A server on Discord called “The Donald” has been removed because it is affiliated with the banned Trump supporter subreddit. The Donald and the related website TheDonald.win. Casey Newton, a writer for Platformer and a contributor to the Verge, broke the story. This restriction comes just two days after Trump pushed a pro-Trump crowd to attack the US Capitol, despite Discord’s claim that it had no evidence that the server was used to plan the rioting.

Discord said in a statement provided to The Verge, “We have a zero-tolerance policy against hate and violence of any type on the platform, or the use of Discord to encourage or organize around violent extremism.” As reported by Discord, “while there is no evidence that a server called The Donald was used to organize the Jan. 6 riots, the company decided to ban the entire server today due to its overt connection to an online forum used to incite violence, plan an armed insurrection in the United States, and spread harmful misinformation related to 2020 U.S. election fraud.”

In June, when the site made changes to its policy to more expressly forbid hate speech, it removed the pro-Trump subreddit r/The Donald. After the ban, some users of r/The Donald regrouped on The Donald’s Discord server, as described in an October Mother Jones article. On Friday, Reddit banned the unofficial pro-Trump site r/donaldtrump for “multiple policy breaches in recent days involving the violence at the US Capitol.”

A large number of well-known IT enterprises and contract programmers for international clients may be found in this country.

Russia invaded Ukraine in an official capacity on Thursday. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said at a press conference on Thursday that sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies are not anticipated to instantly halt the Soviet advance. Meanwhile, Ukrainians wait tensely for whatever comes next. There are several ways in which the technological world has been affected by the conflict in Ukraine. Certain American sanctions, for instance, are aimed at preventing Russia from acquiring advanced technology for military and other uses. Moreover, Ukraine is home to a number of technological enterprises that serve millions of customers and organizations worldwide. On Thursday, the first day of the Russian occupation, I had a chance to speak with a few of them.

Perhaps the most well-known Ukrainian IT firm is Grammarly. Grammarly is the maker of an AI-driven service that helps people communicate better in writing. Millions of people all around the world use it, and some of the best venture capital firms in the world, like General Catalyst and Blackrock, have invested in it. Its current worth is $13 billion. The company’s headquarters and a large portion of its software development staff are located in Kyiv, Ukraine. The distance between Kyiv and the fighting zone in eastern Ukraine is around 700 kilometers (435 miles). It also employs people in New York City, San Francisco, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Senka Hadzimuratovic, a representative from Grammarly, emailed me on Thursday to tell me that the company is currently putting into effect the backup measures they had developed to safeguard their employees in Ukraine. According to her, the corporation is being secretive about the intentions out of concern for employees’ safety. She also reassures me that, should the crisis worsen, the corporation has preparations in place to keep its services functioning. So that our team members in Ukraine may focus on the immediate safety of themselves and their families, we have taken measures such as establishing alternative channels of contact and temporarily shifting mission-critical tasks to members of the team based in other countries.

A LinkedIn post by Grammarly CEO Brad Hoover read as follows: “Grammarly was founded in Ukraine, and I’ve had the privilege of getting to know its vibrant culture and kind people over the past decade — that includes many of our resilient, unstoppable team members who are yet again facing stress and uncertainty. Even while I still hold out hope for a de-escalation, I am saddened by the ongoing escalations in the country.

Kyiv-based Readdle was one of the first app stores to sell apps for the iPhone and iPad. Its history is littered with successful productivity apps for iOS devices and computers. Products like PDF Expert and Scanner Pro have been downloaded about 200 million times, according to the business. Denys Zhadanov, a board member, informs me that the company has over 150 workers in Ukraine. I inquired as to the current concerns of the minds behind Ukraine’s tech startups. All large CEOs agree that Ukraine should be a sovereign state, he said. This is an act of wartime hostility. The time Zhadanov spends in each location is roughly equal.

Zhadanov, like other Ukrainian business leaders, claims that his firm has backup plans and that its infrastructure and customer data are stored on servers in the United States and Europe. With offices in 11 different locations and a workforce spread around the globe, he is confident that business won’t take a hit. We are now taking precautions for the safety of our Odessa-based personnel. While technology advances, some Ukrainian IT leaders lament that geopolitics may seem stuck in the Cold War era.

MacPaw, based in Kyiv, creates utilities like CleanMyMac and The Unarchiver to make Macs more useful. As 21st century humans, “we all wish that the dreadful days of war were a thing of the past,” stated MacPaw CEO and creator Oleksandr Kosovan in a blog post on Thursday. We have seen how vulnerable freedom, independence, and the human right to life and choice are once again with the Russian onslaught against Ukraine. Kosovan continues by saying that the safety of MacPaw’s employees in Kyiv is the company’s top priority right now. To secure the security of its employees in Ukraine, the business has developed “different assistance programs and formed an emergency plan.” Customer information is stored on AWS servers outside of Ukraine, he adds.

Boston Dynamics recently shared a video of their robots Atlas, Spot, and Handle dancing to Do You Love Me. We sat up with Boston Dynamics’s vice president, Aaron Saunders, to ask him some questions about this and how it fits into the company’s strategy for commercial applications of robotics. Here is what he had to say:

How did the concept of making robots dance come about, though?

We were motivated to create this because we hoped that showing off robots in a lighthearted way will spark fresh ideas for how we may use them in our daily lives.

Dancing gives us a chance to observe how complicated actions requiring agility and coordination may be taught to robots through programming. Because nothing like this has ever been attempted before, it sheds new light on the business uses for robots.

How did you go about instructing Atlas, Spot, and Handle in the art of dance?

A: We started with the fundamentals of programming, such as repeating motion patterns, and then we refined them through trial and error. We then implemented machine learning strategies based on reinforcement learning algorithms to allow the robots to gradually acquire skills without constant human supervision.

We were able to acquire more intricate motions with less hand-holding from the team thanks to this. Last but not least, we developed an AI-based motion control system that allowed us to perform even more intricate routines.

Can you tell us how this technology can aid in the advancement of robots for industrial use?

The technology behind our dancing robots has already been implemented in a variety of fields, including search and rescue operations, where agility is essential for navigating rough terrain, entertainment, where complex choreographies are needed, manufacturing, where precise repeatable motions are essential, healthcare, where remote manipulation is required, logistics, where autonomous navigation is necessary, and many others.

These robots may be trained more rapidly than ever before with the use of computer vision technology, reinforcement learning algorithms, and motion control systems, allowing businesses to save time spent on research and development without sacrificing precision or dependability.

Conclusion

Aaron Saunders has provided insightful commentary on how to train robot dancers and the practical applications of this technology. Boston Dynamics was able to construct complicated robotic routines with unprecedented agility and coordination using only the most fundamental programming approaches, machine learning algorithms, and an AI-based motion control system.

Search and rescue operations, the entertainment industry, manufacturing, healthcare logistics, and other sectors can all benefit from this technology’s potential to accelerate the development of robotics while simultaneously enhancing precision and reliability. Based on his remarks, it is apparent that Boston Dynamics is ushering in a new era of robotics innovation that will completely transform how we interact with robots in our daily lives.

Question and Answer with Boston Dynamics VP Aaron Saunders on Dancing Robots and the Business of Robotics (Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum).