Who couldn't use a little help cleaning up around the house? Right? 

Imagine a little helper robot that could clean up rooms around your home all by itself. Scientists at New York University and AI at Meta have joined forces to develop a robot to do just that. 

They call it OK-Robot. It's like a smart vacuum that not only cleans but can pick up toys and other things around the house, putting them where they belong.

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Here's how they put the OK-Robot to the test

Someone uses an app on their iPhone that can map out a room in 3D-like drawing a detailed map, but for the robot. The app is smart enough to see the room as we do, with all the things in it, from kids' toys to furniture. The robot then uses this map to find and move stuff around the room.

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Guess what? It mostly worked

"Simply tell the robot what to pick and where to drop it in natural language, and it will do it," one of the NYU researchers, Lerrel Pinto, wrote in a post on X. The robot, named Stretch, is pretty good at this. It's like a tall pole on wheels with a handy arm that grabs and moves things. It does a great job when the room isn't too messy, finding and moving things correctly more than half the time. It's even better when things are neat and in order.

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The future of fewer house chores

The brains of the robot come from what we call AI, or artificial intelligence, which is a way for machines to learn and do things like humans. This robot uses AI that anyone can get from the internet, which is why it's so special — it's using stuff that's out there for free.

But it's not perfect. If it sees something it doesn't recognize, it just stops and doesn't know what to do next. So, it works best when the room is tidy, and there aren't too many things it might get confused by.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

The people making the robot hope to teach it how to understand when we talk to it, which would make it even easier to use. They're excited because they think if we all start to believe that helper robots in our homes are possible, there will be a lot more cool robots in the future.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

The main point is that OK-Robot is a big step forward for robots that help us at home. It shows that robots can do more than just factory work. They can actually help us keep our homes clean and organized. As these robots get smarter, they'll become an even bigger part of our lives, making things easier for all of us if they don’t kill us first.

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