22 May 2026
Figure’s robots just sorted packages for 200 hours straight
What started as a 10-hour human-versus-robot challenge turned into a continuous marathon shift spanning nine days of continuous work.
22 May 2026
Physical AI Is Already Here. But What Is It?
You may have seen it: a humanoid robot moonwalking across a stage to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” before slipping several times on a set of steps and lying motionless. The video, filmed in Shenzhen, China, has taken social media by storm this week. The scene may well augur a future in which robots imitate, perform and work alongside humans. That’s because it is an early example of what many…
22 May 2026
Texas AG sues Meta over claims that WhatsApp doesn’t provide end-to-end encryption
The Texas Attorney General has sued Meta over allegations that the company’s WhatsApp messenger, used by more than 3 billion people, doesn’t provide the end-to-end encryption (E2EE) it has long claimed.
22 May 2026
How Your Brain Decides What Matters
The wind picks up dust from the unpaved road one afternoon in December as Jack van Honk turns into a ramshackle neighborhood in Lambert’s Bay, on the west coast of South Africa. A stocky woman in a red patterned sundress steps out of a small home painted palest sea green, her ochre-dirt yard crowded with potted plants, many medicinal. She smiles broadly, deep wrinkles creasing a face that is…
22 May 2026
Microsoft reports are exposing AI's real cost problem: Using the tech is more expensive than paying human employees
Firms today are pushing employees to use as much AI as possible to squeeze out the technology’s productivity gains. But that pressure is leading to cracks, and those cracks may be irreparable.
22 May 2026
Nicki Minaj Attends Failed SpaceX Launch & Praises Elon Musk ‘for Everything That You’re Doing for Humanity’
Nicki Minaj pulled up to SpaceX’s flight test in Texas on Thursday (May 21), but in this case, starships weren’t meant to fly, as the flight was postponed to due to technical issues with the the spacecraft. She joined the SpaceX broadcast for a brief chat at Starbase for the launch of the Starship rocket. Fittingly, the Queens rapper was rocking a T-shirt that was emblazoned with a “Starship”…
22 May 2026
China puts humanoid robots through tea harvesting field trials
Humanoid robots have moved from lab demos to running tracks and now into tea fields in China as teams participating in the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games began a real-world robotics challenge in Fujian Province’s tea-growing region.
22 May 2026
Watch Atlas Lift and Spin Like a Pro in This Week's Video Friday
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.
22 May 2026
The Year Boomer AI Slop Came to Cannes
From Meta House to Soderbergh’s doc to yacht parties, tech overran the prestigious film festival. By Rachel Handler , a features writer at Vulture and New York Photo: Victor Boyko/Getty Images Photo: Victor Boyko/Getty Images A seemingly malevolent presence lurked over the Cannes Film Festival this year. I’m talking, of course, about Meta , but also something else. Some (me) wondered if there was…
