Yesterday brought four major updates in AI and quantum computing that deserve attention. Let me break down what matters and why.
First, Clone Robotics unveiled their Protoclone V1 bipedal android. It has over 200 degrees of freedom, 1,000 Myofibers, and 500 sensors. While they claim it’s the first of its kind, the University of Tokyo’s JSK Lab built Kengoro back in 2017 with similar musculoskeletal features. The current version runs on pneumatics, but they plan to switch to hydraulics.
Google announced an AI co-scientist system built on Gemini 2.0. Scientists can input research goals in plain language, and the system suggests hypotheses and experimental approaches. This could speed up research, particularly in disease modeling and molecular biology.
Microsoft released their first quantum chip, the Majorana 1. It packs 1,000,000 qubits into hardware the size of a sticky note using topological core architecture. You can read more about this advancement and its implications in my earlier post on Microsoft’s quantum computing breakthrough.
Finally, Claude is getting an extended thinking feature, letting it spend more time processing complex answers while showing its work. This sounds similar to what OpenAI did with their o1 models. Claude’s also getting direct web search capabilities, which should make it more useful for real-time information needs.
These updates show how quickly core AI and quantum capabilities are advancing. The real test will be seeing how these tools perform in practical applications over the next few months.
