What if robots could build and optimize themselves — with little to no help from humans? Computer scientist Emma Hart is working on a new technology that could make “artificial evolution” possible. She explains how the three ingredients of biological evolution can be replicated digitally to build robots that can self-assemble and adapt to any environment — from the rocky terrain of other planets to the darkest depths of the ocean — potentially ushering in a new generation of exploration.
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#TEDWomen #EmmaHart
Ogaga Wanogho
April 1, 2022 at 4:52 pm
Isn’t this just Horizon zero dawn
Kory Po
April 1, 2022 at 5:00 pm
The Singularity is near!
Donald Hobson
April 1, 2022 at 5:06 pm
Evolution can be very creative, given a million years.
In a simulation intended to evolve virtual creatures to walk, the virtual creatures instead had a “be very tall and fall over” strategy. What the researchers wanted was walking. What they measured was the distance the centre of mass moved. This is one of the ways that harnessing evolution is tricky. You can get something that is technically what you asked for, but not what you wanted. Something that cheats.
J Eps
April 1, 2022 at 5:08 pm
This can go wrong or be manipulated in so many ways…”so busy trying to see, if we can; never considering, if we should….”.
SnowTV
April 1, 2022 at 11:00 pm
Yea this can be applied to almost every discovery.
J Eps
April 2, 2022 at 12:30 am
@SnowTV I think that’s a bit disingenuous. I think there’s a stark difference between creating a new sprinkler system that uses less water then somebody perverts that into a dispersal system for biological warfare; versus someone creating an atomic bomb to see if we can do it and then it being used to destroy humanity. I think we see enough inherent biases and prejudices on a daily basis to realize that an artificial intelligence system could be used in an extremely horrible way… let alone, an artificial intelligence system that can rebuild itself and adapt to the environment that we don’t know how to deal with.
Erich Schuller
April 1, 2022 at 5:18 pm
Hilariously naive. Imagine an electronic chip manufacturing device as a primary component.
Donald Hobson
April 1, 2022 at 5:21 pm
Evolution= Trial and error. Your robot will eventually evolve to make tea. But only after setting the kitchen on fire a few (thousand) times first.
targash sensei
April 1, 2022 at 7:11 pm
It’s not literal evolution, it’s artificial evolution – a lot more optimised
Robot won’t just start creating random machines, he will use collected data to create already optimised machine that can be changed bit by bit to be better
Jh5578
April 1, 2022 at 5:47 pm
Isn’t this the plot to Horizon?
Aleixo Teixeira
April 1, 2022 at 5:51 pm
We’re one step closer to the Matrix.
Alexandria Lombardi
April 1, 2022 at 6:40 pm
Interesting!
Gaasuba Meskhenet
April 1, 2022 at 7:11 pm
we are so not ready for this.
fingers crossed we don’t turn the whole universe into paperclips lol
Gaasuba Meskhenet
April 1, 2022 at 7:14 pm
move at the speed of trust
give people the power to say no to jobs they don’t believe in.
No more evictions from primary residences!!
listen2meokidoki
April 1, 2022 at 7:17 pm
Now we have Mad Women running the world.
pfarabee
April 1, 2022 at 7:40 pm
Robots that can self-evolve and self-reproduce.. because that could never possibly go wrong.
Denise McDougal
April 1, 2022 at 8:01 pm
We are so busy making the future better we’re making ourselves obsolete.
Wendy in Progress
April 1, 2022 at 8:17 pm
Awesome, so a robot capable of this is also a robot capable of taking other jobs that humans are needed for. If companies find them cheaper, we will be replaced. Why isn’t the government regulating this? This is a threat to humanity.
Rougesteelproject
April 1, 2022 at 10:10 pm
If every job is taken, hopefully that allows us to live in a post-scarcity world, where we don’t *need* to work.
