How Artificial Intelligence Is Improving Magic Tricks

Forget lightning speed calculations, technological superiority and machine-like precision. Thanks to the efforts of some researchers, artificial intelligence can now create magic. "We've done a number of different tricks involving artificial intelligence," says Peter McOwan, a computer science professor at Queen Mary University of London. McOwan and his coauthor, Howard Williams, recently published a study in PLOS ONE on using search algorithms to scour the internet to find the hidden mental associations magicians can use to astound their spectators. "A piece of software is like a magic trick in that it has something that seems amazing," McOwan says.