Artificial Intelligence

So You Automated Your Coworkers Out of a Job

During his first day on the job at a small 3D-modelling company, Griffith noticed that his new colleagues’ workstations were hopelessly out of date. So he took the initiative to suggest some automation upgrades to the higher-ups, who concurred. Two years later, 20 employees—some of them good friends—were out of work. “I feel bad because…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

Google’s Nod to a Universal Translator Was a Smart First Move in a Bid for AI Dominance This Year

Last year was a rough one on AI’s public profile, and rightfully so. Major programs powered by machine learning, like Amazon’s recruiting software, were revealed to be biased against women. Others were dangerously ill-conceived, like Predictim’s babysitter-vetting algorithm. Even some of the biggest tech companies themselves stood up and said, look, facial recognition is out…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

The ‘Godfather of Deep Learning’ on Why We Need to Ensure AI Doesn’t Just Benefit the Rich

Martin Ford made waves with his 2015 book, Rise of the Robots, which details the many accelerating trends in automation and how they’re slated to impact business and, especially, employment. For his next book, Architects of Intelligence: The Truth About AI from the People Building It, he, well, attempts to hone in on precisely what…

Artificial Intelligence Martin Ford

A New AI-Powered System Creates Impressive 3D Animations From Still Images

Algorithmically generated content can sometimes turn out to be hilariously nonsensical or remarkably dumb. But researchers at the University of Washington (one of whom sold her startup to Facebook) developed a system that uses machine vision to create indisputably cool 3D animations. The system, called Photo Wake-Up, creates a 3D animation from a single photo.…

Artificial Intelligence Melanie Ehrenkranz

This Was the Year the Robot Takeover of Service Jobs Began

Out of the three major sectors of the economy—agriculture, manufacturing, and service—two are already largely automated. Farm labor, which about half the American workforce used to do, now comprises around 2 percent of American jobs. And we all know the rust belt song and dance, beat out to outsourcing and mechanization. Which is largely why…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

The First Cross-Country, Autonomous-Car Trip Is an Ethical Minefield

Anthony Levandowski—formerly of Google, where he reportedly contributed to at least one serious crash and did not alert the police while overseeing its self-driving car program, and of Uber, where he allegedly imported stolen secrets from Google and was fired after being sued over it—rides again. Levandowski claims to have taken the first ever hands-free…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

This AI Just Mapped Every Solar Panel in the United States

From rooftop configurations to utility-scale facilities, solar panels are springing up like popcorn across the United States. Putting an exact figure on the nation’s total solar power output, however, is proving to be notoriously difficult. Thankfully, it’s a problem well suited to artificial intelligence, as new research from Stanford University shows. In some states, solar…

Artificial Intelligence George Dvorsky

The Deadly Recklessness of the Self-Driving Car Industry

Autonomous vehicles were supposed to make driving safer, and they may yet—some of the more optimistic research indicates self-driving cars could save tens of thousands of lives a year in the U.S. alone. But so far, a recklessness has defined the culture of the largest companies pursuing the technology—Uber, Google, and arguably even Tesla—and has…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

Here’s Who Stands to Lose Most as AI Sweeps the Globe

There is a lot more artificial intelligence, and it is sprouting and multiplying everywhere. In schools, in job openings, in media coverage. The number of AI-based startups, conferences, research papers, and patents is skyrocketing. That’s perhaps the simplest way to frame the findings of the 2018 AI Index Report, which collects data around a number…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

The First Sex Robot Was Conceived in Ancient Greece

The age of android brothels and lifelike sex robots may seem cutting edge—until you’ve heard the story of the man who had sex with his ivory sculptures, and the Greeks who habitually had public intercourse with statues. In an excerpt from her new book, Gods & Robots, a deep and lively look at how Greek…

Artificial Intelligence Adrienne Mayor

The Five Most Worrying Trends in Artificial Intelligence Right Now

Artificial intelligence is already beginning to spiral out of our control, a new report from top researchers warns. Not so much in a Skynet kind of sense, but more in a ‘technology companies and governments are already using AI in ways that amp up surveillance and further marginalize vulnerable populations’ kind of way. On Thursday,…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

The Ancient Origins of Automation

The robots are coming for our jobs, artificial intelligence is ascendant, and invisible programs are taking over our lives. “Automation” is the word that comes up in each of those contexts and plenty more. It’s certainly one of the looming concepts of Our Times—a business imperative, an economic driver, a utopian ideal. We’re automating work,…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

Predictim Claims Its AI Can Flag ‘Risky’ Babysitters. So I Tried It on the People Who Watch My Kids.