Tom Bombadil
April 1, 2022 at 8:22 pm
I’ve seen that movie a long time ago. sentient robots who build other robots. I think it was called the Terminator 😆
AWARHERO
April 1, 2022 at 8:29 pm
Obviously, they haven’t watched Terminator movies
Or Star Gate (The replicants)
Or Star Trek (The borg)
Or The Matrix
What could possibly go wrong?!? Facepalm.
It tells you a lot when “DISLIKES” are disabled
TEDx, freedom of speech, only for them, not for us.
spijkerpoes
April 1, 2022 at 8:36 pm
As long as the robots aren’t made of clay straw wood and or blood flesh leaves bones and such … .. no way you can build the millions needed to get good evolutionary results
Kelly Warren
April 1, 2022 at 9:01 pm
Inventors are completely losing their marbles. It’s like watching mad scientists in real time. The implications of this going wrong, could have catastrophic results. Just because you can.. doesn’t mean you should.
Jamie Reibl
April 1, 2022 at 9:12 pm
This is how we get civilisation ending robots. Cool idea, bad idea!
Mads Peter Søstrøm
April 1, 2022 at 10:06 pm
Am i the only one feeling her body movement and mannerism to be of the same as Elon musk?
SnowTV
April 1, 2022 at 11:01 pm
lmao so many people in the comments don’t like the idea, why are they here in the first place
Bio Museum
April 2, 2022 at 1:14 am
I fell in love with mainstream science in my teenage years, but nowadays I see they are just a bunch of hedonistic, AI worshipers (aka misanthropic), making fairytales for adults such as eternal life, painless life, galactic empires, endless pleasure, and many other sh*t, i still love science, but the philosophy behind makes me puke
george h
April 2, 2022 at 1:27 am
This just sounds like we are sending significantly more resources to space than we need to. It sounds and looks like every modern tech buzz word in one speech. Creating a robot that can move multiple ways sounds significantly more efficient. Unless we are sending it to exo-planets, I don’t see the point. Even then we will have to program it with material science, sensors to detect every possible failure or a way to recognize what failed, incredibly advanced image recognition AI to recognize things like dust storms, every instrument to examin the environment (eg: radiation, acid, charged particles, ect.), send it with every material that counteracts said environment because it can’t be done with only one type of material and it won’t be able to survive mining the planet if it can’t survive exploring it. There may be infrequent changes in the environment that wipes out all robots so it may need instruments to predict them if it even can. It just sounds like you want to launch a processor the size of a building to have the creativity of a team of human scientists with a metric ton of materials that will gather dust after it uses the kilogram of material it needs. Then when it lands, the pre-designed robot that is supposed to build the evolving robots fails because it wasn’t designed to handle charged dust storms but it doesn’t matter anyway because it wasn’t going to properly connect component 5g67k with component 28hg6 and would have short circuited. The more complex parts there are, the more likely something will fail and this is complex AF. Weirdly enough, this idea may still be worth it if the place is 100 light years away and we can’t wait for a probe but the idea sounds like it will cost trillions upon trillions to make and a trillion more to send. Maybe when we colonize multiple star systems we can consider it.
Kristin Chong
April 2, 2022 at 4:11 am
Le sigh. Evolve. So colonial imperial. Like computer/ computer devices/ software could have been the great equalizer. But I guess if they like put two women be the face of the upcoming tech there’s no systematic racism and covert sexism. Ugh. Like can you even get Melinda gates to get some dude make legos. White women in geomonopolies. Like so close to power and how could you not punch up.
Jack Sparrow
April 2, 2022 at 4:50 am
So let me get this straight; this idiot scientist wants to build robots that not only self replicate, but also evolve on their own?! 😅 The phrase ‘ Ha ha, I am in danger’ has never been more appropriate.
jvazorka03
April 2, 2022 at 5:25 am
I honestly believe automation will bring manufacturing back to the United States, but the business infrastructure is not strong enough. We probably should make minor technological advancements before robots reproduce themselves.
