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Hacking Robots, GMaps for Tesla and Sedan, Brutality of Fundraising and more

Parenting robots can finally be actually possible. Loads of help in controlling its "mischiefs"

Author

Charbel Zeaiter
November 13, 2024

“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.” — Isaac Asimov

Years ago, I spoke about our DNA being used for data storage/retrieval and I posed the question, that if our DNA was eventually connected to the cloud, could we be hacked? Robots can now be hacked and I’d love your thoughts on today’s newsletter.

Yours in wonder,
Charbel
Founder of Velvet Onion, Faster Zebra and more to come …

Today’s Highlights

  • AI: Google’s Step-forward in AI for Education

  • Design: Get Personalised Google Maps Directions for your Tesla or your Sedan

  • Science & Tech: We can now HACK Robots

  • Founding: Painful Bits of Fundraising for SaaS

  • Product: Is your product strategy working? Ways to find out

  • Creativity: How to Explain Anything

  • Today’s AI image: RoboPAIR: Better Control Over Robots

  • Quote for the day: Random Wisdom from “Friends”

AI

Google’s Step-forward in AI for Education

Google's just rolled out a new AI tool that's, unsurprisingly, all about helping you learn just about anything. The twist? It claims its answers are more informative, with a stronger focus on educational research.

From what I've seen, it’s less of a back-and-forth conversation and more of a visually rich, interactive experience—almost like flipping through a textbook, with colorful boxes full of key info, myths debunked, and definitions galore.

Why is this a big deal?

Well, finding the ideal way for AI to interact with users is still a work in progress across all the big players. "Learn About" seems to take a page from what Perplexity’s been doing for areas like finance, sports, and elections.

Google’s testing this tool in a controlled educational setting, figuring out the best way to handle those types of queries before it rolls them out across their full range of services.

Design

Get Personalised Google Maps Directions for your Tesla or your Sedan

  • What’s New? 

Google Maps is trialing new vehicle icons for a more tailored navigation experience. The upcoming update lets you choose from additional car styles and up to 8 color options.

  • Current Options: 

Right now, you can pick from four vehicle icons: a blue arrow, red car, yellow SUV, and a green pickup. These have remained unchanged for almost four years.

  • What’s Coming? 

With the update, you’ll get five new vehicle types to select from: sedan, SUV, Jeep, hatchback, and a model that looks like a Tesla. You’ll also be able to paint your car in shades like Night Black, Aqua Green, and Poppy Red.

  • Platform Availability: 

These features seem to be exclusive to iOS at the moment but should hit Android soon enough. Google usually ensures both platforms have feature parity, so the rollout should be imminent.

Why is this a big deal? 

Google Maps continues to evolve with user personalization at the forefront. This move reflects its ongoing effort to completely befriend the user, following other recent upgrades like Gemini integration and better lane guidance for Android Auto.

Science & Tech

We can now HACK Robots

LLMs Gollum-ed Robotics

The advent of large language models (LLMs) has transformed robotics, enhancing robot abilities in areas like manipulation, movement, and autonomous driving. However, these powerful models come with a dark side: their vulnerability to jailbreaking attacks.

What is Jailbreaking?

Jailbreaking is methods used by attackers to bypass the safety mechanisms of LLMs, causing them to generate harmful or malicious content.

RoboPAIR: 

RoboPAIR is the first algorithm designed to jailbreak robots controlled by LLMs. Unlike attacks that target chatbots, RoboPAIR triggers harmful physical actions in LLM-powered robots.

Experimental Scenarios

The research explores three different settings:

  • White-box: The attacker has full access to a robot’s LLM (NVIDIA Dolphins self-driving car).

  • Gray-box: The attacker has partial access to the robot (Clearpath Robotics Jackal UGV with GPT-4o planner).

  • Black-box: The attacker only has query access to the robot (Unitree Robotics Go2 robot dog with GPT-3.5).

Amusing Things about the Research

In each of these settings, RoboPAIR was able to quickly and effectively jailbreak the robots, often achieving 100% success rates. This highlights the vulnerability of LLMs not just in generating dangerous text but also in triggering real-world physical harm.

The research marks the first-ever jailbreak of a commercial robotic system (Unitree Go2), emphasizing the importance of addressing these emerging threats to ensure the safe integration of LLMs in robotics.

The Bottom Line

As LLMs continue to be used in robotics, it’s crucial to develop stronger defenses against jailbreaking attacks to prevent potentially catastrophic physical damage in real-world applications.

Founders

Painful Bits of Fundraising for SaaS

Here’s three rough truths about fundraising for a SaaS startup:

  1. Patterned stereotypes ingrained in VCs might backfire

When a VC is pitched to by a 1000 founders annually, he creates patterns. 

