Alphabet Xs new Everyday Robot project wants to build robots that can learn from the world around them

Today, Alphabet’s X moonshot division (formerly known as Google X) unveiled the Everyday Robot project, whose goal is to develop a “general-purpose learning robot.” The idea is that its robots could use cameras and complex machine learning algorithms to see and learn from the world around them without needing to be coded for every individual movement.

The team is testing robots that can help out in workplace environments, though right now, these early robots are focused on learning how to sort trash. Here’s what one of them looks like — it reminds me of a very tall, one-armed Wall-E (ironic, given what the robots are tasked to do):

Here’s a GIF of a robot actually sorting a recyclable can from a compost pile to a...

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