Robotic Exoskeleton Helping Chinese Climbers

The towering 5,000 feet high Mount Tai has more than 7,000 steps up. It sits in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong and has been known to turn legs to jelly for anyone game for scaling to the top.

Videos all over Chinese social media, such as TikTok’s sister app Douyin, show even the fittest hikers shaking, collapsing or trying to climb downhill on all fours.

Some visitors hire "climbing buddies" to help them make the summit. However, tere is another option tourism officials in Shandong have come up with: robotic legs.

On 29 January, the first day of Chinese New Year, ten AI-powered exoskeletons debuted at Mount Tai (Taishan in Mandarin), attracting over 200 users for a fee of 60 yuan to 80 yuan (US$ 8 - US$ 11 USD) per use during a week-long trial, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Co-developed by Taishan Cultural Tourism Group and Kenqing Technology, a Shenzhen-based tech company, this device is designed to wrap around users' waists and thighs and weighs in at just 1.8 kilograms, according to the firm’s product introduction.

Powered by AI algorithms, it can sense users’ movements and provide "synchronized assistance" to ease the burden of legs, according to Kenqing Technology.

Each robotic exoskeleton runs on two batteries, lasting for about five hours, according to Wang Houzhe, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Taishan Cultural Tourism Group. It generally takes six hours to climb to the top.

"It really works!" Li Chengde, a 68-year-old tourist from the capital Jinan, told state-run Xinhua News Agency after trying out the device. "It felt like someone was pulling me uphill!"

"This can help more people hike up the mountain and enjoy the scenery of Mount Tai… without it being too strenuous," Wang told Chinese state media.

Jacky, a content creator from Shandong who requested a pseudonym for privacy reasons, tested the device for half an hour over hundreds of steps.

While echoing the general positive feedback as many others, he told CNN there is still room for improvement.

"The experience is definitely easier," he said about climbing with the device on. "But once I took it off, I felt a bit clumsy walking (on my own)."

The 29-year-old said he felt like a "puppet" with the machine doing all the work but once he got used to not exerting himself, it was "really tiring" after he removed the exoskeleton and went back to climbing of his own power.

Jacky added he also found the device inconvenient when he needed to use the bathroom and tie his shoelaces while wearing it. The exoskeleton requires extra hands to put on and take off and fully squatting down could risk breaking the tight straps.

He also said that the battery needed more juice.

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U.S. House Democrats Applying Pressure On Meta

It was reported by Endgadget that there were a couple of Democrats Representatives that are pushing Mark Zuckerberg on Meta’s recent policy changes, saying they are "deeply concerned" about the company’s move to loosen its content moderation rules, end corporate diversity programs and ditch third-party fact checking.

In a letter addressed to the Meta CEO, four members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee demanded details about the sweeping changes Zuckerberg announced last month.

"These policy changes, the timing of which gives the inescapable appearance of currying favor with the Trump Administration, are abhorrent, inconsistent, and dangerous," the lawmakers wrote.

Meta so far hasn’t provided many specifics about how it will implement its new policies, which were announced shortly before President Donald Trump took office. The letter asks Zuckerberg to describe how Trump’s "threats of retribution against you" may have influenced the decision to end fact-checking on the platform. It also asks if the Facebook founder has "had discussions with anyone representing the Trump Administration regarding the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case against Meta."

The letter further notes that Zuckerberg’s recent statements seem to directly contradict previous remarks he made when the Oversight Board was first created. "The Oversight Board, once touted as a beacon of accountability, is rendered toothless when Meta itself refuses to adhere to the principles of 'trust and safety,'" it says.

Lawmakers also questioned Zuckerberg about his public statements that corporations need more "masculine energy" calling it "particularly strange in light of the fact that Meta’s long time Chief Legal Officer and its current Chief Financial Officer are both women and the three most important committees of your Board of Directors are chaired by women."

Zuckerberg was given until 21 February 2025 to respond. "We don’t have anything further to say beyond all we’ve already communicated over the last weeks," a Meta spokesperson told Engadget when asked about the letter.

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Jaden Smith's Castle Head Got Brutally Roasted

It appears that the weirdness of his parents affected Jaden Smith's mind when he showed up at the 2025 Grammy Awards Show.

