AirTalk fill-in host John Rabe takes a tour of Caltech's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technolgies (CAST), where scientists develop and test drones and machines equipped with artificial intelligence. We also explore the corporatization of pop-up shops; discuss USC's upcoming speaker series on underground Los Angeles; and more.
LA looks to ban street vending from hot spots, nightlife
It’s been four years since the debate over street vending in LA began. Now, a new set of restrictions has been proposed.
City lawmakers are considering banning vendors near venues like Dodger Stadium, Staples Center and Hollywood Boulevard – all places where street vending has become part of LA culture.
A victory for vendors was put in place earlier this year, when city lawmakers voted to limit penalties for them, essentially decriminalizing vending as a safeguard against the Trump Administration’s push against illegal immigration.
But there has long been push back from local businesses and residents on where street vending should happen. The new restrictions aim to ease congestion in the city, especially in crowded areas of tourism like Hollywood Boulevard.
The proposal also asked for sidewalk vending operations to be limited from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and no vending permitted during and one hour after special city authorized events.
John Rabe speaks to two stakeholders working to find consensus on the issue.
Guests:
Kerry Morrison, executive director of the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance; she was at yesterday’s hearing on street vendors
Rudy Espinoza, executive director at the Leadership for Urban Renewal Network; he is part of the steering committee for the L.A. Street Vending campaign
Flying ambulances, space robots and the ethics of artificial intelligence
Last month, Caltech opened a new interdisciplinary center to study and develop the robots of the future – drones and machines equipped with artificial intelligence that will allow them to make their own decisions and partner with humans on sci-fi sounding projects like a fully automated flying ambulance and a bipedal robot that can help scientists explore Mars. That’s the dream, anyway.
AirTalk fill-in host John Rabe and Sanden Totten, co-creator of kids' science podcast “Brains On!” and a science writer for “Bill Nye Saves the World,” went inside the Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies to see what’s being developed and talk to the researchers about their goals, as well as the limitations and ethics of autonomous robots.
Here are some of the most interesting things we learned and saw.
The aerodrome
This three-story tall drone arena is equipped with nearly 1,400 fans that generate winds that go up to 45 miles per hour.
What’s it for? The fans simulate various wind and storm conditions so researchers can test how drones react in real-world weather. The aerodrome is also rimmed with 48 cameras that follow the motion of the drone.
Are the drones fully autonomous? Not yet. But according to Mory Gharib, director of CAST and head of the aerospace department at Caltech, the cameras capture information about how the drone is reacting to remote-controlled commands as it struggles against simulated winds. This information is used to develop the drone's software so it can learn "the ability to reason or negotiate the wind" and eventually become fully autonomous.
The flying ambulance
What’s it for? Rescuing people from hard-to-reach spaces and transporting them quickly to nearby hospitals, while monitoring some of their vitals. Its stretcher would be automated as well.
Fun fact: The design was based on a boxfish, whose shape is optimized to withstand water flow so it can maneuver and stabilize itself in currents.
The frictionless floor
This floor in the Space Robotics Lab operates like an air hockey table, with jets shooting a thin cushion of air that satellite simulators glide on.
What’s it for? The goal of the lab is to be able to send automated drones into space and have them communicate and coordinate with each other to build structures, such as a telescope. The frictionless floor allows researchers to simulate space-like conditions.
Fun fact: It takes a very special robotic vacuum to clean this floor without making it dirtier.
Prosthetic leg
What's it for? The prosthetic leg is powered, which means its wearer can expend less energy when walking. The goal is to have the prosthetic leg adapt to its user’s gait and help them be more symmetric and comfortable.
So what's going on inside the prosthetic leg? "It is actively looking at [the user's]...movements to decide how to move. So, every moment in time we have mathematical expressions that are evaluating on the device and deciding what to do next," said Aaron Ames, professor of mechanical engineering and control and dynamical systems.
Cassie, the bipedal robot
What’s the point of a bipedal robot? Wouldn’t a quadrupedal robot be more stable? Aaron Ames said bipedal robots have the capacity to explore certain areas that robots with other designs cannot reach. The goal is to one day send Cassie to Mars where it would have the capacity to explore spaces that a rover cannot. Also, since our world was created for bipedal creatures (read: us), this type of robot will be able to navigate the human world more easily.
What’s the short-term goal for Cassie? Currently, CAST is working on getting Cassie to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. The goal is for Cassie to be fully autonomous and capable of sensing and adjusting to different kinds of terrain.
Fun fact: Cassie and other bipedal robots fall over a lot, which is why Caltech's Advanced Mobility Lab is padded with gym mats.
