The Ultimate Learning Machines

Why are quintessentially geeky places like DARPA and Google suddenly interested in talking about something as profoundly ungeeky as babies? It turns out that understanding babies and young children may be one key to ensuring that the current "AI spring" continues--despite some chilly autumnal winds in the air. In the past, scientists unsuccessfully tried to create artificial intelligence by programming knowledge directly into a computer. Now they rely instead on "machine learning"--techniques that let the computers themselves work out what to do based on the data they see. These techniques have led to amazing breakthroughs.