Sexy Robots
The desirable robot has been a trope in science fiction for almost a century, from the femme fatale Maria in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis to Gigolo Joe in Steven Spielberg’s A.I..Despina Kakoudaki is the...
View Article"Ex Machina" Director Alex Garland Says, Love Your Robot
The new movie Ex Machina manages to raise questions about the nature of consciousness while also being a pulse-raising thriller. It’s about an alpha-male tech CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), who enlists a...
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Five Things You Had To See Online This Week
This week in "Thanks, Internet" — The Wolfpack does the meanest impressions of Joker and the Dark Knight, "Mad Max" extends its internet reign, DARPA robots can't help but fail, a little girl blows...
View ArticleReal-Life Battle Mechs to Duke It Out
You've seen them in movies like Transformers and Pacific Rim, and stepped behind the controls in video games like MechWarrior. But giant fighting robots have always been fantasy — until now. A company...
View ArticleAn Anthropologist Walks Into a Bar in Silicon Valley
An MBA is no longer the only path to a successful Fortune 500 career. And while a business degree still goes a long way, majoring in the social sciences may offer more than a life in academia.Genevieve...
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What to Do When Robots Replace People You Work With
What are you willing to automate in your life? How much robot will you accept? This week, Manoush goes on a journey to find out what she's willing to automate in her life, what the right ratio of robot...
View ArticleI Am a Real Person
When Time Washington bureau chief Michael Scherer got a call from a telemarketer named Samantha West, he knew the voice on the other end of the line wasn't quite right somehow. Yet Samantha West kept...
View ArticleA Less-Than-Best Hotel, Horrible Robots, and Cult Members on the Loose
In this week's Movie Date podcast, Rafer and Kristen review "The Second Best Marigold Hotel" and "Chappie." "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" continues the story of a retirement community in...
View ArticleRobots Become Writers
Robot art has come a long way from HAL singing “Daisy” in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Algorithms are writing novels now. Bot artist Darius Kazemi and computer scientist Kris Hammond talk about the future of...
View ArticleRobots Become Writers
Robot art has come a long way from HAL singing “Daisy” in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Algorithms are writing novels now. Bot artist Darius Kazemi and computer scientist Kris Hammond talk about the future of...
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Oscar Isaac on "Ex Machina" and the Robot Takeover
For almost as long as Hollywood's been around, there have been movies about robots—helpful robots, scary robots, and robots whose motives are hard to read. Think Fritz Lang's 1927 film "Metropolis" or...
View ArticleIs Technology Our Friend or Foe?
Technology: sometimes it helps us to stay connected. Sometimes it makes us a little too connected...or not connected enough. Consider this week's big movie, "Unfriended." In it, friends hang out...
View ArticleRobots May Drive Bigger Wedge Between Rich and Poor
Robots are having a moment.They're breaking hearts in the movie "Ex Machina," splayed across the pages of The New York Times and filling the airwaves with a series from NPR's Planet Money on robots'...
View ArticleGOP Presidential Politics; Reforming Jails; Robots and Jobs
The field of GOP presidential hopefuls is getting more crowded by the week. Politico's Eli Stokols talks about the latest entrants to the race. Plus: Elizabeth Glazer, the director of the mayor's...
View ArticleWhen Will Robots Take Your Job?
Martin Ford, founder of a Silicon Valley-based software development firm and the author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, writes that as technology advances rapidly...
View ArticleBrian Lehrer Weekend: Robots, Minimum Wage & Counterterrorism
Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.Robots & Our Jobs (First) | Minimum Wage Push (Starts at 30:50) | Counterterrorism Expert (Starts at 57:27)If you don't...
View ArticleHow Technology Actually Creates More Jobs
If you’re worried that a robot might take your job, well, you’ve come to the right place. Economist James Bessen explores why technology may NOT displace workers - and why 19th-Century textile workers...
View ArticleHow Technology Actually Creates More Jobs
If you’re worried that a robot might take your job, well, you’ve come to the right place. Economist James Bessen explores why technology may NOT displace workers - and why 19th-Century textile workers...
View ArticleIs Work, As We Know It, Disappearing?
For centuries, experts have predicted that machines would replace workers, and work as we know it would disappear. Oxford researchers have forecast that machines might be able to take half of all U.S....
View ArticleRobot Humor
We often think of robots as tools to make our lives easier. But what if they could also make our lives funnier? Brooke talks with Joel Warner, co-author of The Humor Code: A Global Search for What...
View ArticleKiller Robots
Joshua Rothman and Nicholas Thompson join Amelia Lester and David Haglund to discuss just how scared we should be of robots.Joshua Rothman and Nicholas Thompson join Amelia Lester and David Haglund to...
View ArticleThe Disappearance of Work and our Voting Rights
Jerry Kaplan with a guide to working in the age of artificial intelligence. William Finnegan looks back at his surfing life. Abigail Santamaria on the woman who captivated C.S. Lewis. Ari Berman, The...
View ArticleRobot, You Can Drive My Car
After billions of dollars and fifty years of effort, researchers are finally cracking the code on artificial intelligence. In Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial...
View ArticleHumans Vs. the Robot-Apocalypse
With the advancements of technology reaching heights like that of driver-less cars, some people have posited that human existence may eventually become futile as we're outdated by our computer...
View ArticleThe Future According to Vivek Wadhwa
3-D printed food, self-driving cars, and robots everywhere. Technology is going to radically alter our lives in the next fifteen years, at least according to entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa. And immigration...
