Artificial Intelligence technology has been making grand strides over the past few years, outperforming humans in tasks once thought to be impossible. Machines can now recognize images, interpret audio and understand language with unprecedented reliability. But where will this technology go next, and how far can it reach?

This talk outlines a brief history of AI, and its embodied cousin, Robotics. We will follow the field from its inception nearly a century ago, into its accelerating ascent in recent years, and look into the future. 

AI is a beneficiary of several compounding exponential technologies. But unlike smooth progress observed in many other areas, AI progresses in distinct waves. Each wave leaps forward as a new fundamental capability is mastered, then lulls us into complacency until a wave washes over.

BRIEF BIO: Hod Lipson is a professor of Engineering and Data Science at Columbia University in New York, and a co-author of the award winning book “Fabricated: The New World of 3D printing”,  and “Driverless: Intelligent cars and the road ahead”. His work on self-aware and self-replicating robots   challenges conventional views of robotics. Lipson directs the Creative Machines Lab, which pioneers new ways to make machines that create, and machines that are creative. For more information visit http://hodlipson.com