Senator misses the point of 'beerbot' demo, tries to ban DoD funding
Sorry, beerbot developers, you probably won't be able to get Pentagon funding for your alcohol-serving machines. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona has introduced a new section to the US Department of Defense appropriations bill, which says: "None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be obligated or expended for the development of a beerbot or other robot bartender." Okay, so the soon-to-retire lawmaker doesn't want the government to fund the development of silly robotic bartenders. Fair enough. Problem is, as IEEE Spectrum explained, he singled out a robot MIT researchers developed in 2015, which wasn't designed to be a beerbot at all. When he made his argument on the Senate floor on August 21st, he targeted the MIT research, because it was partially funded by the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force. He said...