Our previous pal Spot the robot dog is becoming a member of the Big Apple’s police force. New York City mayor Eric Adams announced that the New York Police Department will probably be buying some new semi-autonomous robotic canines within the coming weeks. The transfer comes nearly precisely two years after the NYPD halted its first go at utilizing a camera-carrying robotic canine for surveillance, after a large public outcry; residents felt it was a dystopian overreach of police energy. Now Adams, a former NYPD captain, is shifting this system ahead once more.

The NYPD says it’ll purchase two of Boston Dynamic’s controversial Spot bots. While the robotic canine have autonomous capabilities, the NYPD says these models received’t be patrolling the streets by themselves simply but. Instead, the robodogs will probably be deployed in particular situations the place the hazard for people is excessive, very like the bomb-squad robots the division already makes use of. Each Spot will value about $75,000, with the cameras and sensors connected to their our bodies costing additional.

Spot isn’t the one robotic rookie becoming a member of the NYPD. The division can also be testing the usage of a Knightscope K5 robotic. The human-sized, ovoid K5 is supplied with cameras, sensors, and audio system. It’s meant to patrol and surveil its environment, detering break-ins and vandalism. This isn’t the K5’s first outing in public. The wheeled bots have been deployed in take a look at circumstances to spy on the streets in locations like Silicon Valley in California, the place they’ve largely been met with mocking suspicion and drunken violence. People on the streets don’t take kindly to those Dalek-like narcs, and once in a while someone kicks the crap out of 1. After all, they do are typically very kickable. Letting extra of them roam the already jam-packed New York streets—or the town’s subway stations—will doubtless garner them loads of soiled appears and occasional beatings.

Here’s what else occurred this week.

Parks Recreation

The climate is lastly clearing up sufficient for us to get out in nature—and simply in time, Google has announced an update to Maps that may assist individuals navigate the sprawling nationwide park system.

The replace will higher present the format and options of all nationwide parks within the US. It will supply extra detailed instructions on bike routes, on trails, and inside campgrounds, and it’ll spotlight complete path routes as a substitute of simply displaying a pin on the location of the trailhead, to offer customers a greater concept of what a hike entails. Hopefully the options will work higher than Google’s common search engine, and also you received’t must append “+Reddit” to search out something helpful within the outcomes.

Google’s Maps updates are coming in April for US nationwide parks, and the corporate says it’ll slowly add parks the world over within the subsequent few months.

iOSwiftKey

It wouldn’t be a information story on the web today and not using a sprint of machine intelligence. Last week, Microsoft slipped its generative-AI-powered Bing Chat bot into SwiftKey, an app that allows you to kind phrases in your telephone through the use of swipes and gestures on the keyboard. The Bing-enabled replace was solely obtainable for Android, however now the function has been added to the iOS version as nicely.

SwiftKey has had a strained relationship with iOS currently. Microsoft removed the app from Apple’s App retailer final yr, then rapidly reinstated it.