The synergy of robotics and artificial intelligence is leading to a near-term future in which robots assume an accelerating number of humans’ rote tasks. But we already are confronting the reality that robots can learn and communicate faster and more efficiently than humans can. This is leading us to a future in which robots not only are self-aware, but also are able to design and build new robots more intelligent and capable than themselves. However, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute at the University of California at Berkeley is busy writing mathematical algorithms to make sure robots remain subordinate to humans.
