Blake Dowling
The Leon County Research and Development Authority called the other day and asked me to give a chat about artificial intelligence.
I gave them the standard JJ-from-Good-Times response … Dyn-o-mite! … love to, thanks for thinking about me!
They had read something on AI I had put together for INFLUENCE Magazine last year and thought I would be a great “expert” on the subject.
I am no expert, ladies and gents, but I am a true believer in the cause that one should embrace all things.
So, I set out on a perilous journey to find something interesting to discuss with these fabulous folks. What you will read here is my dramatic exploration into a world of machines and the discovery that the Terminator series is a prophecy and we are all doomed! Just being dramatic to get your attention.
We may be doomed, we may be blessed, we will see where the future takes us, in the meantime …
I was talking to the team at Greenberg Traurig (Leslie Dughi, Gus Corbella and Michael Moody); they asked me if I had heard of Starship Technologies.
My first thought was “terrible name, folks,” with an image in my head of Starship Troopers (Denise Richards rocks, she should have won an award for her gutsy performance). But diving in, I was intrigued by what these cats were up to.
Starship was founded by the team that brought you Skype, and what they bring to the market is called a Personal Delivery Device (PDD) which they say will “transform” local delivery.
These wicked little bots are on wheels, cruising the sidewalks to bring whatever you seek. They can carry the about three bags of groceries and head straight to your door.
Partners in this venture range from Mercedes to Just Eat, both of whom (for obvious reasons) would like to get in on the ground floor.
If you are going to have a robot on wheels, it might as well be a Mertz: The best robot or nothing.
So, what are the uses? Grocery stores, FedEx, and restaurants, for starters. Other things to consider; the robot is locked, so robbing it would be difficult.
How far along are these folks? They have commercial trials going on in the U.S., Germany and Switzerland right now. So far, their robots have traveled 9,500 miles in 56 cities, all without any recorded incidents, while encountering an estimated 1,700,000 people.
Electrically powered, these robots have zero emissions, so that the lefty green crowd can applaud. They operate as true robots, learning routes and sharing routes with the other robots (Skynet-like world take over), and they have a range of about 3 miles before needing to return home for a charge (and secretly plan to take over the world, presumably).
Keep an eye on the Virginia legislature, which is on the verge of approving the use of PDDs on sidewalks statewide.
All kidding aside, “disruption” is a word used in tech all the time. Well, here we go again. This is awesome, cool and is happening now.
Look to see these disruptors potentially hit the streets in force next year; and get ready for a Starship heading your way soon – pending some massive lobbying.
To close today’s piece, let’s stick to the Starship theme and roll out some 80s lyrics …
And we can build this dream together
Standing strong forever
Nothing’s gonna stop us now
And if this world runs out of lovers
We’ll still have each other
Nothing’s gonna stop us now
STARSHIP – Nothing’s going to stop us now – 1986 (from the “Mannequin” soundtrack, for which it is well suited. Arrrgh.)
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Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies and writes for several organizations. He can be reached at [email protected].
