Who Will Own the Robots?

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of articles about the effects of software and automation on the economy. You can read the other stories here and here. The way Hod Lipson describes his Creative Machines Lab captures his ambitions: "We are interested in robots that create and are creative." Lipson, an engineering professor at Cornell University (this July he's moving his lab to Columbia University), is one of the world's leading experts on artificial intelligence and robotics. His research projects provide a peek into the intriguing possibilities of machines and automation, from robots that "evolve" to ones that assemble themselves out of basic building blocks. A few years ago, Lipson demonstrated an algorithm that explained experimental data by formulating new scientific laws, which were consistent with ones known to be true. He had automated scientific discovery. Lipson's vision of the future is one in which machines and software possess abilities that were unthinkable until recently.