artificial intelligence

Google A.I. Computer Takes Second Game From Human Champion

3:55pm March 10, 2016

by Bill Chappell

This game lacked some of the hard-hitting exchanges of the first, with several analysts agreeing that in Round 2, Lee Sedol took a more cautious approach while AlphaGo showed more creativity.

Champion professional Go player Lee Sedol (right) makes a move in his match against Google's artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, at the Google DeepMind Challenge Match in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday.

A.I. Program From Google Beats Human World Champ In Game Of Go

1:31pm March 09, 2016

by Bill Chappell

"They were neck-and-neck for its entirety, in a game filled with complex fighting," according to a recap. The five-game match will continue through the weekend.

South Korean Go champion Lee Sedol (right) poses with Google DeepMind head Demis Hassabis. On Wednesday, Sedol will begin a five-match series against a computer.

How Google's Neural Network Hopes To Beat A 'Go' World Champion

5:39pm March 08, 2016

by Geoff Brumfiel

On Wednesday in South Korea, a Google AI program will take on a top-level player in the ancient game of Go. Here's what you need to know.

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In the game Go, players use white or black stones to attempt to fence off territory.

Science

Forget Chess. A.I. Masters Wickedly Complex, Chinese Game Of 'Go'

4:15pm January 27, 2016

by Geoff Brumfiel

In a milestone for computers, a machine learned to play and has now beaten the European champion of the game.

Pindar Van Arman in his studio with paintings created by his bitPaintr portrait-painting robot.

Arts

You Can Give A Robot A Paintbrush, But Does It Create Art?

9:09am December 06, 2015

by Allie Caren

Pindar Van Arman is a painter — and a software designer. His latest project? A portrait-painting robot. Its paintings "dance on the edge" between creations by humans and machines, he says.

Shall I Compare Thee To An Algorithm? Turing Test Gets A Creative Twist

7:54pm October 18, 2015

by Joe Palca

Can a computer program craft passable prose — something readers can't distinguish from human-authored stuff? How about poetry, or dance mixes? New contests pose those challenges.

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Science

Q&A: What Machines Can Learn From People And We Can Learn From Them

6:25pm October 18, 2015

by Alina Selyukh

Should artificial intelligence mimic human behavior? The executive in charge of developing future generations of IBM's Watson tackles that and other questions about the limits and powers of AI.

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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