Latest news with #Nao
Canada Standard
5 days ago
- Business
- Canada Standard
Top French robotics firm goes into liquidation
Aldebaran, renowned for its androids capable of recognizing human emotions, has accumulated debt exceeding 60 million Aldebaran, a French company that blazed the trail in the field of 'empathetic' humanoid robots in the late 2000s, has been put into liquidation, local media has reported. The tech pioneer was placed into bankruptcy proceedings in January, and then in receivership the following month. On Monday, the receiver, along with the auctioneer, announced the "immediate cessation of activity" and termination of their contracts to the company's remaining 106 employees, according to Othman Meslouh, deputy secretary of Aldebaran's social and economic committee (CSE). The Paris Commercial Court passed the verdict earlier in the day. The receiver is now expected to start selling off the company's profitable assets, including its patents, to settle Aldebaran's outstanding debts that have exceeded €60 million ($68 million). In recent months, two takeover contenders, Franco-Swiss businessman Jean-Marie Van Appelghem and Canadian investor Malik Bachouchi, had made bids for the company. However, the former's overture was not backed by the receiver and Aldebaran's management, while the latter was rejected by the court, as Bachouchi earlier told Le Monde. From 2012 to 2022 - considered the company's heyday - it was owned by Japan's Softbank Robotics Group. Some time after it was acquired by the German company United Robotics Group (URG), a subsidiary of the RAG-Stiftung, the situation began to deteriorate, according to Meslouh. He told AFP that the new owner "no longer wanted to invest in the company." This claim was echoed by another anonymous employee cited by Le Monde, who said URG "asked us to be profitable within two years" even though development "cycles take five to seven years." The unnamed engineer also lamented that the owner had underinvested in Aldebaran's research and development. In the late 2000s, the company rolled out Nao, its first humanoid robot, touted as a "versatile educational companion, widely used in classrooms and research labs for its ability to teach programming, foster social learning, and support research projects." The model was followed by Plato, designed to support healthcare and hospitality environments, and Pepper, capable of recognizing and responding to human emotions and specifically tailored for customer-facing roles. According to the company's website, its robots have found application in more than 70 countries over the years. However, the total number of units sold was a mere 30,000, L'Express estimated. (
The Guardian
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Nao: Jupiter review – an upbeat, welcome return
Since her 2016 debut, For All We Know, London singer-songwriter Neo Jessica Joshua, AKA Nao, has made gossamer-light R&B that soars on the power of her distinctive high-lying voice. Grammy award- and Mercury prize-nominated for her electronic-influenced second album, Saturn (2018), and finding joy post-Covid on 2021's acoustic-leaning And Then Life Was Beautiful, Nao's output in the four years since has slowed after a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. But rather than a tale of struggle, fourth record Jupiter arrives with optimistic flair. Wildflowers sets the tone with its sprightly bass line and interlocking drum groove that anchors Joshua's earworming melody about a yearning romance. Other uptempo numbers such as We All Win and Happy People lift into anthemic choruses. Yet it's on the slower tracks that she is given space to shine, expertly sinking into the nocturnal groove of Elevate and erupting into an emotive crescendo on Light Years. There is little here that will surprise Nao's longtime fans, but it's an enjoyable listen and a welcome return for a homegrown R&B stalwart.
