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A humanoid robot took the fastest half-marathon record away from human athletes.
Read full articleInsider Brief Robotera has raised more than $200 million in a new funding round led by SF Group as the Chinese humanoid robotics company expands deployments in logistics and industrial automation. According to Robotera, the financing follows a separate USD $143 million strategic round completed in March and included participation from investors such as HSG, […]
The first “Familiar” from Colin Angle’s new startup, Familiar Machines & Magic, is a robot that is designed to live in your home and interact autonomously with family members. | Image: Familiar Machines and Magic Colin Angle, the maker of the Roomba and the man who helped put 50 million household robots into people's homes, is back with a new robot. But this one is designed as a companion, not a cleaner. The first robot from Angle's new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, is a dog-sized robotic pet that resembles a cross between a bear, a barn owl, and a golden retriever. It has an expressive face, with movable eyebrows, ears, and eyes, and the company calls it a "Familiar," a name meant to evoke folklore around the idea of a supernatural companion. Based on a demo video I saw ahead of its appearance at the WSJ Future of Everything conference this w … Read the full story at The Verge.
Insider Brief Humanoid robotics company Figure AI announced it has increased production of its Figure 03 humanoid robot from one unit per day to one per hour in less than four months. The company said it has now produced more than 350 third-generation humanoid robots through BotQ, its high-volume manufacturing facility, which it describes as […]
Venture funding of AI companies in 2026 will easily smash funding records set in 2025, with some heavy deals already consummated in the first quarter, according to market researchers. Data from Crunchbase shows that $300 billion poured into 6,000 startups worldwide during the first quarter of 2026. That’s a quarterly record for venture funding in AI companies, a Crunchbase news report said. A study from S&P Global measured generative AI funding reaching over $140 billion in the first quarter of 2026, outpacing all of 2025, according to a story published on the company’s website. Amid economic concerns, inflation, and the war in Iran, there were fewer deals overall, but the funding rounds were large in scope compared to any made in 2025. X.AI, for example, kicked off 2026 with a series-E round of $20 billion. OpenAI received $122 billion in a massive funding round in March, with a valuation of $852 billion. Anthropic received $30 billion in one round of funding that valued the company a
The latest real-world robot application joins a host of other workplace trial runs of the autonomous machines.
An autonomous table tennis robot developed by Sony AI has competed against and defeated high-level human players in regulated matches, according to Reuters. The system is part of a broader category often referred to as “physical AI,” where artificial intelligence is applied to machines operating in real-world environments. The robot, named Ace, was designed to […] The post Sony AI robot beats players as humanoid robot wins Beijing race appeared first on AI News.
The firm is the latest global organization to try out humanoids in an industrial setting.
In feat hailed as milestone in robotics, Sony AI’s Ace wins three out of five matches played under official rules An AI-powered robot has beaten elite players at table tennis in a landmark achievement for a machine faced with a human athlete in a real-world competitive sport. Named Ace, the robotic system developed by Sony AI, won three out of five matches against elite players, but lost the two it played against professionals, clawing back only one game in the seven contests. Continue reading...
