Child’s Play: Learning Like Infants May Boost Artificial Intelligence – Scientific American

Programming language that learns from failure and curiosity,… eventually the software will redefine the hardware much like how the mind works on changing the body.. interesting times ahead

Child’s Play: Learning Like Infants May Boost Artificial Intelligence – Scientific American

Babies, in contrast, rapidly adapt and learn how to manage in surroundings that are continuously changing and where the criteria for success in any endeavor (even for adults) are hardly ever clear. Their brains make predictions about what will happen in a situation, from patting a puppy to fitting a piece in a jigsaw puzzle. Then they experiment with their bodies and with objects, observing and analyzing the world around them. Millions of years of evolution have led to a superior learning system—one that today’s roboticists hope to deploy to improve machines controlled by AI, or artificial intelligence. In our cover story, “Self-Taught Robots,” journalist Diana Kwon explores how programming algorithms to learn like children is both transforming robotics and providing some insights into child development. Read on to see what robotic “children” are teaching us adults.