Artificial Intelligence

The Mars Robot Making Decisions on Its Own

Thanks to artificial-intelligence software, the Curiosity rover can target rocks without human input.

Artificial Intelligence

Low-Skill Workers Aren’t Actually the Ones Most Threatened by Robots

Thanks primarily to automation, and to a lesser extent globalization, no rich country’s middle-skilled workers are safe.

Artificial Intelligence

Is it Unethical to Design Robots to Resemble Humans?

The more we humanize chatbots, virtual assistants and machines, the more we in turn display human emotions toward them.

Emerging Tech

San Francisco to Delivery Robots: Get Off the Damn Sidewalk

A city lawmaker has proposed legislation banning autonomous delivery-bots. But the battle over who gets to use the sidewalk may just be getting started.

Emerging Tech

Meet NASA's Newest Crew Member: Astrobee

It's a friendly little cube that will fly around the International Space Station.

Artificial Intelligence

The Military is Using Human Brain Waves to Teach Robots How to Shoot

Without even realizing it, soldiers could soon be training robot sharpshooters to take their jobs.

Digital Government

Robot Exoskeletons Are Finally Here, And They’re Nothing Like the Suits From 'Iron Man'

After years of tinkering and military adventures, the first exoskeleton suits are finally walking out of the lab and into the market.

Digital Government

The Rise of the Health Care Robots

The robots are coming and they want you to get well soon. 

Artificial Intelligence

How Should We Treat Our Military Robots?

Increasingly human-like automated weapons demand an honest accounting of our emotional responses to them.

Emerging Tech

The Israeli Finalist in Google’s $20 Million Race to the Moon Won’t Make It to the Starting Line

The Google Lunar XPrize is a contest offering $20 million to the first private team to send a robot to the moon.

Artificial Intelligence

No One Is Prepared to Stop the Robot Onslaught. So What Will We Do When It Arrives?

Economists say somewhere between 9 percent and 47 percent of workers in the West could lose jobs to automation over the next two or so decades.

Digital Government

What Is It Like to Regain a Sense of Touch, Only to Lose It Again?

A mind-controlled robotic arm might one day feel real, but for its first two paralyzed users, the sensation is only fleeting.

Emerging Tech

A Problem That Keeps Warehouse Work From Being Fully Automated Has Just Been Solved

A startup called RightHand robotics recently began piloting technology that automates a task robots have previously struggled to master.

Artificial Intelligence

NASA’s Scientists Formed a Club to Dream Up Uses for AI Like Self-Replicating Robots and Harpooning Comets

Some ideas developing in the lab are so far-flung, the brains behind them don’t want to involve the agency’s top brass at all.