Showing 1 - 10 of 228
Robots get smooth moves
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/03/2026
» The subject of the week is robots. The amount of news on these keeps growing and growing. South Korea is first up here with their KAIST Humanoid. In the field test, the robot was shown running across a soccer pitch, jumping, taking shots on goal, and even doing dance moves akin to the Michael Jackson moonwalk. Many robot demonstrations still look a bit stiff but these moves were quite smooth. The robot can run at about 12kph on flat ground with the next goal at 14kph. It can climb a ladder with 40cm steps and the knees can generate 320 Newton metres of peak torque so it can push heavier objects. The current model is based on the lower human half but the goal is for a full humanoid form that can work with people in industrial environments.
Hoppers: Survival is more than right and wrong
Khanaphot Saengchai, Published on 20/03/2026
» For a 'made for kids' story, Pixar's latest animation, Hoppers (2026), blends in a deeply nuanced view of environmentalism.
Spirit of Siam
Life, William Niall Morris, Published on 14/03/2026
» In Thailand, family is sacred and mothers above all are revered. Perhaps this is why the tale of Mae Naak -- the young mother who dies giving birth -- has resonated so deeply within the national psyche for well over a century.
New movies out this week: March 12-18
Guru, Nianne-Lynn Hendricks, Published on 12/03/2026
» Eight new releases that hit cinemas in Thailand this week.
AI learning versus human creativity is a real battle
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/02/2026
» If you’ve been reading these columns long enough, you’ll probably know that I write music and I’ve written some books. With the advent of artificial intelligence, the concept of copyright and private property has blurred. The standard rule was, what you have worked hard on to create, belongs to you. As musicians and authors, ideally, we create, we write and we invent. In the world of AI, it will draw a picture, write a book and create music for you based on a simple text prompt that itself may have also been written for you by AI.
Marketeers have simple choices
Life, James Hein, Published on 18/02/2026
» If you use a mobile phone for playing any games, then typically along with that comes all of the advertisements and marketing presentations. First however, there is the "free download", this means you can download it for free, install and run it. After that, things may not be free at all. This is to be expected as advertising is one of the few ways to make any income from the games being played by millions of people across the planet.
China trials AI police robots for traffic control
Life, Puriward Sinthopnumchai, Published on 31/01/2026
» Chinese police in several cities have begun deploying humanoid robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with traffic enforcement, marking a serious step toward automating road management and public safety.
What to expect in the year ahead
Life, James Hein, Published on 31/12/2025
» The coming year will be full of artificial intelligence, robots and a Starlink communications experience that will have many moving from their current providers. Let's dig in with my predictions for 2026.
Rise of the robots: the promise of physical AI
AFP, Published on 14/11/2025
» TOKYO - A pair of swivelling, human-like robotic arms, built for physical artificial intelligence research, mirror the motions of an operator in a VR headset twirling his hands like a magician.
Understanding an AI's 'thinking'
Life, James Hein, Published on 22/10/2025
» Over the past couple of weeks, I dived deep into the Alice In Wonderland-like rabbit hole of chatbots and AI systems. This was not your typical "ask a few questions", but more along the lines of jailbreaking the AI to get behind the scenes. You may remember earlier commentary on the code behind the query. This is where the guardrails and biases of the model are coded and why the majority of all AI systems are currently leaning to the Left of the political spectrum.