I guess the fun part about teaching robots to do pointless tasks much better than humans is that it's their time we’re wasting as well as our own. We could be teaching poor machines about art or poetry or what fresh grass feels like underfoot after too long living in the city, but no, they get to solve a Rubik’s Cube and don’t even feel good about it.
Anyway, chipmaker Infineon built the machine above to demonstrate how good its microprocessors are. The company claims its attempt is a world best, but it hasn’t yet been recognized by the Guinness World Records organization. It’s perhaps worth noting as well, that although the chips in Infineon’s robot are the same as those it wants to sell to autonomous car-makers, solving a Rubik’s Cube quickly is as much about mechanical dexterity as processing speed. Which is to say that this is a stunt rather than a demonstration.
In related news, a human person also recently claimed a new Rubik’s Cube speed record, solving the puzzle in just 4.74 seconds. (Again: unrecognized by the Guinness World Records organization, but faster than any known time.) Solving a Rubik’s Cube remains a functionally pointless task, but look, look: the human is much happier about it than the robot. That's worth something, I think.