Apple's Artificial Intelligence Guru Talks About a Sci-Fi Future

Artificial intelligence has made great progress in helping computers recognize images in photos and recommending products online that you're more likely to buy. But the technology still faces many challenges, especially when it comes to computers remembering things like humans do. On Tuesday, Apple's director of AI research, Ruslan Salakhutdinov, discussed some of those limitations. However, he steered clear during his talk at an MIT Technology Review conference of how his secretive company incorporates AI into its products like Siri. Salakhutdinov, who joined Apple in October, said he is particularly interested in a type of AI known as reinforcement learning, which researchers use to teach computers to repeatedly take different actions to figure out the best possible result.