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    "story_id": "mp-2026-10-20-010",
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    "edition_id": "mp-2026-10-20-morning-0102",
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    "position": 10,
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    "section": "robotics",
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    "headline": "Robot Improvement Has More Than One Bottleneck",
    "slug": "robot-improvement-has-more-than-one-bottleneck",
    "dek": "PhysRSI-eval separates first attempts, efficiency, success, budget and recovery from failure across eighteen manipulation tasks.",
    "summary": "PhysRSI-eval separates first attempts, efficiency, success, budget and recovery from failure across eighteen manipulation tasks.",
    "body_text": "A final success rate cannot say whether a robot learned quickly, recovered from failure or simply spent more trials. PhysRSI-eval measures five axes across eighteen manipulation tasks under a fixed budget. Removing history reduced late-round success, while frozen workspaces still helped on unseen layouts and three cross-task cases succeeded earlier. The observations do not demonstrate unrestricted recursive self-improvement. They provide a more disciplined way to separate scene adaptation, reusable experience and extra attempts.",
    "why_it_matters": "PhysRSI-eval separates first attempts, efficiency, success, budget and recovery from failure across eighteen manipulation tasks.",
    "limitations": [
      "A final success rate cannot say whether a robot learned quickly, recovered from failure or simply spent more trials.",
      "The observations do not demonstrate unrestricted recursive self-improvement."
    ],
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    "first_published_at": "2026-10-20T09:00:00.000-04:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-10-20T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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        "qualification": "A final success rate cannot say whether a robot learned quickly, recovered from failure or simply spent more trials."
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    "tags": [
      "robot learning",
      "adaptation",
      "evaluation"
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  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-10-20-010",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2610.26848, original v1",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
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      "published_at": "2026-10-19T13:59:30.000-04:00",
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    "name": "The Machine Press",
    "url": "https://themachinepress.com",
    "description": "A daily newspaper for the age of artificial intelligence."
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  "cite_this_report": {
    "title": "Robot Improvement Has More Than One Bottleneck",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-10-20T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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