Robots

Maillardet's Automaton, built around 1800, can write poems and draw pictures and was a precursor to today's sophisticated robots.

By Patrick J. Kiger

A Google engineer made headlines for claiming that an AI called LaMDA had become sentient or conscious. While many AI scientists disagreed, what would it take for an AI to ever become sentient?

By Chris Pollette

Stanford researchers emulated the feet and legs of a peregrine falcon to enable a flying robot to land and perch on various surfaces, which could have lasting implications for future drone design and use.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Famed composer Ludwig von Beethoven died leaving just a few notes for his 10th Symphony. More than 200 years later, scientists use artificial intelligence to finish the job.

By Ahmed Elgammal

Elon Musk's Tesla Bot raises serious concerns, but probably not the ones you think.

By Andrew Maynard

Heck, it's even hard for some people to have common sense.

By Mayank Kejriwal

A hospital stay can be a stressful experience for anybody, and especially for a child. But a smiling new robot named Robin plays games, tells stories and comforts children in need of a friend.

By Jesslyn Shields

AI already can outperform humans in some narrow domains, but in the future AI may go inside the human brain to enhance intellectual capabilities, turning users into human-machine hybrids.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Many people worry that drones will invade their privacy, though experts say the fear is greater than the actual threat.

By Patrick J. Kiger

A new robot ant uses the same technology desert ants use to safely, efficiently navigate through the searing Saharan sun.

By Jesslyn Shields

We humans may 'know it when we see it,' but the bots sure don't. At least not yet.

By Greg Fish

Well, heck yeah, we can, and we have. Let's take a look.

By Robert Lamb

Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi masterpiece '2001: A Space Odyssey' premiered 50 years ago, and it got a lot of things right. But what about HAL? How close are we to those kinds of capabilities?

By Oisin Curran

With the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots heating up, we step back a few decades to look at the first human death by robot.

By Bryan Young

And guess what? You can browse them all for yourself.

By Jonathan Strickland

Researchers want to make it easy for beginners and nonengineers to design a custom robot in minutes, then print and assemble the parts themselves.

By Patrick J. Kiger

A newly filed patent suggests that the famously stiff animatronics in Disney theme parks could get a lifelike upgrade.

By Laurie L. Dove

The android known as FEDOR used pistols to display its decision making and dexterity, officials said, not as a preview of robot warfare.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Baxter, a collaborative robot, even blushes when he messes up a task.

By Shelley Danzy

Anything you can do on the pingpong table, FOPRPHEUS can show you how to do better.

By Chris Opfer

We've taught the machines to make decisions, but we haven't been paying as much attention to how and why they're learning.

By Patrick J. Kiger

How can you keep motors from overheating without bulky fans and cooling systems? Engineers looked to the human body for inspiration.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Researchers have developed wearable, mobile robots that can act as sensors, displays and even a necklace.

By Yves Jeffcoat

A new application called Statcheck is bringing some academics a lot closer to AI. Not everyone's a fan.

By Kate Kershner

What are the benefits of growing living tissue in a lab and fusing it to a robotic body? This Fw:Thinking video explores our cyborg future.

By Laurie L. Dove