This Robot Hand Taught Itself How to Grab Stuff Like a Human

Elon Musk is kinda worried about AI. ("AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization and I don't think people fully appreciate that," as he put it in 2017.) So he helped found a research nonprofit, OpenAI, to help cut a path to "safe" artificial general intelligence, as opposed to machines that pop our civilization like a pimple. Yes, Musk's very public fears may distract from other more real problems in AI. But OpenAI just took a big step toward robots that better integrate into our world by not, well, breaking everything they pick up. OpenAI researchers have built a system in which a simulated robotic hand learns to manipulate a block through trial and error, then seamlessly transfers that knowledge to a robotic hand in the real world.