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Built Robotics, maker of robotic Exosystem and working in construction autonomy, will acquire Roin Technologies, makers of an automated concrete power trowel. With this acquisition Built Robotics wants to expand automation beyond construction into new applications and markets.

In a large joint AI initiative, NVIDIA and Dell Technologies have launched a wave of Dell PowerEdge systems with NVIDIA acceleration. A total of 15 next-generation Dell PowerEdge systems can draw from NVIDIA’s full AI stack — including GPUs, DPUs and the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software suite — providing AI applications, including speech recognition, cybersecurity, recommendation systems and language-based services.

Soft Robotics, a Bedford, Mass., startup, is using NVIDIA Isaac Sim to help close the ‘sim to real gap’ for robotic gripping applications. One area is perfecting gripping for pick and placement of foods for packaging. Unlike other industries that have adopted robotics, the $8 trillion food market has been slow to develop robots to handle variable items in unstructured environments, says Soft Robotics.

The restructuring announced by Microsoft particularly affects the teams behind AltSpaceVR and the Mixed Reality Tool Kit. According to reports in American media, these have been completely fired. For the time being, the expected AI investment of ten billion dollar in ChatGPT seems to continue.

Researchers at CyberArk Labs had ChatGPT write malicious code, and have it automatically mutate in order to circumvent security tools. Last week it was announced that ChatGPT could be used to write code as part of malware, but CyberArk Labs goes a step further by having ChatGPT create the malware itself, which is also not noticed by security tools.

FANUC robotics integrator Aerobotix has received a special award at a Lockheed Martin supplier conference. Aerobotix was presented with a 2022 Supplier Recognition Award for Ease of Doing Business. The award describes Aerobotix as “a vital partner” of Lockheed Martin’s Space division. 

The physical skills of Atlas, one of the robots being developed by Boston Dynamics, have again increased significantly. To show what the robot is capable of, Boston Dynamics has posted a new video.

The World Economic Forum, in partnership with Accenture and Microsoft, unveiled at its Annual Meeting 2023 a working prototype of its Global Collaboration Village, a purpose-driven metaverse where organizations can convene to learn about, create solutions for, and take action on the world’s most pressing challenges.

The Indy Autonomous Challenge team PoliMOVE from Politecnico di Milano (Italy), and the University of Alabama (Alabama) won the second annual Autonomous Challenge at  CES reaching max speeds of 180 mph, a new autonomous speed world record for a racetrack.

Worldwide smartphone shipments fell 17% year on year in Q4 2022. Full-year 2022 shipments declined by 11% to fewer than 1.2 billion, reflecting an extremely challenging year for all vendors. Apple reclaimed the top spot in Q4 and achieved its highest quarterly market share ever at 25%, despite facing shrinking demand and manufacturing issues in Zhengzhou.