Donate

Artificial intelligence

Fingers on a keyboard

The people powering AI decisions

Science & Technology

Sometimes, human intelligence trumps artificial.

Group of people stand around a pianist in an auditorium

How a team of musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony

Artist Daniel Voshart's machine learning-assisted images of Roman emperors Augustus, left, and Maximinus Thrax, right.

This artist used machine learning to create realistic portraits of Roman emperors

Arts
Workers wash and dry chopped lettuce at a Taylor Farms processing plant in Salinas, California on September 10, 2019. In recent years, the company has started incorporating automation in its facility.

How immigrant workers are preparing for automation in agriculture

Global Nation Education
About 15,000 robots named “Pepper” are used in Japanese and European banks, fast service restaurants, and healthcare settings. Pepper is now in US bank branches too — HSBC has them in select locations to help answer basic customer questions.

Will the next wave of humanoid robots make our lives better — or steal our jobs?

Science & Technology
youtube logo reflected in an eyeball

Detecting ‘deepfakes’ by looking closely reveals a way to protect against them

Internet

Research has found ways to detect deepfakes through flaws that can’t be fixed easily by the fakers.

A man, left, takes a photo of a colorful robot that is also working as waitstaff in a restaurant.

A new book suggests AI and robots will take jobs — but make the world better

Technology

A new book theorizes that technology will cause a massive upheaval and a loss of jobs at nearly every level — but argues it will ultimately will be better for the world.

senior training

How to build a countrywide AI strategy? Finland is turning its seniors into evangelists.

Technology

The mentorship program is just one component of Finland’s national AI strategy, which focuses heavily on getting Finns without a technical or computer science background comfortable with AI.

Voyager

Arts, Culture & Media

The Voyager computer program is a powerful robot. It composes music — improvised, unpredictable music—using a virtual 64-piece orchestra. The Voyager’s inventor, George Lewis, improvises with his robotic partner, and creates music that we’d like to think only humans could make. Produced by Ted Panken.

Special Guest: Rodney Brooks

Arts, Culture & Media

Kurt Andersen and Rodney Brooks the world’s preeminent creator of robotic creatures talk about the culture of robots. Rodney Brooks is a scientist, professor, and director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. He is the inventor of many robots, including the Roomba, the intelligent vacuum cleaner. His latest book, Flesh and Machines, comes out next […]

Latest Episode

S3 E7 (The Wrong Apocalypse) – Future Wars