Yes, Let's Teach Robots To Think For Themselves

“You’ve heard it before: robots are bad at new things. They’re bad at adapting to new situations, they’re bad at recognizing new objects, and they’re bad at coming up with their own ideas about how to carry out tasks in changing environments. One way to deal with this general ineptitude is to provide a robot with endlessly detailed instructions to minimize the amount of unfamiliar things it experiences. The world is an awfully big place, however, and if we want robots to be able to do robot stuff outside of tolerably controlled environments, such a brute force approach may not be the best way to go. A much more elegant solution is to teach robots to think and adapt for themselves.”
 — Yeah, that’s a terrific idea! I can’t think of anything to worry about on this score. Let’s get busy making robots that are self-aware! [Via]