View ArticleCould Traveling to Mars Save Humanity?
Long before the discovery of water on Mars or Matt Damon's star turn in The Martian, Robert Zubrin has been advocating for a human mission to mars. His book, The Case for Mars, made a splash when it...
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Can You Have a Whole Relationship Through Texts?
We know text messages can be crazy. We know they can be cruel. We know they can be hilarious. And as at least 21 percent of Americans know, they can make us feel closer together. This week, we’re going...
View ArticleStephen Wolfram on Computer Creativity
Will a computer ever write a great novel? Absolutely, says the pioneering software developer Stephen Wolfram. He believes there's no limit to computer creativity.
View ArticleThey Had Androids in the Enlightenment?
Androids may seem like a modern idea, but there were life-size androids in the 18th century - beautiful robot women who could look around and even play the harpsichord. Historian Heidi Voskuhl tells...
View ArticleWhy Robots Need Morals Too
The robots are coming. But before they do, we’ll need to give them our morals. Queena Kim reports on why “moral philosophy” will mean big business in the tech world. The robots are coming. But before...
View ArticleHow About That Elroy?
The Guys discuss what socially conservative futures like The Jetsons show us about America. The Guys discuss what socially conservative futures like The Jetsons show us about America.
View ArticleOur Fear of a Robot Takeover
For as long as robots have been in our cultural consciousness, science fiction writers and filmmakers have fantasized about what it would be like if robots went rogue and disobeyed their human...
View ArticleFull Show: Modification
Sometimes, things just aren’t working out. Your product isn’t catching on, your webcomic isn’t that popular, your baby isn’t a super-genius. That’s when you have to change stuff up, get a new...
View ArticleWhen People, Robots, and The Law Collide
When a driverless car kills someone, who will be held responsible? As robotic devices become more common, legal scholar Ryan Calo tells us how they’ll interact with the legal system.
View ArticleWhy Humans Must Collaborate, Not Compete, with Robots
In a society that increasingly relies on technology and constant digital connection, author Thomas Davenport looks at where this leaves educated workers and professionals in his book, Only Humans Need...
View ArticleThe Future of a Human/Robot Workforce, Libertarian Candidate Gary Johnson's...
Manoush Zomorodi, host of WNYC's "Note to Self" podcast, is filling in today for Leonard!Author Thomas Davenport looks at the future of the human workforce as artificial intelligence becomes...
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How robots are joining the police force
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioGWEN IFILL: But first: In the aftermath of this week’s bombings in New York and New Jersey, science correspondent Miles O’Brien looks at the ways police departments are...
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Will South Korea’s robot revolution hurt American jobs?
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioBy Mori Rothman and Karla MurthyKARLA MURTHY: Hyundai means “modernity,” and it’s is a big name in the South Korean economic landscape – and not only for...
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Column: How intellectual property rules help the rich and hurt the poor
A yet-to-be-released Segway Ninebot personal transportation robot is seen onstage during the Intel keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Photo by Rick Wilking/ReutersEditor’s...
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Mexico taking U.S. factory jobs? Blame robots instead
Manufacturing is still flourishing, even as machines do increasing amounts of work. Photo via Getty ImagesWASHINGTON — Donald Trump blames Mexico and China for stealing millions of jobs from the United...
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These robots are helping answer a huge unknown about young marine life
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioHARI SREENIVASAN: Now a new effort to shed light on a mystery that has long baffled scientists who study the world’s oceans and waterways.Researchers are using some...
View ArticleImagining a Future Transformed by Technology
Alexander Weinstein, director of the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, joins us to discuss his debut short story collection, Children of the New World, which looks at unease in the...
View ArticleThis jumping robot leaps to new heights
A new primate-inspired robot has a feature that is leaps and bounds above the rest.Scientists from U.C. Berkeley invented a one legged robot named Salto — short for ‘Saltatorial Locomotion Terrain...
View ArticleFull Show: Modification
Sometimes, things just aren’t working out. Your product isn’t catching on, your webcomic isn’t that popular, your baby isn’t a super-genius. That’s when you have to change stuff up, get a new...
View ArticleWhen People, Robots, and The Law Collide
When a driverless car kills someone, who will be held responsible? As robotic devices become more common, legal scholar Ryan Calo tells us how they’ll interact with the legal system.
View ArticleFull Show: Modification
Sometimes, things just aren’t working out. Your product isn’t catching on, your webcomic isn’t that popular, your baby isn’t a super-genius. That’s when you have to change stuff up, get a new...
View ArticleWhen People, Robots, and The Law Collide
When a driverless car kills someone, who will be held responsible? As robotic devices become more common, legal scholar Ryan Calo tells us how they’ll interact with the legal system.
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The science behind why your shoelace knot is doomed to fail
Fret no longer children of planet Earth, as new research from the University of California, Berkeley, has figured out the physics behind why shoelace knots fail and why some shoelaces are more prone to...
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Are robots coming for your blue-collar jobs?
A new working paper finds that the arrival of one new industrial robot in a local labor market coincides with an employment drop of 5.6 workers. Photo by Echo via Getty Images.Each month, the NBER...
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The lionfish zapper hits the open seas
This 3D rendering of a lionfish harvester robot was developed by Robotics in Service of the Environment (RISE). The prototype uses a robot arm with two metal electrodes on the end to electrocute...
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