Are Robots About the Level Up?

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

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4.7 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Within just a few years, artificial intelligence systems that sometimes seem to display almost human characteristics have gone from science fiction to apps on your phone. But there’s another AI-influenced frontier that is developing rapidly and remains untamed: robotics. Can the technologies that have helped computers get smarter now bring similar improvements to the robots that will work alongside us? In this episode of The Joy of Why podcast, Daniela Rus, a pioneering roboticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks to host Steven Strogatz about the surprising inspirations from biology that may help robots rise to new levels.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there side doorables. I cannot believe summer is almost over.
0:04.5	Maybe you're sad that beach days are winding down or school's about to get back into full swing,
0:09.2	but on the plus side, new episodes of Side Door are just weeks away.
0:13.8	And I can barely wait because we have so much to explore this year.
0:18.1	In the meantime, I want to share one final episode in our summer playlist. This one comes from the podcast The Joy of Why,
0:25.5	which is produced by Quanta magazine. They get into some pretty hardcore science in a
0:30.6	fun and easy to understand kind of way.
0:33.0	I got completely sucked into their episode about all the cool things robots will be doing in the near future.
0:39.0	Don't worry, it's not an apocalyptic tale of doom and gloom at the hands of our future AI overlords.
0:44.8	I promise. It's a lot more fun. So here it is. The Joy of Wise episode.
0:50.4	Are robots about to level up? I hope you enjoy. Artificial intelligence systems and robots seem destined to become ever greater
1:10.0	parts of the economy, the sciences, and even the arts.
1:14.0	We're all familiar with the AI Doomsday scenarios that populate science fiction,
1:18.0	but putting that aside, it's obvious that there are better and worse ways
1:22.0	of incorporating autonomous intelligent systems into our everyday lives.
1:27.0	So, how do we reduce potential friction in dealing with intelligent robots?
1:32.0	To bring out the best possible future.
1:35.1	How can we make robots more collaborative with each other and with us?
1:39.2	I'm Steve Strogats and this is the Joy of Why, a podcast from Quantum magazine where I take turns at the
1:45.0	mic with my co-host Jan 11 exploring some of the biggest unanswered questions in
1:49.8	math and science today. In his episode we've got Professor Daniela Rous to talk to us
1:56.0	about intelligent robots, how they're built, and how we might come to value them
	...

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