Robots | Reason Archives (original) (raw)
Review: Sunny Is a Techno-Satire About Violent Robots
Technology is neither inherently good or bad. Our friendbots—and our murderbots—are what we make of them.
Peter Suderman | 10.18.2024 6:00 AM
Automate the Ports
The dockworkers' strike is over, but America's ports will be some of the least efficient in the world whether they are open or closed.
Eric Boehm | 10.4.2024 9:50 AM
This Revolutionary Robotic Suit Enabled a Paralyzed Man To Carry the Olympic Torch
Wandercraft, the French company that developed the exoskeleton suit, recently got FDA approval to use them for stroke rehab in the U.S.
Eric Boehm | 7.26.2024 4:00 PM
We Welcome Our Robot Overlords: June 2024 Puzzle
"Way AI can help you decide what to buy or watch"
Stella Zawistowski | 5.26.2024 6:00 AM
Review: The Terminator: The Original Killer AI
Arnold Schwarzenegger's classic role colored our perception of AI, for better or for worse.
Joe Lancaster | 5.24.2024 6:00 AM
Review: Klara and the Sun Tackles AI Regulation
Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful meditation on the parameters that constrain robots and humans alike
Katherine Mangu-Ward | 5.10.2024 6:00 AM
Brickbat: Robot's Day of Rest
Charles Oliver | 5.10.2024 4:00 AM
6 States
Plus: Stormy's testimony, colleges posting bail, Optimus rising, RFK's brainworms, and more...
Liz Wolfe | 5.8.2024 9:30 AM
Politicians Are Showering Manufacturing Companies With Crony Subsidies for 'Job Creation.' It Won't Work.
These handouts will flow to businesses—often big and rich—for projects they would likely have taken on anyway.
Veronique de Rugy | 4.4.2024 12:01 AM
Oscar-Nominated Robot Dreams Is a Gentle Animated Love Story About Dogs, Robots, and 1980s New York
A charming story of love, friendship, and impersonal urban bureaucracy.
Peter Suderman | 3.8.2024 7:29 AM
iRobot Lays Off 350 Employees as Amazon Kills Merger Elizabeth Warren Opposed
The robot vacuum company is based in Massachusetts, meaning some of the terminated employees are likely Warren's constituents.
Joe Lancaster | 1.29.2024 3:30 PM
Photo: Ready for RoboCop?
New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently showed off the autonomous security robot the city is piloting.
Jason Russell | 11.7.2023 6:00 AM
The Creator Is a Pro-A.I., Pro-Freedom, Anti-Imperialist Sci-Fi War Movie
Conceptually, it's all a bit vague, but it sure looks amazing.
Peter Suderman | 9.29.2023 12:02 PM
In South Korea, Robots Are Taking Robots' Jobs
Our robo-worker future won't put an end to this annoying labor-policy debate.
Eric Boehm | 9.15.2023 1:45 PM
Industrial Policy Isn't About Creating Jobs
It's a short-sighted approach that distracts us from the more important question.
Veronique de Rugy | 7.27.2023 3:30 PM
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Is Better Than a Transformers Sequel Has Any Right to Be
It's no Orson Welles as Unicron, sadly. But I'll take it.
Peter Suderman | 6.9.2023 10:58 AM
The A.I. Defamation Cases Are Here: ChatGPT Sued for Spreading Misinformation
Plus: Age-verification laws threaten our First Amendment right to anonymity, New York bill would set minimum prices for nail services, and more...
Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 6.7.2023 9:34 AM
New York City Brings Back Dystopian Robot Police Dogs
'Digidog is out of the pound," New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared, not ominously.
C.J. Ciaramella | 4.12.2023 3:12 PM
Now Is the Best Time To Embrace Artificial Intelligence
Which sentence in this podcast was generated using A.I.?
Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 3.27.2023 5:30 PM
Maybe A.I. Will Be a Threat—To Governments
The designer of China's Great Firewall sees new A.I. tech as a concern for public authorities.
Peter Suderman | 3.23.2023 1:29 PM
Review: I Saw Humans Working at the 'Automated' McDonald's
McDonald's invested in some spiffy new toys, but almost everything else stayed the same.
Billy Binion | 3.10.2023 6:30 AM
Don't Expect Government To Save You From the Terminator
As artificial intelligence advances, how worried should we be about the rise of the machines?
Steven Greenhut | 2.3.2023 8:00 AM
We Should All Be Nervous About Killer Police Robots
The San Francisco Police Department assured the public it had "no plans to arm robots with guns." But assurances aren't guarantees.
Bonnie Kristian | 12.7.2022 5:15 PM
San Francisco Votes To Allow Killer Robots
Plus: Same-sex marriage bill passes Senate, Montana "mountain man" takes property rights case to SCOTUS, and more...
Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 11.30.2022 9:30 AM
The End of Astronauts: Should We Send Robots to Space Instead?
Robots don't get cabin fever, develop cancer from cosmic radiation, miss their families, or go insane.
Mike Riggs | 11.15.2022 8:00 AM
Does Google's LaMDA Artificial Intelligence Program Have a Soul?
The future of techno-animism in a world filled with machine intelligence.
Ronald Bailey | 6.15.2022 2:10 PM
How Robots Will Transform the 2020s
The service bot will revolutionize warehouses, hospitals, farms, and maybe your home.
Mark P. Mills | 3.6.2022 6:00 AM
George Hotz: From Self-Driving Cars to Robots That Cook and Clean
The visionary hacker on how he plans to "solve A.I." and why he thinks this will be a "decade of decentralization."
Justin Monticello | 8.23.2021 9:45 AM
Autonomous 'Slaughterbot' Drones Reportedly Attack Libyans Using Facial Recognition Tech
Should they be banned?
Ronald Bailey | 6.1.2021 4:55 PM
Bad Cop, No Robot
The case for legally constraining what police departments can do with robots.
Bonnie Kristian | 12.31.2020 1:55 PM
Inhuman Conditions
Katherine Mangu-Ward | 6.26.2020 6:00 AM
Will Robots Lead to Widespread Joblessness and Economic Inequality?
Martin Ford and Antony Sammeroff debate the future of robotics and its potential economic impacts at the Soho Forum.
John Osterhoudt and Nick Gillespie | 1.17.2020 3:40 PM
Will Robots Cause Mass Unemployment? A Soho Forum Debate
Martin Ford and Antony Sammeroff debate the impact of robotics on the economy
John Osterhoudt | 1.17.2020 1:15 PM
Massachusetts Police Test Out Robot Dogs. Is Dystopia on Its Way?
Don’t be afraid of the robopups, but make sure we leash law enforcement to keep officers from misusing them.
Scott Shackford | 11.26.2019 3:00 PM
Bill de Blasio's Proposed 'Robot Tax' Is Completely Unnecessary, Just Like His Candidacy
Forcing future Americans to do manual labor that could be automated isn't "saving" them from job losses. It's trapping them in jobs that could be made more efficient, more productive, and more rewarding.
Eric Boehm | 9.9.2019 2:30 PM
6 Terrible New Tech Bills in Congress
While expressing concern for free speech and privacy, lawmakers are seriously threatening both.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 8.8.2019 7:00 AM
Facial Recognition Tech Straight Out of 'Robocop' Could Be a Real Threat to Civil Liberties
As governments and law enforcement agencies rush to incorporate facial recognition tech, California lawmakers have a chance to slam on the brakes.
Steven Greenhut | 6.28.2019 8:00 AM
Netflix's Love, Death and Robots Is a Sci-Fi Demo Reel For the Untapped Potential of Animation
An anthology series about sad salesmen, space marines, super-intelligent yogurt, and the national debt
Peter Suderman | 3.22.2019 12:57 PM
Photo
Reason Staff | 2.26.2019 6:00 AM
Minimum Wage Boosts Are Great—For Robots
Making low-skill workers more expensive means getting them replaced by automation.
J.D. Tuccille | 2.26.2019 12:01 AM
Alita: Battle Angel Is A Movie About Our Post-Human Future—and Proof It's Already Here
Peter Suderman | 2.15.2019 1:23 PM
Twitter Suspends User Who First Spread Covington Catholic Video: Reason Roundup
Plus: Kamala Harris officially enters the 2020 race and Google News may leave the E.U.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 1.22.2019 9:30 AM
If You Like Sex, Drugs, and/or Robots, Please Donate to Reason!
We also have monks.
Katherine Mangu-Ward | 11.28.2018 8:00 AM
There's Not Much Truth Found in HBO's Lazy Robot Panic Documentary
If Skynet looms on the horizon, you won't find the evidence here.
Glenn Garvin | 11.23.2018 3:00 PM
'Mobile Brothels' Could Be Enabled by Self-Driving Cars, But That Doesn't Mean They Will: Reason Roundup
Plus: Amazon goes to Washington (for good) and Chicago cops shoot man who stopped bar shooting.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 11.13.2018 9:30 AM
Houston, We've Got a Problem—with Robot Brothels?
Activists petition to stop a sex-doll shop.
Nick Gillespie | 9.24.2018 11:35 AM
Meet the Robot Lawyer Fighting Fines, Fees, and Red Tape
DoNotPay is launching a "denial of service attack on the legal system to make it better."
Justin Monticello | 9.20.2018 1:14 PM
Please Enjoy This Video of John McCain Doing 'The Robot'
Even the most revered politicians are just human-and no human can resist The Robot.
Eric Boehm | 8.27.2018 2:00 PM