7 OCTOBER | LONDON 2024
SEPTEMBER 12TH - 14TH
The O2, LONDON
AI & DeepTech
Your weekly newsletter on cutting-edge innovations in AI, biotech & quantum
Researchers are using generative AI to train robots in virtual environments
By the CogX R&I team
November 22, 2024
Robots are now learning to navigate the real world by "dreaming" in artificial environments.
Source: (Alan Yu et al., 2024)
MIT CSAIL researchers have pioneered a groundbreaking system called LucidSim that enables robots to learn complex tasks through AI-generated simulations, eliminating the need for real-world training data. The system, developed by a team including postdoc Ge Yang and undergraduate Alan Yu, combines generative AI with physics simulators to create diverse and realistic virtual training environments.
Previous robot training approaches relied heavily on depth sensors and human oversight, limiting scalability and adaptability. LucidSim addressed these limitations by generating unlimited, diverse training scenarios.
The system employs a sophisticated blend of technologies, using LLM’s to generate structured environment descriptions, which are then transformed into images through generative models. A physics simulator guides the generation process, ensuring real-world applicability. The team's novel "Dreams In Motion" technique then converts these single-generated images into coherent video sequences by computing pixel movements between frames.
Testing revealed remarkable results, with LucidSim-trained robots achieving an 88% success rate after doubling the dataset size, compared to just 15% for expert-trained robots. The research, supported by organisations including the Packard Fellowship and the National Science Foundation, was presented at the Conference on Robot Learning in early November 2024.
Now read the rest of the AI & DeepTech Newsletter
Top Stories
AI creates digital twins of humans: Researchers from Stanford and Google DeepMind have developed AI models capable of creating incredibly lifelike digital twins of individuals. By conducting in-depth two-hour interviews, researchers can capture an individual's values, preferences, and personality traits. The AI agents were tested on personality tests, social surveys, and logic games, replicating human responses with 85% accuracy.
There’s an AI computing gap: While industry giants hoard powerful computing resources, academics are finding themselves limited by a lack of access to cutting-edge GPUs. A recent survey found that a staggering 66% of academic AI researchers expressed dissatisfaction with their current computing power. The study highlights the challenges of obtaining high-powered GPUs, particularly NVIDIA's H100 chips, which are crucial for training advanced AI models.
DeepMind AI can expertly fix errors in quantum computers: Google DeepMind has developed an AI model that can significantly improve the accuracy of quantum computers. By effectively correcting errors in qubits, this innovative approach could pave the way for faster, more powerful computing solutions and unlock new possibilities in fields like medicine and materials science
AI Tools of the Week
✍🏻 Accelerate your research: ReadPo is your AI-powered research and writing assistant. It helps you quickly find, understand, and create content.
🤖 Turn your PDFs into podcasts: NotebookLlama is an innovative open-source tool that turns PDFs into podcasts with ease.
👨🏻💻 Centralise your knowledge management: BuildIn.AI is a cloud-based platform that streamlines your knowledge management and collaboration, turning information chaos into a symphony of productivity.
Latest Research
US unveils world's most powerful supercomputer. This powerful machine, code-named El Capitan, will be used to bolster the nation's nuclear deterrent through advanced simulations of nuclear explosions, significantly reducing the need for physical testing.
IBM entangled two quantum chips to work together for the first time. IBM has made a significant stride in quantum computing by successfully linking two quantum chips to operate as a single device, a crucial step towards the company’s approach to building large modular quantum computers.
A new frontier in energy storage? Scientists have uncovered a potential breakthrough in energy storage: harnessing the unique properties of quantum time crystals. By creating a double-time crystal, researchers believe it may be possible to develop a quantum battery-like device capable of storing energy.
In case you missed it
Meet NEO Surveyor, a space-based sentinel designed to protect Earth from potential asteroid threats.