Louise Frank
April 2, 2022 at 11:00 am
make sense
TheJamesRedwood
April 2, 2022 at 5:59 am
One of the most common and profound ironies of human technology, that we can conduct symposiums about advanced technology, using sound tech, that, despite over a century of development, still cannot provide feedback-free amplified sound.
Peter Wolff
April 2, 2022 at 7:59 am
TEDwomen???????? That is so discriminating and UNSCIENTIFIC.
Rockysage
April 2, 2022 at 9:12 am
We are so far away from making this a reality. Chill people.
Gaming Boba
April 2, 2022 at 9:22 am
A threat to humanity.
Pinned: 𝚃𝙴𝙳
April 2, 2022 at 9:52 am
+ 𝟷𝟽𝟷𝟸𝟻𝟼𝟼𝟻𝟸𝟷𝟶
ʟᴇᴛ ʜɪᴍ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ɪ ʀᴇғᴇʀʀᴇᴅ ʏᴏᴜ…
Jon Crowe
April 2, 2022 at 10:43 am
This is what Ted Faro did in Horizon Zero Dawn and it didn’t go very well.
Louise Frank
April 2, 2022 at 10:59 am
intreresting
whatsappme+①⑨⑦②⑥⑧⑧①⑧⓪⑨
April 2, 2022 at 11:03 am
👆 Hi mate, Thanks for watching Elon musk have something to share with you hit him up 👆
Invox
April 2, 2022 at 11:34 am
Her stiff shoulders are making me unconfortable… 😐
Invox
April 2, 2022 at 11:38 am
People talk about mapping the human brain, but what if we started smaller (say a spider or a ant) and them implement THAT on a robot? Small creatures have done very well all around the world and maybe they could do better in locomotion and other tasks in remote places without human assistance. Just an idea.
Ahmed Jarrar
April 2, 2022 at 11:46 am
If what she is saying is not freaken scare u that AI can go out of hand, I don’t know what will…. We need to put some breaks on AI evolution, not inroduce natural selection in robots, cause it will consider us as obsolete…..
Noukz
April 2, 2022 at 11:53 am
Whoa, people actually stood up to applaud this? There’s like a hundred more important subjects to discuss at the moment…
Gloria
April 2, 2022 at 11:58 am
Artificial evolution and artificial design iteration aren’t the same thing. I hate when scientists conflate terminology to get people comfortable with a seriously risky idea. They do the same thing with A.I. We don’t have true A.I. yet. Complex algorithms that compute preferences may seem to be learning, but they are only pushing data through preprogrammed computations.
True A.I. and this artificial evolution is terrifying. Especially since no computer program ever created has been 100% bug free.
whatsappme+①⑨⑦②⑥⑧⑧①⑧⓪⑨
April 2, 2022 at 12:05 pm
👆 Hi mate, Thanks for watching Elon musk have something to share with you hit him up. 👆
onikaizer
April 2, 2022 at 5:45 pm
but aren’t they talking about the design iteration being put through a series of tests that would effectively act as evolutionary pressure? I mean, you can have many designs, but only few will work under certain environmental situations, just like in any evolutionary process. I don’t see the risky part
Gloria
April 2, 2022 at 6:05 pm
@onikaizer She’s talking about robots building themselves/other robots to meet unknown challenges in unknown conditions. Assuming they don’t build and program themselves away from their initial purpose there is no way to set up proper safe guards for the consequences of their solutions.
Simon Thomas
April 2, 2022 at 12:14 pm
I think the idea of a robot AI being able to react to unexpected or unplanned changes in its surroundings extremely positive. Imagine the frustration of millions of dollars wasted during a mission due to unforeseen events, particularly with space exploration or nano-sized medical applications.
mani vignesh.k
April 2, 2022 at 1:06 pm
Last new year’s eve me and my best friend had a long conversation that led us to this idea in the end. Where continuity of information leaves DNA and gets digital using bodies made of non living spare parts.
