Showing results for "A Will for the Machine" in Science

Most of us can recognize an object after seeing it once or twice. But the algorithms that power computer vision and voice recognition need thousands of examples to become familiar with each new image or word.

From the street, through Beijing’s heavy smog, it can sometimes be hard to make out IBM’s Chinese headquarters: a towering office building with a distinctive undulating architectural flourish and a large company logo at the top. But just a short distance away, on the northeast outskirts of the capital, IBM computer scientists are using artificial intelligence to develop what they think will be a way to manage China’s notorious and chronic pollution problem more successfully.

The Age of Living Machines describes some of the most exciting new developments and the scientists and engineers who helped create them. Virus-built batteries. Protein-based water filters. Cancer-detecting nanoparticles. Mind-reading bionic limbs. Computer-engineered crops. Together they highlight the promise of the technology revolution of the 21st century to overcome some of the greatest humanitarian, medical, and environmental challenges of our time. 

Let's face it: the pace of progress in artificial intelligence can sometimes seem unsettling. Terminator-style machines remain science fiction, but AI could have a huge impact on employment, introduce bias into algorithms, and contribute to the development of autonomous weapons. But perhaps the biggest looming threat may be making sure we understand how these increasingly complex systems work when they go awry.