Deep learning boosted AI. Now the next big thing in machine intelligence is coming

Inside a simple computer simulation, a group of self-driving cars are performing a crazy-looking maneuver on a four-lane virtual highway. Half are trying to move from the right-hand lanes just as the other half try to merge from the left. It seems like just the sort of tricky thing that might flummox a robot vehicle, but they manage it with precision. I'm watching the driving simulation at the biggest artificial-intelligence conference of the year, held in Barcelona this past December. What's most amazing is that the software governing the cars' behavior wasn't programmed in the conventional sense at all.