WednesdAI // Week 35

New challenges and new dangers revealed in the world of AI.

Let’s get into it!
 
Welcome to WednesdAI – Pixel Dreams’ weekly update with top stories from the rapidly evolving world of Artificial Intelligence.

This Week’s News

It’s a Huge Week for Robots

This past weekend, Beijing hosted the World Robotics Conference, but news from the world of robotics is global. An almost overhwhelming quantity of news about new humanoid robots dropped this week.

China-based robotics startup AGIBOT revealed 5 new humanoid robots with open-source plans. Each robot was designed for a separate set of tasks, from household chores to industrial operations.
 

 
Unitree, another robot manufacturer from China, showcased its new G1 humanoid. The robot is reportedly nearing “mass production” and comes at a price tag of only $16,000
 

ETH Zurich and Disney developed an AI system that can generate physics-based movements for robots from text or image inputs.
 

ACE – A Cross-Platform Visual-Exoskeletons System. Users can control all their robots with precision, all at once, with minimal cost, quick assembly, and easy wearability! Open-sourced hardware, software, and step-by-step assembly guides. Get started today!
 

 
These developments were shared on X by Brett Adcock, founder of Figure Robotics, who discusses all of these developments and more on the Moonshots with Peter Diamandis podcast:

 
Read coverage of the World Robot Conference at South China Morning Post.

Build a Business with AI

 
Ashley Gross, CEO of AI Workforce Alliance, built a thriving online community with just $400 a month, using AI to handle nearly every aspect of the business. From product-market fit validation with tools like BrandWatch to automating financial tasks with Wave and Expensify, AI helps her streamline operations, saving an estimated $13,000 a month in labor costs. Her strategy? Automate what you can, so you can focus on the human touch—networking and relationship-building, which AI can’t yet replace.

Get all the details at here.
 
 

Degenerative AI on the Horizon

As AI-generated content floods the internet, it risks being reabsorbed into new AI models, creating a dangerous feedback loop. When AI systems are trained on their own output, their performance deteriorates, producing less accurate and diverse results—a phenomenon known as “model collapse.” This could lead to AI models becoming increasingly detached from reality, affecting everything from medical advice to historical accuracy. To counter this, companies need fresh, real data and better ways to detect AI-generated content. Otherwise, the quality and reliability of AI models could suffer significantly, raising costs and barriers to entry.

Read more at The New York Times.
 

 
Anthropic Being Sued by Authors

 
A group of prominent authors, including George R.R. Martin and John Grisham, are suing Anthropic, the creator of the AI chatbot Claude, for copyright infringement. They claim the company illegally used their books to train its AI without permission, potentially harming their intellectual property and earnings. This lawsuit adds to the growing legal battles between the creative industry and AI companies, challenging the boundaries of copyright law in the digital age. For businesses, the case highlights the increasing legal risks in AI development, especially when dealing with copyrighted content.

 
Learn more about it here.
 

Midjourney Web is Open to Everyone

 
MidJourney has launched a web-based interface, finally freeing users from Discord dependency to generate AI images. The update, called “The Web is Open to All,” lets new users sign up with Google or Discord and offers a 25-image free trial. This move aims to broaden the user base by simplifying access and keeping pace with emerging AI art competitors like Elon Musk’s xAI. Existing users can merge accounts to retain image history, while the platform’s new design caters to both casual and professional creators.

For more details, you can refer to the articles from PetaPixel, Dataconomy, and Cryptopolitan.

Videos of the Week

The images accompanying the news items in this article were generated in Midjourney using the following prompts:

Whimsical anime-inspired fantasy. A colorful parade of humanoid robots, including Unitree’s G1, through a fantastical cityscape. A lively, surreal city with floating islands, rainbow-colored skies, and futuristic architecture, celebrating the new wave of robotics. Front view, with the G1 robot leading the parade, surrounded by smaller AGIBOT robots performing playful tricks and tasks. Bright, pastel lighting that gives the entire scene a dreamy, ethereal quality. The robots are adorned with festive decorations, and the crowd, including children and animals, is joyfully interacting with them

Surrealist collage with a hint of cyberpunk. An AI-powered construction site where robotic hands are building a digital business. A floating island in the sky, with bits of code and neon-blue data streams forming skyscrapers and office buildings. A wide-angle shot of the entire floating island, with robotic cranes and AI avatars assembling the digital structures piece by piece. A mix of natural daylight and artificial neon glows, creating a juxtaposition between the real and digital worlds. In the background, a human entrepreneur with a VR headset and a briefcase full of holographic business plans directs the construction, symbolizing the merger of human creativity and AI efficiency

Whimsical dystopian fantasy. An AI data factory churning out synthetic data like candy, but the conveyor belts are overflowing, and the products are melting into goo. A vast, dark factory floor with endless conveyor belts, where robotic arms frantically try to sort the gooey data into shape, but it keeps slipping through their fingers. A wide shot of the chaotic factory, with the AI data “candy” spilling onto the floor, the robots overwhelmed and malfunctioning. Low, industrial lighting with sporadic bursts of flickering light, adding to the sense of impending breakdown. In the corner, a single human operator watches in dismay, holding a blueprint for “perfect data” that’s already smeared with the melting goo, symbolizing the challenge of maintaining quality in synthetic data

Neo-noir surrealism. A courtroom where towering stacks of books stand as witnesses, with the authors George R.R. Martin and John Grisham depicted as shadowy figures, each holding a quill pen that drips ink. A dark, moody courtroom where the books’ pages flutter like wings, casting ominous shadows across the walls. A wide-angle shot focusing on the contrast between the imposing book stacks and the small, flickering holographic AI Claude in the defendant’s chair. Dramatic, chiaroscuro lighting with sharp contrasts, highlighting the tension between the physical books and the digital AI. The courtroom’s walls are inscribed with binary code, merging into text from the authors’ works, symbolizing the blurring lines of copyright law in the digital age.

Pop-art meets sci-fi. A giant, colorful comic-style explosion in bold, dynamic, surrounded by a diverse group of people and robots, all jumping into the vibrant, swirling vortex of creativity. A futuristic, pop-art inspired world filled with oversized pixels and comic book elements, where creativity bursts from every corner. A central, circular composition with the explosion as the focal point, radiating outwards as people, robots, and even abstract ideas dive into the vortex. Bright, bold colors with sharp, graphic shadows, giving the scene a lively, energetic feel reminiscent of classic comic book art. Scattered around the scene are iconic creative tools-paintbrushes, cameras, keyboards-transformed into sci-fi gadgets, symbolizing the merging of traditional creativity with cutting-edge technology