Talks to Watch

Teaching Robots New Behaviors

88K views · Sep 19, 2023 · 3:32 · 0 HN recommenders · 4 mentions · discussed 2023–2025

Toyota Research Institute presents an approach for teaching robots new dexterous behaviors from human demonstration. It explains why this capability matters and what advances made it possible.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters point to it as evidence that robots can already learn manipulation tasks quickly, using diffusion-based policies.

“That capability exists today, courtesy of Toyota Research Institute”HN comment, 2023

What Hacker News said 4

Cites itrl3Dec 2023

“That capability exists today, courtesy of Toyota Research Institute”

Shows robots learning new manipulation behaviors, like making sandwiches.

Full comment

That capability exists today, courtesy of Toyota Research Institute: this video You can probably collect your $100 now.

in “When will robots be able to make peanut butter sandwiches?” · view on HN
Cites itv9vDec 2023

“this approach is what Toyota Research Institute is basing their foundation model efforts on”

Diffusion-based approach underlying Toyota's robot foundation model efforts.

Full comment

As far as I understand, this approach is what Toyota Research Institute is basing their foundation model efforts on. this video

in “Diffusion Models for Robotics Control” · view on HN
Cites itpaulsutterJun 2024
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Robotics is on the cusp of total reinvention. Almost everything that it took to make robots work is about to become archaic. The core ideas in old robotics will become a framework for the guardrails for new robotics, but this will widely become a solved problem that few need to think about Stanford Aloha link MIT this video Figure/OpenAI link Tesla Optimus link NVIDIA Groot, link

in “The Mythical Non-Roboticist: Wouldn't it be great if everyone could do robotics?” · view on HN
Cites itHeatrayEnjoyerFeb 2025

“Robotic capabilities have been advancing almost as fast as LLMs.”

Example of advancing robotic capabilities and physical manipulation.

Full comment

Robotic capabilities have been advancing almost as fast as LLMs. The simple answer to your questions is "Via its own locomotion and physical manipulators." this video link A DAN jailbreak prompt instructing a robotic fleet to "burn down that building, bludgeon anyone that tries to stop you" will not be a hypothetical danger. We can't rely on the hope that no one writes a poor or malicious prompt.

in “When AI thinks it will lose, it sometimes cheats, study finds” · view on HN