As the 26-year-old walked along the red carpet with his sister Willow Smith, he posed for the cameras with a literal black castle fitted onto his head. Everything else looks perfectly fine and can be considered as fairly standard as he was dressed in a black tuxedo with a white collared shirt underneath.

But, to no one’s surprise, the rapper’s headpiece had fans dropping their jaws on the floor, and the roasts coming in are brutal.

"Talk about having a roof over your head," one person joked.

"Knowing Jaden Smith somebody prolly told him he’s living in his own head so he said bet," another commented.

A third laughed, "Looks like a Halloween outfit for a 5 year old."

Someone hilariously noted, "Prayers up to the person that has to sit behind Jaden Smith tonight at the Grammys."

"Whoever told him this was a good idea doesn’t like him," a netizen wrote.

Others were a little bit more on the critical side, ditching the humor and opting for genuine questions.

"'What the hell is even that?' How do you expect anyone to take you seriously with a frigging house oh [sic] your head?" someone asked.

"WTH is wrong with Jaden Smith??" a Facebook user questioned.

Another scolded, "This is beyond creative license. This is just flat out stupidity."

A comment that has over 200 likes also read, "If people are so desperate for attention, maybe they should do something that makes the world a better place rather than looking the most foolish."

While his sister, who is nominated for multiple awards at the show, opted to go headpiece-less with her look, she still managed to turn heads with her bedazzled bra and matching bottoms. She topped it off with a black blazer, platform heels, and various assortments of golden jewelry.

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Is Google Gemini Guilty Of Plagiarizing Its Super Bowl Ad?

After Google released a Super Bowl ad a few days ago that showed off its AI model, Gemini, it immediately drew online criticisms.

The ad generating product descriptions for a local Wisconsin cheese mart, was cited for generating an erroneous fact about the purported worldwide fervor for gouda. Gemini mentioned that that gouda accounts for "50 to 60 percent" of all global cheese consumption, and as an expert told The Verge, that simply isn't true.

Google executives defended the accuracy of the statistic at first, before quietly editing YouTube version of the ad to correct the error (and seemingly running afoul of Google-owned YouTube's policies in the process.)

But as it turns out? Gemini appears not to have even generated the product description at all. Or, if it did cook up the test, it did so by fully plagiarizing the cheese mart's existing web copy, which was published years before Gemini was even released or AI was even making much of a splash.

As the Verge first reported, though the Google ad is crafted in a way that seemingly shows Gemini generating entirely new web copy for the business to use, archived versions of the cheese mart's website show that the Wisconsin business has been using the exact same product description since at least 2020.

OpenAI's ChatGPT wasn't released until November 2022, and the earliest consumer-facing iteration of Google's Gemini, the text-generating chatbot it called Bard, wasn't launched until early 2023.

Needless to say, the situation is beyond bizarre. Either Google faked the ad entirely, or prompted its AI to generate the web page's existing copy word-for-word, or the AI was prompted to come up with original copy and instead copied the old version. In the publishing industry, that's referred to as "plagiarism."

Whatever the case, it's a bad look — not to mention just incredibly odd. Why didn't Google just trust its own technology, which it's currently jamming into each and every product it possibly can, for a simple Super Bowl slot?

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Robot For Sale in Amazon

Do you know that there is a functional robot for sale in Amazon?

Bloomberg Businessweek journalist Brad Stone billed Amazon as "The Everything Store" in his 2013 book about the company. Now, here's irrefutable proof: if you have ¥120,000,000 (about US$ 1,020,000) handy, you can currently buy a rideable mech robot through Amazon Japan.

The robot is Kuratas, a passion project of Japanese blacksmith Kogoro Kurata that has been in development for several years. It's 3.8 meters (12.5 feet) tall, weighs 5 tons, and should be able to scare the snot out of entire towns with aplomb. (Kurata bills the machine as a "toy," but that seems like a liberal use of the term.) Its terrifying BB Gatling gun can rattle off 6,000 rounds per minute, set to trigger when the pilot smiles.

There are a few disclaimers with the Kuratas: it's not available for discounted shipping through Amazon Prime, seemingly. It also doesn't come with the arms, which are available separately. You arguably don't need the arms if you just want to tool around in a giant mech bot — but if you're going to spend a million dollars on this thing, you might as well go all-in.

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