Artificial intelligence archive

Uber Is betting we’ll see driverless 18-wheelers before taxis

September 8, 2016

With its acquisition of self-driving truck startup Otto, Uber is hoping for a shortcut in the race to profit from driverless vehicles. But research engineer Steven Shladover of Berkeley’s California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology Program (PATH) sees challenges – real and perceived – in putting 40-ton trucks on the road with only software behind the wheel.

$4.6 million grant to improve how automated cars, drones interact with humans

September 8, 2016

As companies contemplate deploying self-driving cars, trucks and delivery drones, Berkeley engineers are embarking on a major project to improve how they interact with humans.

NSF funds cyber-physical systems research

September 6, 2016

The NSF on Tuesday awarded $4.6 million to VeHICaL (Verified Human Interfaces, Control, and Learning for Semi-Autonomous Systems), a project led by by EECS professor Sanjit Seshia that seeks to “impact the way humans collaborate and interact with automation.” Researchers include EECS professors Ruzena Bajcsy, Shankar Sastry, Bjoern Hartmann, Claire Tomlin, and Tom Griffiths.

Could artificial intelligence help humanity? California universities think so

September 2, 2016

Call it artificial intelligence with a human touch. This week, two California universities separately announced new centers devoted to studying the ways in which AI can help humanity.

Berkeley launches center to align AI systems with human values

August 29, 2016

Berkeley artificial intelligence expert Stuart Russell will lead a new Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, launched this week. The primary focus of the multi-university center is to ensure that AI systems are beneficial to humans.

How robot lover Anthony Levandowski pioneered the driverless car

August 22, 2016

Anthony Levandowski (B.S.’02, M.S.’03 IEOR) is one the most influential engineers behind self-driving vehicles. Now that Uber has bought his latest startup, Otto, he talks about how it all started with a phone call from Mom.

We can’t prevent AI changing the world but we can stop robots cooking cats

June 7, 2016

EECS professor Stuart Russell on the dramatic changes he believes artificial intelligence will bring about, and the thorny problem of making sure smart machines have our interests at heart.

Would you trust a robot surgeon to operate on you?

June 2, 2016

The role of surgeons may change dramatically as more and more surgical tasks are automated within the next 10 years, says Ken Goldberg, a roboticist and professor of industrial engineering who recently programmed a da Vinci surgical robot in his lab to conduct surgical incisions.

Dean’s word: The future of intelligence

May 1, 2016

Deep Learning technology has made a huge strides recently, advances built on pioneering research at Berkeley starting in the 1980s and carried on by a new generation of roboticists.

Life with machine: Robot relationships get real

May 1, 2016

Three Berkeley professors studying artificial intelligence and robotics are testing how machines and humans come into physical contact, behave independently and interact with one another. The common goal: to create machines with the intelligence to better serve and work with human beings.

Robots that act differently when you’re around

April 19, 2016

Roboticist Anca Dragan, head of Berkeley’s Interactive Autonomy and Collaborative Technologies lab, is working on algorithms that can help robots coexist with people in the real world.

Automakers go back to school for self-driving cars

March 16, 2016

Automakers Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen, along with electronic companies Nvidia, Samsung, Qualcomm and Panasonic, are collaborating to fund artificial intelligence research at UC Berkeley, hoping this DeepDrive alliance can help them build the brains behind self-driving cars.

‘Deep learning’ – a giant step for robots

March 4, 2016

For 15 years, Berkeley robotics researcher Pieter Abbeel has been looking for ways to make robots learn. In 2010 he and his students programmed a robot to fold towels. Now, he’s gotten robots to learn from their experience.

Inside the artificial intelligence revolution

February 29, 2016

A visit to Sutardja Dai Hall’s “robot nursery school,” where EECS professor Pieter Abbeel and colleagues are trying to teach robots to understand the world and think intelligently, kicks off a look at the potential and the perils of artificial intelligence.

Tech titans create nonprofit to develop artificial intelligence

December 15, 2015

A group of prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneurs has established a nonprofit organization to develop “digital intelligence” that will benefit humanity. “This collection of people is stunning,” said EECS professor and company adviser Pieter Abbeel, who said he expects the company’s research and ideas to be “impressive and surprising.”