THE HEART AND THE CHIP

A leading roboticist looks forward to the next generation of a crucial technology.

The next step in social development will be the proliferation of robots, writes Rus, a MacArthur fellow and first female director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In her first book for a non-academic audience, co-authored by Mone, she lays out the current state of the technology and makes informed predictions about the future. There are already robots working in the background of our lives, from the millions in factories to clever machines performing sophisticated surgery. As Rus notes, the turning point will be when they are fully capable of taking over mundane, everyday tasks, freeing us to live richer lives. The robot trashcan that will take itself out when full sounds like a prosaic but very useful machine. Rus takes a tour around the companies working in this field, looking at pioneers examining exoskeletons to improve the mobility of elderly people as well as robots that could work in dangerous environments. She explains the various ways that robots learn and can be taught, and she is careful to address their limitations. Robots will never compete with the nuances, flexibility, and creativity of the human mind, writes the author, who notes that in fields such as medical diagnosis, the best results happen when humans and robots work together. Rus believes that the ultimate effects of the proliferation of robots will be positive, so long as it is controlled so that “the chip works in service of the heart.” The author clearly knows her field and offers many interesting ideas, but whether her exuberant optimism (“maybe I am a dreamer, an algorithm-infused utopian”) is justified is a question that can only be answered over time.

An authoritative vision of a world where technology allows us to enhance our humanity.