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Is That a Robot Bringing Your Tacos?

Your next Uber Eats order might arrive in this small self-driving robot hastily navigating its way down the sidewalk.

The robot is part of a project by Serve Robotics, a company spun off from Uber. It is now bringing its autonomous delivery bots to Brickell and Miami Beach, where they’ll navigate busy sidewalks, dodge obstacles, and deliver food—no humans needed.

Here’s the rundown:

• More robots, more cities: Serve Robotics has already completed tens of thousands of deliveries and has a deal in place to deploy up to 2,000 robots across the US via Uber Eats.

• Why Miami? The city’s mix of high foot traffic and restaurant density makes it an ideal testing ground for contactless, automated food delivery.

• Fueling rapid growth: Serve raised $86M in December, bringing total funding to $220M. The company is expanding beyond Los Angeles, with Miami now live and Dallas-Fort Worth next in line.

• Restaurants are adapting: Shake Shack and Mister O1 are among the growing number of restaurant chains integrating robotic delivery into their operations, aiming to streamline service and reduce costs.

Why it matters: Autonomous delivery has long been hyped, but its success depends on how well it works in the real world. Miami’s dense, pedestrian-heavy streets will be an effective litmus test for whether robots can actually navigate urban environments efficiently.

If robotic couriers can prove themselves in tough spaces like these? They could change the food delivery game for both restaurants and customers.

While it may reduce some courier roles, the tech will create new jobs in AI logistics, fleet operations, and robot maintenance. The focus will shift from making deliveries to managing and optimizing the technology.

And why not? I’d love to have my pizza delivered by this adorable robot. 😄

Want A Job in AI? Get a Humanities Degree

For years, a tech degree was the typical path into tech. But in the age of AI, that’s starting to change.

According to Steven Johnson, editorial director at Google Labs’ NotebookLM, AI is creating demand for skills traditionally associated with philosophy, psychology, and the liberal arts. Fine-tuning AI models isn’t just about coding—it’s about shaping their tone, ethics, and interactions in ways that feel natural and human.

Here’s what’s changing:

• AI needs ‘character training’: AI models aren’t just about coding—they need personality, ethical reasoning, and nuance. At Anthropic, philosopher Amanda Askell works on fine-tuning AI behavior, wrestling with questions like: Should AI models have moral considerations? What human principles should they follow?

• The rise of the ‘AI wrangler’: Johnson describes a new role emerging beyond prompt engineering: the AI wrangler. These professionals don’t need to code, but they deeply understand AI models, their strengths, and how to get the best results.

• Fluency in AI models is the new must-have skill: AI is evolving fast, and knowing how to leverage different models for different tasks is becoming a critical skill across industries, from marketing to journalism to research.

While roles like "AI wrangler" highlight the need for human insight in shaping AI behavior, does it actually mean more influence for non-techies?

Right now, AI models are still largely controlled by engineers and researchers who build and fine-tune them at the core. Bringing in philosophers and linguists to adjust tone and ethical reasoning is valuable, but it’s often happening after the fact—when models are already built. The real power in AI lies not just in tweaking its personality but in deciding how it’s developed from the ground up.

For humanities professionals to have a lasting impact, they may need to do more than fine-tune AI—they may need to push for a seat at the table in shaping AI’s foundations, governance, and ethical guardrails. Otherwise, their role might remain as polishers of the final product rather than architects of its core logic.

Does Working in Office Boost Productivity?

Sergey Brin wants Google employees back in the office, on every weekday.

In a recent memo, the Google co-founder called in-person work essential for staying ahead in AI and suggested that 60-hour workweeks hit the "sweet spot" for productivity.

This isn’t an official policy change, since Google still requires only 3 in-office days per week. But Brin’s stance mirrors moves from other big names: Amazon recently mandated a full return, along with JPMorgan Chase and the US’ Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Others like Spotify remain committed to remote work, crediting it with lower attrition.

I feel that the best possible arrangement varies from team to team and company to company. What works for the data team within your company might not work for the marketing team. What do you think?