The Guardian
31-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Nao on fame, motherhood and living with ME: ‘I've had to work a lot on what my idea of success is'
Nao is trying to articulate how it feels to be on the verge of releasing a new album. When this thing that's been yours and yours alone has to be launched into the world. 'It feels really similar to being pregnant,' the 37-year-old mum of two decides. Her answer feels apt; we're currently sitting in an east London cinema cafe hemmed in by buggies while a mum-and-baby screening of erotic thriller Babygirl plays next door. 'It's really exciting in the beginning, then it gets a bit tedious,' she continues. 'And you're stuck in the process because you need to finish it. Get it out.' Sometimes, she says, it can also be just as painful. Not that you'd know it from listening to this month's fourth album, Jupiter, a typically featherlight concoction of pillow-soft soul, experimental R&B and airy acoustic ruminations all anchored by her angelic, otherworldly voice. It also carries just a dash of the electronic-leaning 'wonky funk' that saw Nao (born Neo Joshua) hailed as one to watch when she emerged in 2015. But Jupiter's overarching sense of contentment has been hard won after years spent battling an illness that prevented her from touring. Jupiter is a sequel of sorts to 2018's Grammy and Mercury prize-nominated second album Saturn, an emotionally tumultuous opus named after the astrological concept of Saturn return, a sort of crossroads a person reaches roughly every 27 to 29 years, before entering the next stage of their life. While that album dealt with the ups and downs of her 20s, 2021's And Then Life Was Beautiful, released into post-pandemic's upside-down world, searched desperately for joy. Shortly before it came out, Nao revealed she'd been diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), a disabling condition that left her profoundly fatigued and darkened by what she calls a low-grade depression. 'You can only do a small percentage of what you were capable of,' she says, nursing a coffee, a rare treat while following a low-carb diet that helps her recovery (she will return to touring later this year). 'For example, walking to meet you here, I'd probably have to take a taxi home. And then I'd be in bed for the rest of the day.' Jupiter's title was very specifically chosen because it's 'the planet of joy', she says. 'It's a planet of good fortune and good luck. And I really wanted to bring that into my life.' She singles out the balm-like Happy People, which glides around a sun-kissed Afrobeat lilt, as a key song. 'It came from realising who was important to me in my life,' she says. 'I think when you're in your 20s you're trying to make as many friends as possible. Then you get into your 30s, you have big transitions in life, and actually the fewer people the better.' Her candour is refreshing. When I say that she is underrated and that collaborations with the likes of Stormzy, Mura Masa, Chic, Lianne La Havas, Disclosure and Ezra Collective should have made her a household name, she doesn't see it as a compliment. 'It's like saying you're good enough to succeed but you haven't quite yet. I get a lot of comments saying I'm underrated, which is fine, but I've had to work a lot on what my idea of success is.' While she'd love to 'stream in the billions', she's also happy with where she's at. 'I just have to become present and think actually you're doing all right. You're all the things you wanted to be; you're, I hope, still credible; you make the music that you want; you still sell out your tours, but also you're a mum and you get to pick up your kids from school and drop them off.' She thinks doing things at her own pace – she didn't sign a record deal until she was 27 – has helped with her outlook. Born in Nottingham and raised mainly in London, Nao saw her early music career take place behind the scenes. At 18 her voice won her a place at London's Guildhall School , but she struggled to believe in herself. 'I'm not really sure how I got in,,' she says. She compares it to the 2014 film Whiplash, in which a jazz drummer is pushed to the brink by his instructor. 'I was working at 5am in the morning to basically not be embarrassed and not be humiliated by the teachers. That definitely stayed with me for a long time.' She felt she had to 'work and overwork and overwork to be on top of it.' She stuck it out and four years later started taking any job in music she could, be it teaching, or as part of a beatbox group, or singing backing vocals for the likes of Jarvis Cocker. In 2014, a manager discovered her singing in a club and signed her. From there she started cultivating a fanbase via SoundCloud, before releasing her first EP in 2014 on her own label. After signing that label to RCA, she released her electronic-leaning debut album, 2016's For All We Know, on a wave of hype. The album peaked inside the Top 20, which meant the pressure mounted around its follow-up, Saturn. Asked at the time how she was feeling about that album's release, she admitted to being nervous, contemplated retirement, and joked that if people hate the album she'll 'just die'. 'Oh my gosh, did I say that?' she says now. 'It's such a snapshot into where my brain was at that time. You have all the hype and the engine kind of just went on its own like, 'Oh, this is what's happening to me.' On the second album, that hype machine dies down and you're left with, 'OK, what? Fuck. Does anyone actually like me any more? What's left of me?'' Over time, as her 30s rolled out in front of her, she made the decision to stop caring about other people's expectations. During the promotion for And Then Life Was Beautiful, she told a journalist she'd avoided songs about motherhood because she couldn't write about it 'in a way that wouldn't put people off!' Pregnant with her second child while recording Jupiter, the album's stripped-back highlight 30 Something features the lyric 'I love my baby daughter, sometimes motherhood's whatever'. 'We don't get the full picture of what being a parent is until you're in it,' she says, as we become surrounded by mums scurrying out of the film holding crying babies. 'My own experience was all emotions all at once. It was like: 'This is fucking amazing, the best thing that's ever happened to me', and also, literally five minutes later, 'This is really shit'.' With a new album that reflects a relatable urge to seek out light in a dark world, I assumed she'd have some pearls of wisdom for her younger self, that one who felt like giving up just before Saturn's release. After a long pause and a deep breath she looks me in the eye. I'm braced for a nugget of positivity, but her answer is far more realistic. 'I'd just tell her, you know, it doesn't get any better,' she states. 'You're going to have to chill out and ride the waves. You're going to have to get more resilient … And it's not that deep. Maybe that's what I'd say; it's not that deep.' Jupiter is out on 21 February.
