Disney’s WALL.E needed to see all the rubbish on Earth so it could clean it up.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Robots that can learn to ‘see’ the world around them – and share their learning with other robots – will lead the next revolution in robotics.
2015 saw us complete our exploration of all nine planets (including dwarf planet Pluto) in our solar system.
NASA
2015 was a year where we expanded our view of the universe, embraced new technologies and got a hint of the profound changes to come.
Nelo Hotsuma/Flickr
Robots that can reproduce could improve their design in ways we wouldn’t think of but still within our control.
BB-8 (left) is a new droid addition to the Star Wars universe.
Disney
The droids in the Star Wars universe often play a key role in the movies. But how close are they to some of the real robots in our own universe?
Robots and AI can be safe, if we make them that way.
Shutterstock
There are growing concerns about robots, artificial intelligence and automation. Now two new organisations are seeking to produce responsible robots and advance beneficial AI.
‘Need more input.’
robo-editing
What does it take to teach an AI how to read natural human languages?
Amazon Prime Air
Amazon’s latest delivery drone looks strange - here’s how it flies.
Technology can be so frustrating at times, so what if it could understand your emotions?
Shutterstock/Kues
How often do you get angry or frustrated with a machine or some piece of technology? Well what if a machine could sense our emotion and then change its behaviour to suit?
Films like Ex Machina explore the bounds of emotional interaction between human and machine.
Universal Pictures
There are possible emotional and social pitfalls to love and sex with robots, but does that mean we should ban them entirely?
Have questions about robots and artificial intelligence?
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November 15, 2015
Toby Walsh , Data61 ; David Dowe , Monash University ; Gary Lea , Australian National University ; Jai Galliott , UNSW Sydney ; Jonathan Roberts , Queensland University of Technology ; Katina Michael , University of Wollongong ; Kevin Korb, Monash University ; Robert Sparrow , Monash University , and Sean Welsh , University of Canterbury
Is genuine artificial consciousness possible? Should we protect jobs from automation? Your questions on AI and robots answered here.
Google’s machine learning software already does some pretty amazing things, such as visual translations.
TensorFlow
Google’s decision to release its machine learning software as open source could be a major boost for the development of new Artificial Intelligence technologies.
No danger but creepy as hell.
Rain Rabbit
Does the ‘uncanny valley’ actually exist and what lies behind our unease?
Tesla has already gone beyond demonstrating its self-driving car to having such a vehicle travel across the United States.
Reuters/Beck Diefenbach
Unlike a driver, the way a self-driving car responds to emergencies is programmed –decided in advance. We need to sort out the legal questions of responsibility this raises, and soon.
The first driverless car tests are set to commence in South Australia this year.
Volvo
Trials of autonomous vehicles are set to kick off in Australia this year. So how far down the road to driverless cars are we today?
Original Crystal Maze presenter Richard O'Brien.
Adam Butler/PA
Artificial intelligence programmers are burning the midnight oil to make computers better at processing complex problems. Here’s a progress report.
Aldebaran’s Pepper robot is designed to respond to human emotion.
Aldebaran
Building genuine empathy into artificial intelligence is harder than it looks. It might be a while before we see the genuine article in robots.
Bill Buchanan
Programming cars to make ethical decisions like humans poses problems.
Facing an uncertain future.
Tom Wang/www.shutterstock.com
If robots will take traditional graduate jobs, universities should be training students in borderless leadership skills.
Augmented reality technology could soon boost our intelligence.
COM SALUD Agencia de comunicación/Flickr
Many people are concerned about artificial intelligence. But new technologies like augmented reality are blurring the lines between us and the machines.
Universal Pictures
A call to ban sex robots is the same knee-jerk reaction faced by other technological advances, and as wrong-headed.