Paper is a cheap, recyclable, and clean material that is often used to make practical tools. Traditional tool design either relies on simulation or physical analysis, which is often inaccurate and time-consuming. In this paper, we propose PaperBot, an approach that directly learns to design and use a tool in the real world using paper without human intervention. We demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of PaperBot on two tool design tasks: 1. learning to fold and throw paper airplanes for maximum travel distance 2. learning to cut paper into grippers that exert maximum gripping force. We present a self-supervised learning framework that learns to perform a sequence of folding, cutting, and dynamic manipulation actions in order to optimize the design and use of a tool. We deploy our system to a real-world two-arm robotic system to solve challenging design tasks that involve aerodynamics (paper airplane) and friction (paper gripper) that are impossible to simulate accurately.

Google LLC today announced some major breakthroughs in its artificial intelligence capabilities, including a new, next-generation conversational language model that creates far more realistic and interesting dialogue than anything it has come up with so far. Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications was announced during its virtual I/O conference today, and displayed some huge leaps in AI language understanding too. LaMDA's skills were shown off in two separate conversations. In the first, LaMDA pretended to be the dwarf planet Pluto and answered questions on what people could expect to see if they visited. In the second, it played the role of a paper airplane, and discussed what it's like flying through the air and how to make a plane that travels farther.

The star of the show was an experimental model called LaMDA, which Google says could one day supercharge the ability of its conversational AI assistants and allow for more natural conversations. "It's really impressive to see how LaMDA can carry on a conversation about any topic," said Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the presentation. "It's amazing how sensible and interesting the conversation is. But it's still early research, so it doesn't get everything right." To demonstrate LaMDA's abilities, the company showed videos of two short conversations conducted with the model.

It's a short holiday week, which means we've got to mix it up. This week, we're thankful for you, dear readers, who follow us through the strange vicissitudes of the car business. You are curious; you are tolerant; you are mostly kind, at least on Twitter. So please be gentle with me as I introduce the theme of this car roundup, which is holiday plane travel. For this greatest of travel weeks, we're reviewing all the juicy, fun here-to-there stories we wrote in the last year or so, about building the most audacious flying machine ever, about staying healthy on your next flight, and about surprisingly safe airport Wi-Fi.

Last week saw the 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act become law, and the new legislation has quite a few implications for people who fly small drones or model aircraft as a hobby. Before diving into the latest changes, it's worth reviewing how the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has regulated such things in the past. Way back in 1981, the FAA issued an "Advisory Circular" that provided guidance for people flying model aircraft. Most modelers considered those guidelines reasonable enough, but if you didn't conform to them, it was no big deal--they weren't rules, just recommendations. So, for example, if you flew a model sailplane and caught a thermal that took it more than 400 feet off the ground, the FAA really couldn't object that you were in violation of its advice to keep lower.

In this guest post, Jacqueline M. Kory Westlund, a researcher in the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab describes her projects and explorations to understand children's relationships with social robots. This story begins in 2013, in a preschool in Boston, where I hide, with laptop, headphones, and microphone, in a little kitchenette. Ethernet cables trail across the hall to the classroom, where 17 children eagerly await their turn to talk to a small fluffy robot. "Hi, my name is Mox! I'm very happy to meet you." The pitch of my voice is shifted up and sent over the somewhat laggy network. My words, played by the speakers of Mox the robot and picked up by its microphone, echo back with a 2-second delay into my headphones. It's tricky to speak at the right pace, ignoring my own voice bouncing back, but I get into the swing of it pretty quickly. It's one of our pilot tests before we embark on an upcoming experimental study.