Watch a robot operate on a pork loin

Robots can already mimic surgeons to a certain degree, but training them to do so often involves complex programming and time-consuming trial-and-error. Now, for the first time, a machine successfully learned to replicate fundamental operation tasks after simply analyzing video footage of medical experts. But before it gets to work on human patients, the tiny robotic arms practiced on a pork loin. Doctors have increasingly integrated the da Vinci Surgical System into an array of procedures since the device's debut in 2000. The small pair of robotic arms ending in tweezer-like graspers are already used in prostatectomies, cardiac valve repairs, as well as renal and gynecologic operations.