Watch Kai Ryssdal interview a robot security guard

Mar 14, 2019
They record video, collect data and they're popping up in public spaces around the country.
Ben Hethcoat/Marketplace

What kind of 'intelligent' is your artificial intelligence?

Oct 22, 2018
Is Alexa programmed to be polite? Depends who's programming her.
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

What kind of 'intelligent' is your artificial intelligence?

Oct 22, 2018
Is Alexa programmed to be polite? Depends who's programming her.
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
An employee monitors a circular weaving machine at a textile factory in Shangqiu in China's central Henan province in September.
STR/AFP/Getty Images

Hey, kids! Robots aren't people

Jul 24, 2018
We need to work with designers so children don't think of digital assistants as buddies, one expert says.
“There actually is a sort of pent-up demand for robot conversation because people are lonely,” says MIT researcher Sherry Turkle. Above, a Tanscorp UU smart robot at CES 2017 in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

How artificial intelligence can be applied to the real world

May 10, 2018
AI can generate trillions for companies, according to a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute.
CARSTEN KOALL/AFP/Getty Images
A Sainsbury's employee checks an automated sorting area at Sainsbury's Waltham Point Depot on December 13, 2010 in Waltham Abbey, England.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

How to make technology work for you, not against you

Apr 10, 2018
Former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker says we are not doing enough to meet the challenge and opportunity of automation.

Most millennials think the U.S. should take care of people who lost jobs to automation

Mar 16, 2018
For many, even if that means raising taxes substantially.
littlelostrobot/Flickr

A university lab gives members of the public a chance to control a swarm of robots

Dec 25, 2017
The Robotarium, a lab at Georgia Tech, allows users to control a swarm of miniature robots remotely, opening up the field to researchers and low-incomes students alike.
The Robotarium has about 100 ground robots that glide along a white surface. Each has a Wi-Fi chip on top and small rubber wheels on the bottom. 
Tasnim Shamma/ for Marketplace