The founders of Predictim want to be clear with me: Their product—an algorithm that scans the online footprint of a prospective babysitter to determine their “risk” levels for parents—is not racist. It is not biased. “We take ethics and bias extremely seriously,” Sal Parsa, Predictim’s CEO, tells me warily over the phone. “In fact, in…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

Introducing Automaton

Automation is killing jobs Automation is the future Automation is good Automation is bad Automation is coming Automation is inevitable According to one of our most infamous and widely experienced automated features, the searching masses are divided—or being divided, maybe—over just what it is that automation is doing. Still, if you want to take a…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant

Waymo’s Autonomous Taxis Now Take Paying Riders, But You Won’t Be One of Them

It’s simultaneously an exciting and terrifying time to be alive. The driverless car revolution is upon us, and on Wednesday, Waymo announced that it has launched the world’s first commercial autonomous taxi service. Unfortunately, only a select group of people will be able to take it for a spin. It’s been a little over eight…

Artificial Intelligence Rhett Jones

How We Can Prepare for Catastrophically Dangerous AI—and Why We Can’t Wait

Artificial intelligence in its current form is mostly harmless, but that’s not going to last. Machines are getting smarter and more capable by the minute, leading to concerns that AI will eventually match, and then exceed, human levels of intelligence—a prospect known as artificial superintelligence (ASI). As a technological prospect, ASI will be unlike anything…

Artificial Intelligence George Dvorsky

The World’s Smartest Plants, Atomic Clocks, and Whale Poop: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

It’s the final stretch of 2018, folks, and here at Gizmodo we’re still working hard to end this year with a bang. In the past week, we’ve covered everything from which plants are cleverer than others and NASA’s InSight lander to just how screwed up Robin Hood’s version of medieval history is and the annual…

Artificial Intelligence Tom McKay

These Animated AI Bots Learned to Dress Themselves, Awkwardly

The ability to put our clothes on each day is something most of us take for granted, but as computer scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology recently found out, it’s a surprisingly complicated task—even for artificial intelligence. As any toddler will gladly tell you, it’s not easy to dress oneself. It requires patience, physical dexterity,…

Artificial Intelligence George Dvorsky

Portrait Painted by AI Sells For $432,500

A painting made by an artificial intelligence program sold at Christie’s in New York auction on Thursday for $432,500—far more than the estimated $7,000 to $10,000. An anonymous phone bidder bought the painting, Portrait of Edmond Belamy, which was created by an algorithm developed by the Paris art collective Obvious. The three-person team fed the…

Artificial Intelligence Jennings Brown

Emerging Tech Will Create More Jobs Than It Kills by 2022, World Economic Forum Predicts

The advancement of robotics and artificial intelligence will make 75 million jobs obsolete by the year 2022, according to a new report. Sounds dreadful, but the same report goes on to predict the creation of 133 million new jobs over the same period. There’s a lot of uncertainty right now about the future of work,…

Artificial Intelligence George Dvorsky

So You Automated Your Coworkers Out of a Job

Google’s Nod to a Universal Translator Was a Smart First Move in a Bid for AI Dominance This Year

The ‘Godfather of Deep Learning’ on Why We Need to Ensure AI Doesn’t Just Benefit the Rich

A New AI-Powered System Creates Impressive 3D Animations From Still Images

This Was the Year the Robot Takeover of Service Jobs Began

The First Cross-Country, Autonomous-Car Trip Is an Ethical Minefield

This AI Just Mapped Every Solar Panel in the United States

The Deadly Recklessness of the Self-Driving Car Industry

Here’s Who Stands to Lose Most as AI Sweeps the Globe

The First Sex Robot Was Conceived in Ancient Greece

The Five Most Worrying Trends in Artificial Intelligence Right Now

The Ancient Origins of Automation

Predictim Claims Its AI Can Flag ‘Risky’ Babysitters. So I Tried It on the People Who Watch My Kids.

Introducing Automaton

Waymo’s Autonomous Taxis Now Take Paying Riders, But You Won’t Be One of Them

How We Can Prepare for Catastrophically Dangerous AI—and Why We Can’t Wait

The World’s Smartest Plants, Atomic Clocks, and Whale Poop: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

These Animated AI Bots Learned to Dress Themselves, Awkwardly

Portrait Painted by AI Sells For $432,500

Emerging Tech Will Create More Jobs Than It Kills by 2022, World Economic Forum Predicts

Michael B. Jordan’s First Post-Oscars Film Looks Way Cuter Than ‘Sinners’

LLMs Will Protect Each Other if Threatened, Study Finds

The Octopus Penis Arm Doesn’t Just Deliver Sperm—It Sniffs Out the Sweet Spot

Revisiting the Ending of ‘Chainsaw Man’ Through the Lens of Japanese Folklore

U.S. Considers Ban on Chinese Air Bags Blamed for Deaths of 10 People in Survivable Crashes

Samsung’s New Frame TVs Look Even More Like Actual Paintings

You Can Now Watch Rocky From ‘Project Hail Mary’ Sleep With the Perfect Accompaniment

5 Things You May Have Missed During NASA’s Historic Launch of Artemis 2

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

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