MIT World: Engineering >>
Moore’s law and energy efficiency emerge as themes in these two lectures on past and future progress in microprocessors and robotics.
Back in the old days, recalls Rodney Brooks, people were not allowed near computers, because the smoke from human cigarettes might damage delicate machinery. Then humans had to steer clear of robots, lest they come out on the losing end of an encounter with a hulking machine limb. But following the explosion of PC and portable computing technology, the last 10 years have brought robots into close proximity with people. Brooks says more than nine thousand robots now serve in the U.S. military, and six million work in human homes -- including his own line at iRobot.
Brooks attributes this proliferation of AI aides to “IT exponentials that beget other exponentials.” Leaps in processing speed enormously aided in the development of essential robotics systems, such as vision, machine learning, wireless networking, and speech understanding. He shows a robot, “The Cart,” from Stanford’s AI lab circa 1979. The device relied on a giant mainframe (shared with the music department), and moved 20 meters in six hours. By 2005, Stanford’s AI
Moore’s law and energy efficiency emerge as themes in these two lectures on past and future progress in microprocessors and robotics.Back in the old days, recalls Rodney Brooks, people were not allowed near computers, because the smoke from human cigarettes might damage delicate machinery. Then humans had to steer clear of robots, lest they come out on the losing end of an encounter with a hulking machine limb. But following the explosion of PC and portable computing technology, the last 10 years have brought robots into close proximity with people. Brooks says more than nine thousand robots now serve in the U.S. military, and six million work in human homes -- including his own line at iRobot.
Brooks attributes this proliferation of AI aides to “IT exponentials that beget other exponentials.” Leaps in processing speed enormously aided in the development of essential robotics systems, such as vision, machine learning, wireless networking, and speech understanding. He shows a robot, “The Cart,” from Stanford’s AI lab circa 1979. The device relied on a giant mainframe (shared with the music department), and moved 20 meters in six hours. By 2005, Stanford’s AI
Three “young Turks” of computation science, in the words of moderator John Guttag, discuss recent, and quite varied, research.
In three presentations that look back to digital-age milestones, and glimpse ahead to what may come next, speakers share some previously undisclosed stories, great enthusiasms, and a few concerns.
