Artificial intelligence archive

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.”

Cambridge launches new center to study AI and the future of intelligence

December 4, 2015

The University of Cambridge is establishing a new interdisciplinary research center to address technical, practical and philosophical questions related to artificial intelligence, thanks to a landmark grant of £10 million from the Leverhulme Trust. EECS professor Stuart Russell, a leading AI researcher at Berkeley Engineering, will collaborate on the project.

Robot toddler learns to stand by ‘imagining’ how to do it

November 10, 2015

Instead of being programmed, Darwin, a robot in the lab of EECS associate professor Pieter Abbeel, uses brain-inspired algorithms to “imagine” doing tasks before trying them in the real world.

Robots: Will they steal your job?

November 6, 2015

At a Fortune Global Forum roundtable on automation, Berkeley Engineering professor and roboticist Ken Goldberg took issue with the notion that workers in routine and repetitive jobs are likely to be displaced by robots.

Q+A with BRETT

November 1, 2015

“How can we get a robot to think about situations it’s never seen before?” asks EECS professor Pieter Abbeel. In this Q&A, BRETT, resident robot in Abbeel’s lab, describes its experiences with deep learning.

Preschool for robots

September 8, 2015

Want machines to learn the way human toddlers do? You need a “classroom” equipped with Lego blocks and plenty of patience. Just ask Brett, or robotics professor Pieter Abbeel.

Musk, Hawking among experts to urge ban on military robots

July 31, 2015

Thousands of artificial intelligence researchers and experts are calling for a worldwide ban on so-called autonomous weapons, warning that they could set off a revolution in weaponry comparable to gunpowder and nuclear arms. Signatories include EECS professor Stuart Russell, Apple co-founder (and Berkeley alum) Steve Wozniak, and dozens of other Berkeley Engineering faculty and students.