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What happens if we let growing artificial intelligence make all of our decisions for us?
Spider silk is just one of the ways nature has inspired innovation.
Silk image from www.shutterstock.com
Drugs, new materials and even more creative uses: biodiversity is full of potential.
Spreadsheets didn’t kill accountancy jobs, it just changed them.
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Many jobs are likely to disappear due to technology and automation, but many more are likely to be created. The greatest challenge is managing the transition.
Another job snatched by a robot?
Reuters
Some suggest half of current jobs will be lost to automation over the next decade or two. But it’s far too early to pit man versus machine.
Can a robot really feel and express emotions such as love?
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As Valentine’s Day approaches, imagine if your date was not human, but a machine. Could there ever be a romantic bond between a human and a robot?
Would you trust your child’s health to a robot surgeon?
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Robots and intelligent machines will one day takeover the tasks currently carried out by medical staff. But are we ready to place our health care in the hands of a machine?
It takes time for a human to become good at diagnosing ailments, but that learning is lost when they retire.
Shutterstock/Poprotskiy Alexey
Humans can only do so much when it comes to diagnosing what’s wrong with a patient. So why not let machines take over? They learn faster than humans and never retire.
Can a machine really think, be in awe and wonder?
Shutterstock/Photobymhu
As machines get ever more complex as we strive to make them complete more complex tasks, it’s time to ask again: will they ever be able to think? But what is thinking anyway?
Disney’s WALL.E needed to see all the rubbish on Earth so it could clean it up.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Robots that can learn to ‘see’ the world around them – and share their learning with other robots – will lead the next revolution in robotics.
Nelo Hotsuma/Flickr
Robots that can reproduce could improve their design in ways we wouldn’t think of but still within our control.
BB-8 (left) is a new droid addition to the Star Wars universe.
Disney
The droids in the Star Wars universe often play a key role in the movies. But how close are they to some of the real robots in our own universe?
‘I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations. And this is my counterpart R2-D2.’
Gordon Tarpley
No Star Wars movie would be complete without the Universe’s two favourite droids. But now the race is on to turn them into fact.
It’s okay in science fiction but not in real life: A robot (Robin Williams, left) who dreams of becoming human in the movie Bicentennial Man.
AAP/Touchstone Pictures
Science fiction can be good at predictiong soem of the technologies of tomorrow. But designers take note: not all those ideas are welcome.
Technology can be so frustrating at times, so what if it could understand your emotions?
Shutterstock/Kues
How often do you get angry or frustrated with a machine or some piece of technology? Well what if a machine could sense our emotion and then change its behaviour to suit?
Films like Ex Machina explore the bounds of emotional interaction between human and machine.
Universal Pictures
There are possible emotional and social pitfalls to love and sex with robots, but does that mean we should ban them entirely?
Have questions about robots and artificial intelligence?
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November 15, 2015
Toby Walsh , Data61 ; David Dowe , Monash University ; Gary Lea , Australian National University ; Jai Galliott , UNSW Sydney ; Jonathan Roberts , Queensland University of Technology ; Katina Michael , University of Wollongong ; Kevin Korb, Monash University ; Robert Sparrow , Monash University , dan Sean Welsh , University of Canterbury
Is genuine artificial consciousness possible? Should we protect jobs from automation? Your questions on AI and robots answered here.
No danger but creepy as hell.
Rain Rabbit
Does the ‘uncanny valley’ actually exist and what lies behind our unease?
Aldebaran’s Pepper robot is designed to respond to human emotion.
Aldebaran
Building genuine empathy into artificial intelligence is harder than it looks. It might be a while before we see the genuine article in robots.
Facing an uncertain future.
Tom Wang/www.shutterstock.com
If robots will take traditional graduate jobs, universities should be training students in borderless leadership skills.
BBC/David Venni
Five science (fiction) reasons why you should get to know Doctor Who.