artificial intelligence

New autopilot features are demonstrated in a Tesla Model S during a Tesla event in Palo Alto, Calif., Wednesday.

National

Self-Driving Cars Hit The Streets, Sort Of

2:18pm October 15, 2015

by Aarti Shahani

The electric car company Tesla is now becoming the self-driving carmaker. Today it releases software to tens of thousands of Model S owners to automate steering, lane change and parallel parking.

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John Markoff is a science and technology reporter for The New York Times.

How Close Are We Really To A Robot-Run Society?

11:25am August 21, 2015

From self-driving cars to automated warehouses, humans are being pushed out of the equation. Soon, robots will "do a million other things we can't even conceive of," author John Markoff says.

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Science

Researchers Warn Against 'Autonomous Weapons' Arms Race

7:01pm July 28, 2015

by Bill Chappell

Already, researcher Stuart Russell says, sentry robots in South Korea "can spot and track a human being for a distance of 2 miles — and can very accurately kill that person."

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Books
Arts

If Robots 'Speak,' Will We Listen? Novel Imagines A Future Changed By AI

6:42pm July 04, 2015

by NPR Staff

As artificial intelligence alters human connection, Louisa Hall's characters wrestle with whether machines can truly feel. Some "feel they have to stand up for a robot's right to exist," Hall says.

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Dealer Omar Abu-Eid adjusts a stack of chips before the first day of the World Series of Poker's main event in Las Vegas last July. Humans still reign in most versions of poker. Whew.

Look Out, This Poker-Playing Computer Is Unbeatable

9:20pm February 09, 2015

by Geoff Brumfiel

Forget chess. Poker may be even harder for a computer. But a software program has now "solved" a variant of Texas Hold'em, the bot's creators say. And nothing can keep it from winning.

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Arts

Do Feelings Compute? If Not, The Turing Test Doesn't Mean Much

4:20pm July 01, 2014

by Geoff Nunberg

For the first time, a computer passed the test for machines engaging in intelligent thought. Linguist Geoff Nunberg says the real test is whether computers can behave the same way thinking people do.

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Joaquin Phoenix stars in the film Her, in which his character falls in love with an operating system. When will artificial intelligence programs like Siri evolve to the point where we'll fall in love with them?

That's Just Like 'Her': Could We Ever Love A Computer?

5:36pm February 25, 2014

by Laura Sydell

There are hurdles to overcome before we can form relationships with artificially intelligent beings.

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