AI anxiety
We also talked to Anima Anandkumar, a machine learning expert who describes her job as putting the brains inside the robots, about some of our concerns regarding AI.
Will the robots become smart enough to take over?
What is intelligence? How adaptive can the AI systems be? Is it able to understand the underlying meaning of the tasks? Is it able to then learn better, teach itself new skills? We are still very far from that.
Is the concern about automation taking jobs justified?
That part is justified, because many industries are ripe for disruption and this is where the social aspect and having the right support systems makes a huge difference, because if done wrong then in the short term you will see many people out of work.
So what concerns you most about an AI- and drone-filled future?
Anandkumar said she is most concerned about AI reinforcing and multiplying the biases of humans.
The primary concern is that we should be aiming to democratize AI. It should not be only accessible to few... The other aspect is the kind of data we feed into the system, because the biases that can build up [in people and society] get multiplied several times more [in AI].
What do we do about it?
We come up with principled approaches to data collection. What does it mean to collect balanced data? Can we have fairness measures for our algorithms and can we prove that they satisfy these requirements?
Pop-up shops keep popping up, and big business is trying to cash in on the trend
There are pop-ups for everything now: museums, operas, restaurants, a Twin Peaks-themed coffee shop, pretty much everything.
This is all happening as cornerstones of physical retail—think malls, department stores, everything but Amazon—are struggling to attract physical visits rather than virtual ones. Big business is catching on to the hotness of pop-ups, and now there are two kinds of pop-ups. The first is the traditional kind: a small business owner wants to start out but can’t afford to lease a commercial space, so they pair up with or rent out the capital they need from another business. Business grows, and eventually, the entrepreneur is able open their own brick-and-mortar business. The other kind is a corporate co-opting of this model that’s designed to attract shoppers with a “limited-time only!” spiel. Google, Target, those Halloween and Christmas stores, and Amazon’s book stores (ironic much?) are just a few examples.
Why do shoppers love pop-ups? Are faux pop-ups working for big business? Is it squeezing out the little guy? What pop-ups work really well?
Guests:
Nick Schreiber, co-owner of Belle’s Bagels, a bagel pop-up at a Highland Park music venue
Melissa Gonzalez, founder of The Lion’Esque Group, a retail strategy firm that specializes in pop-ups
‘Under LA’ conference at USC dives into some of the least visible areas of Los Angeles
USC is hosting scientists, researchers, writers, artists and historians in a day of conversation on what lies beneath Los Angeles: earthquakes, tunnels, fossils and oil, and more.
Speakers and panels will cover LA’s underground science and ecosystem, the city’s subterranean infrastructure, local military history, and its edgy arts and culture.
The conference is called “Under L.A.: Subterranean Stories,” and it’s open to the public Saturday, 9am-4:30pm at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library.
Guests:
William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West (ICW) and co-curator of the “Under LA” conference this Saturday, Nov. 11, at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library
Robert-Michael deGroot, staff scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena and a panelist at the “Under LA” conference
Emily Lindsey, assistant curator and excavation site director at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum; a panelist at the “Under LA” conference
M.G. Lord, assistant professor of English at USC and a panelist at the “Under LA” conference
New bio lets master photographer Vivian Maier tell her own story
Vivian Maier is one of the new millennium’s biggest art stories. The story goes that Maier was an odd, secretive, reclusive nanny who took thousands of photos that she never made public.
A man named John Maloof bought a trove of her negatives at auction, saving them from the junk heap, and has released them onto the art market, where prints fetch thousands of dollars. The documentary "Finding Vivian Maier" was nominated for an Academy Award.
But how true is the story? Why does somebody else get to tell it? And are legions of Maier fans actually being disrespectful by looking at photos she may well have never wanted to be made public?
In 2012, Maloof told Off-Ramp's John Rabe he feels a little guilty that he's selling prints, "knowing she could have some level of success while she was alive." But, he says, "What do you want me to do? I could just leave it in my basement and let it collect dust? I could do nothing, or get money to get this out there."
In the new biography, “Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife,” Pamela Bannos - a professor of photography at Northwestern University - tries to give a little control back to Vivian Maier. "The purpose of my book is to give her story back to her. I talk about her life through her photographs, and interleave it with what happened posthumously." She takes particular issue with the portrayal of Maier as a "nanny photographer," when in fact she was a photographer first, and happened to support her art by being a nanny.
Guest host John Rabe speaks with Bannos about the book and its new findings surrounding the Maier's enigmatic life.
Guest:
Pamela Bannos, associate professor of instruction in the Art Theory and Practice department at Northwestern University and author of “Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife” (The University of Chicago Press, 2017)