#robotics

Robotics firms are scaling physical AI training data by paying consumers and gig workers to record everyday tasks, raising privacy and labor questions.

An AI startup is launching a free cleaning service that records workers to gather training data for household robots.

TechCrunch's invitation-only investor conference lands in El Segundo on June 18, featuring founders and VCs debating autonomy, manufacturing, and the reshaping of hard tech.

First-person video collection is becoming a booming market for robot training data, but workers are earning minimal wages for highly specialized labor.

Project Open Hand partners with Chef Robotics to automate plating for medically tailored meals, addressing volunteer shortages in the Tenderloin.

Google hosted panel discussions on AI agents, quantum computing, robotics, and creative applications at I/O 2026's Dialogues stage.

A Wired journalist paired OpenClaw with a LeRobot arm, showing how large language models can now configure, train, and control physical robots without specialized expertise.

Project Genie can now generate interactive simulations anchored to real streets using 280 billion images from 20 years of Street View data collection.

Hugging Face publishes parameter-efficient fine-tuning guide for NVIDIA's 2B-parameter world model, enabling domain adaptation for robotic manipulation on consumer hardware.

A buy-one-get-one-half-off ticket deal for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 expires before midnight Pacific on May 8, as six programming stages signal where AI is actually deploying.

Runway's CEO argues the company's video tools are a foundation for general world models with applications in gaming, robotics, and beyond.

Cambridge startup Eka has built a robot arm that does what no commercial arm can — and its founders say scaling is all that stands between here and a revolution.

Defense startup Scout AI closes a nine-figure Series A to develop Fury, an AI model designed to command military assets and eventually autonomous weapons.