Artificial intelligence archive

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.

Multicampus ‘People and Robots Initiative’ targets advances, challenges

July 1, 2015

Cloud Robotics, Deep Learning, Human-Centric Automation, and Bio-Inspired Robotics are among the primary research themes of the new CITRIS initiative that focuses on innovative theory, benchmarks, software, and approaches to address challenges in the interest of society.

Teaching robots to be moral

June 10, 2015

As robots and other machines controlled by artificial intelligence are getting more sophisticated and more widely used, calls have gone out to try to instill morals in their decision-making pathways. But how? Computer science professor Stuart Russell weighs in.

Beyond drone warfare: Prof warns of ‘automated killing machines’

May 28, 2015

In an op-ed piece for the science journal Nature, Stuart Russell, an expert in artificial intelligence, outlines the debate over the use of AI weapons systems, and notes widespread agreement on the need for “meaningful human control” over targeting and engagement decisions. “Unfortunately,” he adds, “the meaning of ‘meaningful’ is still to be determined.”

New ‘deep learning’ technique enables robot mastery of skills via trial and error

May 22, 2015

UC Berkeley researchers have developed algorithms that enable robots to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process that more closely approximates the way humans learn, marking a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence.

New approach trains robots to match human dexterity and speed

May 22, 2015

Linking several powerful software techniques, as Berkeley engineers have done with BRETT (Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks), makes it possible for a robot to learn tasks rapidly with a relatively little training.

Robots are really bad at folding towels

May 20, 2015

Seven years ago, Berkeley researcher Pieter Abbeel set out on a quest: to teach a robot how to fold laundry. This proved to be a remarkably difficult task – and the difficulty of the task illuminates some key things about the limits of machines. See story and hear four-minute podcast.

How smart is today’s artificial intelligence?

May 20, 2015

How far away are we from making intelligent machines that actually have minds of their own? Berkeley researchers Stuart Russell and Pieter Abbeel weigh in on this nine-minute PBS News Hour segment, along with Elon Musk and Google’s Ray Kurzweil.