Google was in news recently because of its artificial intelligence efforts.The company won a board game tournament against one of the world’s top players making use of its artificial intelligence. That itself speaks volumes about how advanced their AI is.

But in the very next second you will be amazed to know that Google is also trying to sell its Boston Dynamics robotics group. Isn’t it a bit confusing? Of course, it is! It makes you wonder… when Google has one of the best AI minds then why sell the robotics wing? The answer lies in a very simple fact: Software is far easier to develop and test than hardware. So when the combination of AI and robots is taken into account it become extremely difficult to run things as you thought you could.

It is to be noted that with Boston Dynamics, Google was working on machines that could break out of the rigid boundaries of the factory and perform a broader range of tasks. But that requires a lot of fundamental research and a range of other unsolved problems. There have been a lot of ideas about building such and such robots with the capability of doing such and such tasks. But the problem is devising an idea is meaningless if one doesn’t know how to materialize it. This is the main reason why Google wants to shed Boston Dynamics.

The robots made by the group are not exactly as advanced as they seem to be in their videos. The main problem is ‘intention’. It is the greatest challenge of all: giving a machine an intention! So one may think about making a robot walk and do some tasks. But the robot walking ‘intentionally’ on its own and doing work is something way ahead of the times in today’s scenario.

Making robots work in all the possible environments using AI will take decades to build because not each and everything can be predicted when it comes to the working environment of a place. This inability to build what you have thought is really a big reason and good enough we must say.

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Author: Technology and Beyond