Our outdated pal Spot the robot dog is becoming a member of the Big Apple’s police force. New York City mayor Eric Adams announced that the New York Police Department shall be buying some new semi-autonomous robotic canines within the coming weeks. The transfer comes virtually precisely two years after the NYPD halted its first go at utilizing a camera-carrying robotic canine for surveillance, after an enormous public outcry; residents felt it was a dystopian overreach of police energy. Now Adams, a former NYPD captain, is transferring this system ahead once more.
The NYPD says it’ll purchase two of Boston Dynamic’s controversial Spot bots. While the robotic canines have autonomous capabilities, the NYPD says these models gained’t be patrolling the streets by themselves simply but. Instead, the robodogs shall be deployed in particular cases the place the hazard for people is excessive, very like the bomb-squad robots the division already makes use of. Each Spot will value about $75,000, with the cameras and sensors connected to their our bodies costing additional.
Spot will not be the one robotic rookie becoming a member of the NYPD. The division can be testing using a Knightscope K5 robotic. The human-sized, ovoid K5 is supplied with cameras, sensors, and audio system. It’s meant to patrol and surveil its environment, detering break-ins and vandalism. This will not be the K5’s first trip in public. The wheeled bots have been deployed in check circumstances to spy on the streets in locations like Silicon Valley in California, the place they’ve largely been met with mocking suspicion and drunken violence. People on the streets don’t take kindly to those Dalek-like narcs, and from time to time any person kicks the crap out of 1. After all, they do are typically very kickable. Letting extra of them roam the already jam-packed New York streets—or the town’s subway stations—will possible garner them loads of soiled seems to be and occasional beatings.
Here’s what else occurred this week.
Parks Recreation
The climate is lastly clearing up sufficient for us to get out in nature—and simply in time, Google has announced an update to Maps that may assist individuals navigate the sprawling nationwide park system.
The replace will higher present the structure and options of all nationwide parks within the US. It will provide extra detailed instructions on bike routes, on trails, and inside campgrounds, and it’ll spotlight entire path routes as an alternative of simply exhibiting a pin on the location of the trailhead, to provide customers a greater concept of what a hike entails. Hopefully the options will work higher than Google’s common search engine, and also you gained’t should append “+Reddit” to seek out something helpful within the outcomes.
Google’s Maps updates are coming in April for US nationwide parks, and the corporate says it’ll slowly add parks the world over within the subsequent few months.
iOSwiftKey
It wouldn’t be a information story on the web nowadays with no sprint of machine intelligence. Last week, Microsoft slipped its generative-AI-powered Bing Chat bot into SwiftKey, an app that permits you to sort phrases in your cellphone by utilizing swipes and gestures on the keyboard. The Bing-enabled replace was solely accessible for Android, however now the function has been added to the iOS version as nicely.
SwiftKey has had a strained relationship with iOS these days. Microsoft removed the app from Apple’s App retailer final yr, then shortly reinstated it.