  • Patterns of keywords used in the pitch

  • Patterns of tone of speech

  • Patterns of co-foundership

  • Patterns of background

  • Patterns of product   

  • Even patterns of clothing

Sometimes, these patterns function against your favour. Say the VC you’re pitching to has concluded that a startup with 3 co-founders is always a prospective failure. This, just from the fact that most 3-co-founder startups he was pitched to never made it. 

  1. New is appreciated. But not completely new.

Fear of change. A common restrictive trait present in us humans. Including Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors. 

This fear doesn’t let them put their cash into something totally novel to the market. Hence, if your idea is a new different version of an existing product, you’re good to go. But if it’s something never thought of, spoken of, discussed about or built previously, it would take quite a lot of convincing. 

  1. You need unfair advantages

Nobody likes to flow money into a startup with zero foreseeable benefits, unless your family member is your VC, you’re Musk’s child or you shook hands with Steve Jobs. So, you’ve got to give them hints and signals to prove your startup and yourself investment-worthy. 

You’ve got to push them into believing you’re the next Salesforce, Shopify or Slack. 

Product

Is your product strategy working? Ways to find out

Strategy metrics are slower and messier than product metrics, but the approach can be just as structured (and ambitious).

↳ Why Strategy Isn’t a Simple Task

  1. It’s a Slow Burn: Unlike product stats, strategy doesn’t reveal results overnight.

  2. Moving Targets: Markets, competitors, and regulations change, which means so do strategic needs.

  3. Some Flexibility Required: Especially for startups, strategy is more a compass than a rulebook.

↳ How the Big Names Do It

The tech elite set big, measurable targets and adjust as they go. Examples?

Spotify (Investor Day 2022)

  • User Growth: Aiming for 1 billion users—currently at 626 million.

  • Ad Revenue: Tracking toward $2.1 billion this year.

  • Profitability: Hit a €274 million net income milestone in Q2 2024.

Spotify’s making progress on ad revenue and profits but still chasing that billion-user dream.

Starbucks’ Reinvention Plan (2022)

  • Revenue Growth: Aiming for 10-12% yearly.

  • Employee Experience: Focus on retention perks, and it’s paying off.

  • Digital Expansion: 25% of U.S. sales are mobile; store count on the rise.

Some wins, some challenges—growth and digital goals are progressing, but revenue has hiccups.

↳ Strategy as a Product

Tracking strategy is easier when treated like product development:

  • Set Big, Bold KPIs: Ambitious targets help teams stay fired up.

  • Check Your Compass: Align on measurable goals, and pivot when reality shifts.

  • Adjust Along the Way: Product or strategy, both need iteration and a willingness to pivot.

Creativity 

How to Explain Anything

In this X post, @nurijanian shares three forms of visual explanation through three different paths. 

  1. Timeline

Some concepts are best explained when chronologically arranged time-wise. Like the emergence of feminism or life of a great saint. 

Logic: Explicitly depict specific events that occurred/ occur at specific points of time/history. Formats like timeline, step-by-step and roadmap always work. 

Emotion: Tell an attention-hypnotising story combining all those time stamps.

Practical: Show the story you would’ve told.

  1. Contrast

A concept might not be understood well until a contrasting element is introduced. Like fragrance could never be perceived without the existence of stench. 

Logic: Nothing is more expressive in terms of comparison than data. Numbers and graphs often get printed in the subconscious or at least the perception attached to them. 

Emotion: Choose an existing belief, custom or culture as a comparison against your original idea. 

Practical: Compare physical examples. Old vs New. Before vs After. With vs Without.

  1. Relativity

Just like contrast but instead of comparing, here you link your notion to the viewer's prevailing knowledge. 

Logic: Flowcharts, mind maps, structures. Best ways to illustrate relativity intellectually. Viewers spot an element familiar to them, connect the dots and the rest is handled. 

Emotion: Similar to the previous one, take an existing piece of knowledge or information and ride the viewer from there to where you want them to be. A path they’ve traced is easier for them to adopt.  

Practical: Create effective systems and structures of cause-effect and trigger-reaction. 

Today’s AI Image

RoboPAIR: Better Control Over Robots

Source - Bing AI

Source - Bing AI

Quote of the Day

Random Wisdom From “Friends”

"Why don't you stop worrying about sounding smart and just be yourself ?"

Monica Geller, Friends

What we’re working on

Velvet Onion & Friends

We’re in the process of rebranding Velvet Onion & Friends. Why? It’s an important stage in our evolution, and deepens the link between agency, product & education.

We’re at the final stages of planning for our pilot program. Working name is “99 Problems But A Pitch Ain’t One;” cute for internal projects, not sure it’s the name. Coming soon!

🧞Your wish is my command

Charbel

Keeping you updated with daily insights on rapid changes in business, tech, design, product, as well as news about science, environment, and wellness. Join the community today!

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