artificial intelligence

Forgiveness is associated with humans, but may play an integral role in human-robot interactions. A study asks whether we can forgive a robot for commiting a crime. Debating forgiveness rather than punishment, the study adds another ethical dimension to…

In order to combat the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, a group of scientists from MIT are using artificial intelligence to discover new and effective antibiotics. They were able to predict a powerful new antibiotic compound that is effective…

Electrical recordings from human subjects have revealed the existence of memory-trace cells, which change their response depending on which previous experience is supposed to be recalled, providing a major insight into how the brain remembers specific…

Artificial intelligence can now best professionals at poker, adding a random, multiplayer game to the ever-expanding list of games conquered by AI.

For those who lose or lack the ability to speak, communication can be slow and painstaking. For example, towards the end of his life famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking communicated solely through the movement of a single cheek muscle as a result of his…

by Franklin Wolfe figures by Abagail Burrus Over the past half-century, earthquakes have been the leading cause of death from natural disasters and have imposed dramatic cultural, economic, and political impacts on society. Compounding their inherent…

A driverless car is speeding down a road and can’t stop. Either it hits an elderly woman crossing the street, or it swerves out of the way and kills its passenger, a young child. Whose life should be spared? As driverless cars become a reality, the…

by Aparna Nathan Hospitals are churning out medical data at an unprecedented rate. 153 billion gigabytes of health care data were produced in 2013, and we’re expected to reach 2300 billion gigabytes per year by 2020. That’s almost 9 billion MacBooks’…

What is the hardest thing you think scientists need to do in a lab? Organic chemistry may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but multi-step organic syntheses are easily ranked a top challenge, even among experienced chemists. Nevertheless,…

by Chamith Fonseka figures by Rebecca Senft The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) tends to evoke images of self-aware computers and robots – Knight Rider, Wall-E, the Terminator – but for the most part, this technology is, for now, restricted to…