robot has been using one of those factories to collect data and improve its performance.

The company has suggested that the robot could become more general and do tasks around the house, but I think that is a long way off.

This is a rapidly growing sector and something that we need to be aware of. The hardware is impressive, but the robots are very slow.

Although, when you take a step back and look at the advances in AI and how we process the world around us - a huge amount of progress is being made here.

The main limitation seems to be physical and how fast the robots move, rather than how well they communicate with us.

That’s amazing, and a little frightening, to think about.

DeepMind develops a robot that can play table tennis

Google’s DeepMind has developed a robot that can play table tennis at an amateur human level.

The robot was able to beat all beginner-level players and won 55% of matches against intermediate players.

However, it lost every game when it was tested against more advanced players.

While this represents a big milestone in robot learning and control, the researchers acknowledge that there’s still a lot more work to do.

The robot's biggest shortcoming is its ability to react to fast balls. This is due to system latency, mandatory resets between shots, and a lack of useful data.

They also want to improve how it handles high and low balls, backhand shots, and reading the spin on incoming balls.

⌚ Smartwatches shipments have declined sharply in India

🚗 China's autonomous vehicle startup WeRide is preparing for a US IPO

💸 Rivian lost $1.46 billion in Q2

🍎 Warren Buffett’s company sells half its Apple stock

🤖 OpenAI co-founder Schulman leaves for rival Anthropic

⚖️ Google loses a massive antitrust case over search, but will appeal the ruling

📉 Humane's daily returns are now outpacing its sales

🔍 OpenAI won't watermark ChatGPT text because its users could get caught

🥽 Microsoft might be resurrecting its Mixed Reality business

🤝 Palantir partners with Microsoft to sell AI to the US Government

Blue Skies Space

This startup is based in London and wants to be the first company to sell astronomy data ‘as a service’.

While lots of companies are collecting data about space, they’re doing so from Earth with ground-based telescopes.

Blue Skies is differentiating from those companies by gathering data about space, from space.

It’s an interesting idea and it seems like they are targeting it at both researchers and private companies, who can subscribe to their service and access the latest astronomy data.

It follows the trend we’ve seen with satellite data, which could only be accessed by governments and defence companies.

In the last few years, the costs of collecting that data has decreased significantly - allowing private companies to access it as well.

It’s possible that we could see the same with data about space.

Blue Skies have announced plans to launch their first satellite, which will be part of SpaceX's rideshare programme in October next year. If you want to read more, I’ve included a link below.

This Week’s Art

Quite a lot has been covered this week, with some impressive robotics work from Figure and DeepMind. We’ve also looked at:

• Archer’s plans to deploy air taxis across LA

• Anduril’s new funding for an Arsenal facility that will mass-produce defence technology

• Tech platforms are facing stronger regulations in the UK

• Uber’s investors worry that it could be disrupted by Tesla

• Groq raises $640 million to challenge Nvidia

• How Figure’s new humanoid robot works

• DeepMind’s impressive robot that can play table tennis

• And how Blue Skies is trying to sell astronomy data as-a-service to researchers and private companies

Have a good week!

Liam

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About the Author

Liam McCormick is a Senior AI Engineer and works within Kainos' Innovation team. He identifies business value in emerging technologies, implements them, and then shares these insights with others.