Scientists are moving robots along on that continuum by developing robotic skin that helps them gain the sense of touch. Researchers from Munich to Japan to Boston are currently looking into how to give robots tactile sensation and in some cases, feel pain.

As more artificial intelligence applications move to smartphones, deep learning models are getting smaller to allow apps to run faster and save battery power. Now, MIT researchers have a new and better way to compress models.

Engineers have discovered many ways of encoding curious exploration into machine learning algorithms. A research team at MIT wondered if a computer could do better, based on a long history of enlisting computers in the search for new algorithms. 

Tonya Hall speaks with Dr. Una-May O'Reilly, MIT IBM Watson AI lab, to learn more about the current status of artificial adversarial intelligence and the strengths of adversarial dynamics over model-based malware detectors.

Developing drugs to combat Covid-19 is a global priority, requiring communities to come together to fight the spread of infection. At MIT, researchers with backgrounds in machine learning and life sciences are collaborating, sharing datasets and tools to develop machine learning methods that can identify novel cures for Covid-19.

A team from CSAIL came up with a method that dials us closer to more seamless human-robot collaboration. The system, called “Conduct-A-Bot,” uses human muscle signals from wearable sensors to pilot a robot’s movement. 

This week the White House announced that MIT Professor Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), has been selected to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

Startup Posh is trying to make conversations with chatbots more natural and less maddening. It’s accomplishing this with an artificial intelligence-powered system that uses “conversational memory” to help users complete tasks.