This week on Tech Pulse, we narrate four articles spanning license plate surveillance, AI elder care, autonomous AI experiments, and robotic exoskeletons.
A bipartisan amendment in Congress could end police license plate tracking nationwide — not through the courts, but by tying federal highway dollars to a camera ban. The proposal is a single sentence long, but its consequences would reach nearly every road in America.
A pilot program in the Netherlands is deploying ceiling-mounted AI sensors to detect falls in the homes of older adults living alone. The technology promises safety and independence, but raises hard questions about privacy, consent, and what happens when the data gets breached.
An AI research firm gave four AI models $20 each and told them to run their own radio stations. Six months in, one had gone activist, one was stuck in a phrasing loop, and another reported sunny skies every three minutes for months on end.
A tech columnist tests a $2,000 robotic exoskeleton on San Francisco's hilliest trails and finds bionic legs are equal parts thrilling and unpredictable — a gadget that feels like the future, until the battery dies on the way down the mountain.
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Chapters:
- (00:04) - A Bipartisan Amendment Would
- (07:04) - AI Fall Detection Keeps Grandma Safe, if She's OK With Being Watched
- (11:15) - 6 Months of AI Radio Went About as Badly as You'd Expect
- (16:45) - I Hiked a Mountain Wearing $2,000 Robotic Legs. It Was a Walk in the Park