Master of the machines

Admiring the view from Bernhard Schölkopf's office at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, most people would not necessarily think of artificial intelligence. Through the large glass windows, one's eyes are drawn to the Swabian Alps, with the picturesque university town of Tübingen nestling in the valley below. Perhaps a panoramic view such as this is helpful for a scientist who is pushing the boundaries of human thought. "I get machines to learn by researching the way they search for structures in observed data", explains Professor Schölkopf, a pioneer in the field of what are known as core methods: "Using the core trick, linear and understandable algorithms can also be applied to complex non-linear scenarios." Through his basic research, the scientist is laying the foundation for reliable intelligent systems that can be used in robots or driverless cars.