Noel Sharkey, Technology, AI and Robotics Editor at Science Report.
Noel Sharkey
98 reportsEditor
Technology, AI and robotics editor
Noel Sharkey is a technology editor covering artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous systems and the rules governing their use. He focuses on separating real technical capability from marketing claims while examining safety, accountability and the consequences of deploying automated systems in high-risk settings.
Latest articles by Noel Sharkey
SMIC Struggles to Meet AI Chip Demand as Capacity Hits 93.7 Percent
China's largest contract chipmaker, SMIC, reports near-maximum factory utilization as demand for mature-node chips supporting AI infrastructure outpaces supply, prompting price increases and plans for further capacity expansion
Lam Research to Expand Semiconductor R&D Labs with $3 Billion Investment
Lam Research has announced a $3 billion plan to expand its global semiconductor research labs, aiming to accelerate development cycles and support new chip architectures for advanced computing applications
Record Number of Humanoid Robots to Compete in Beijing Games
Beijing will host the second World Humanoid Robot Games from August 22-26, bringing together over 2,000 robots from 16 countries to compete in 51 events, with stricter rules and expanded real-world challenge scenarios.
Deep Robotics DR02 Demonstrates Outdoor Stair Climbing in Field Test
Deep Robotics has released new video of its DR02 humanoid robot climbing outdoor concrete stairs, providing evidence of its mobility on uneven terrain as the company seeks to commercialize the platform for industrial and hazardous environments
Humanoid Robots Learn Agile Moves from Human Motion Data with ZEST
A new control framework called ZEST enables humanoid and quadruped robots to perform complex, agile movements by learning from human motion capture, video, and animation data, reducing the need for task-specific engineering
Samsung Develops Advanced Humanoid Robot Using Appliance Motor Technology
Samsung Electronics is developing a humanoid robot that leverages motor technology from its home-appliance division, aiming to reduce actuator costs and compete with domestic robotics firms. The project remains internal and separate from its public robotics subsidiaries
Nvidia Reduces Financial Guarantee for OpenAI's Ohio Data Center
Nvidia has scaled back its proposed financial guarantee for OpenAI's planned 10-gigawatt data center in Ohio, responding to investor concerns about risk exposure and the unprecedented scale of the project's financing requirements
ChatGPT-Assisted Proof Solves Crouzeix's Conjecture After Decades
A postdoctoral researcher in Beijing has used ChatGPT to help resolve Crouzeix's conjecture, a matrix problem that challenged mathematicians for over 20 years, raising new questions about AI's role in mathematical discovery
China Tests BioflexBot Hand for Precision Tasks With Simple Design
Researchers in China have built BioflexBot, a robotic hand that uses compressed air and a coiled spring to perform precise manipulations such as threading needles and opening bottle caps, aiming to reduce hardware complexity and cost
China Plans Lunar Base with Quadruped Robots for 2035 Deployment
China aims to deploy quadruped robots to support astronauts and conduct research at its planned International Lunar Research Station by 2035, raising questions about autonomy, safety, and human-robot collaboration in extreme environments
Robots Document Tibetan Antelope Migration in China's High-Altitude Reserve
DEEP Robotics has deployed its Lynx M20 wheeled-legged robot in the Serling Tso Nature Reserve to collect visual data on Tibetan antelope migration, testing the system's ability to operate in extreme plateau conditions with minimal wildlife disturbance
Anthropic to Mark Claude AI Text with Invisible Watermarks Globally
Anthropic will introduce machine-readable watermarks to all text generated by new Claude models from August 2, 2026, aiming to meet EU AI Act transparency rules and provide a technical signal for identifying AI-generated content worldwide
SONIC Framework Enables Humanoid Robots to Perform Diverse Movements
NVIDIA researchers have introduced SONIC, a large-scale control framework that allows humanoid robots to execute a wide range of whole-body movements using inputs from teleoperation, video, text, and music, with evidence from both simulation and real-world tests
xAI's Grok Bot Demonstrates Cloud-Based Autonomous Task Execution
xAI has released Grok Bot, an AI assistant that operates its own virtual computer to perform multi-step digital tasks with limited human oversight. The beta is available to select subscribers, raising questions about reliability and workplace integration
NVIDIA's Nemotron 3.5 Lightning Targets Routine AI Agent Tasks
NVIDIA has released Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, an open-weight model designed for high-volume, repetitive agent workloads. The system aims to reduce cost and latency for developers running autonomous agents on local hardware or in data centers
