MIT's version of the "robotoddler" is just the latest MIT entry in the world of robots that can move themselves in a variety of settings. There's still a long way to go before today's robots evolve into practical, everyday technologies, but even now, autonomous robotic vehicles developed at MIT are exploring uncharted or hazardous places, assisting troops in combat and performing household tasks. In addition to his well-known work on humanoid robots such as Kismet, Professor Rodney Brooks led the development of several robotic vehicles and co-founded a company, iRobot, that develops these machines commercially. Troops in Afghanistan use PackBots to explore enemy caves, and soldiers in Iraq use them to detect improvised explosive devices and inspect weapons caches. "In 20 years, we've gone from robots that can hardly maneuver around objects to ones that can navigate in unstructured environments," said Brooks, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Aeronautics researchers at MIT have developed a manned-to-unmanned aircraft guidance system that allows a pilot in one plane to guide another unmanned airplane by speaking commands in English. In a flight test, the pilotless vehicle, called a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), responded to sudden changes in plan and avoided unexpected threats en route to its destination, in real time. "The system allows the pilot to interface with the UAV at a high level--not just'turn right, turn left' but'fly to this region and perform this task,'" said Mario Valenti, a flight controls engineer for Boeing who is on leave to pursue a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. "The pilot essentially treats the UAV as a wingman," said Valenti, comparing the UAV to a companion pilot in a fighter-plane squadron. Tom Schouwenaars, a Ph.D. candidate in aeronautics and astronautics, and Valenti are principal researchers on the guidance system, which is part of the capstone demonstration of the Software Enabled Control (SEC) program. Professors Eric Feron and Jonathan How of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (aero/astro) are among the principal investigators on the SEC program.

The White House released a much-anticipated document entitled "Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence." Sent from the Office of the President and the National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology (or NSTC), the report is 58 pages of research, documentation, and recommendations on how the United States government plans to respond to artificial intelligence (AI) moving forward. The report was developed by the NSTC's Subcommittee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, "which was chartered in May 2016 to foster interagency coordination, to provide technical and policy advice on topics related to AI, and to monitor the development of AI technologies across industry, the research community, and the Federal Government," according to the report. The NSTC hosted five public workshops, as well as putting out a public Request for Information. The information drawn from those six sources informed the eventual recommendations of the committee.

"Wear that blue-colored dress today, it matches your new shoes." "Go to Tahiti on vacation, there is a good price now for tickets for this destination." All of these pieces of advice and more come from AI assistants. A wide range of these assistants have emerged to make our lives better: big ones like Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and SoundHound and multiple startups that are trying to conquer the market. Alterrа, for example, will help you choose the country for your next vacation.

The Turing Center is a multidisciplinary research center at the University of Washington, investigating problems at the crossroads of natural language processing, data mining, Web search, and the Semantic Web. The Center was established in May 2005 with a multi-million dollar gift from the Utilika Foundation, which is augmented by federal research grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity as well as support from Google and the Washington Research Foundation.

But it was one giant leap for computer-kind, with a state of the art artificial intelligence system being given primary command of a spacecraft. Known as Remote Agent, the software operated NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft and its futuristic ion engine during two experiments that started on Monday, May 17, 1999. For two days Remote Agent ran on the on-board computer of Deep Space 1, more than 60,000,000 miles (96,500,000 kilometers) from Earth. The tests were a step toward robotic explorers of the 21st century that are less costly, more capable and more independent from ground control. A second remote agent experiment was conducted on Friday, May 21, starting at 7:15 a.m.

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column on Wednesday November 1 2006 In the report below we describe John Pike as "director of global security and spokesman for the Federation of American Scientists". He has not held that position for some years. He is the founder and director of GlobalSecurity.org In November 2004, during the second battle of Fallujah, an American uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) - a robot plane - located a mortar battery that had been hampering the US operation to retake the town.The mortar's position was logged by the UAV's operator, who was sitting at his desk in Nellis Air Force base near Las Vegas, thousands of miles away. Using the internet, the operator contacted the operator of another armed UAV at a desk in central command ("Centcom") - a safe area away from the theatre of war, with centres in Kuwait, Qutar or Iraq.

Floods caused by extreme precipitation are one of the most frequent and widespread natural hazards. They are more costly and dangerous than ever, as population in urban areas increases and the global climate becomes more extreme and variable. Data shows that each year there are more than a hundred million people affected by flood events with a cost of more than $100 billion.1 While accurate precipitation monitoring is a key element for improving flood forecasting, traditional means of precipitation observation, such as ground-based gauges and radars, are limited in their spatial coverage. Recent advances in satellite remote sensing techniques have enabled precipitation observation in remote and ungauged regions to help hydrologists better forecast floods and manage water resources.

Backus was born in Philadelphia and grew up in nearby Wilmington, Del., where he was apparently an indifferent student, according to his biographical entry in the Wikipedia. After a stint in the U.S. Army (during which he was treated for a brain tumor), Backus ended up in New York City, where he gravitated toward mathematics. Earning a master's degree in the discipline in 1949, he joined International Business Machines the following year to work on the firm's Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator. The SSEC was one of the last of the large electromechanical computers ever built. It also was one of the first to run a stored program.