This would detach life from the biological limitations and hence free life from lenvironmental requirements.
Understanding this to a great extent depends on how we define life.
Philko Nestos
April 2, 2022 at 2:08 pm
What can possibly go wrong…
Just ask the Asgard from Stargate..
Josh Ammari
April 2, 2022 at 3:57 pm
This lady is our Elisabet Sobeck
Paul Guy
April 3, 2022 at 6:15 am
I’m more concerned that she’s the other one.
Wex Qlp
April 2, 2022 at 4:05 pm
What could possible go wrong I wonder? If the robots are the regulators of their own creation. Skys the limit. They can eventually create robots that take over the earth. Seems like a great idea on paper. But scary in real life.
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Kim Senior
April 2, 2022 at 6:36 pm
Enter the MRNA vaccines!
GlobalJobber
April 2, 2022 at 9:14 pm
Look at that freaking audience all wearing masks. Horror show. The world has gone mad.
Grahamaan27
April 2, 2022 at 11:45 pm
She says “let’s create self replicating ai robots!” With a straight face.
Bar Room Buddha
April 3, 2022 at 12:32 am
YOU ARE GOING TOO DIE! -END POINT.
Spratt Mann
April 3, 2022 at 2:54 am
I can’t decide if this is the dumbest thing I’ve seen or the second…
PHUC YOU
April 3, 2022 at 5:28 am
Um bad idea! Very bad idea! Has she not seen “Total recall, starwars, the occasional terminator movie, wall-e, short circuit, or recently I am Legend? No? Well then get to binges and watch them..
Paul Guy
April 3, 2022 at 6:19 am
_Ted Faro has entered the chat_
Kevin Barbeau
April 3, 2022 at 8:12 am
I am getting Horizon Zero Dawn flashbacks from this…
Bornchiller123
April 3, 2022 at 10:30 am
Lets make real life Stargate Replicators. What could go wrong?!
Nia Galla
April 3, 2022 at 11:44 am
This is such a hard topic for me, it requires immensely amount of focus
Sol Draconian
April 3, 2022 at 2:27 pm
not a good idea for so many reasons. but you all just want to chase the money selling things we are not ready for.
Shivam Kushwaha
April 3, 2022 at 2:34 pm
I like the idea but a working demo would have been way cooler …
PrincessLunka
April 3, 2022 at 3:38 pm
Horizon Zero Dawn vibe, anyone?
Odreaded
April 3, 2022 at 4:02 pm
Y’all worried about gene therapy and self building robots when people don’t have access to clean drinking water. I feel like your priorities aren’t aligned correctly
Daniel Ormsbee
April 3, 2022 at 4:33 pm
With iterative machine learning, I don’t see the need for the development of a synthetic biomimicry version of evolution. We already have iterative machine learning so unless this is exactly what she’s talking about I don’t see the need to mimic biology in this context
Alex G.
April 3, 2022 at 6:28 pm
this woman needs to be removed from the gene pool
bounty1402
April 3, 2022 at 9:32 pm
Many movies and video games are based on AI and robots that for some reason turn against humans. Just to mention some: Terminator, Matrix, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mass Effect.
Feel free to add more below ⬇️
tiotito31
April 4, 2022 at 12:40 am
Getting serious Horizon Zero Dawn vibes now.
Connor Hawley
April 4, 2022 at 2:02 am
This might be the dumbest idea i’ve ever heard presented in a ted talk
UltraAar
April 4, 2022 at 2:28 am
self assembling robots in the clotshots
yuuisland
April 4, 2022 at 3:20 am
would’ve been nice if she had some preliminary results to show or something
Just John
April 4, 2022 at 4:32 am
Digital DNA. Robot breeding. Artificial evolution. Not sure how I feel about this🤔
Martin de Roo
April 4, 2022 at 12:02 pm
This lady should play Horizon: Zero Dawn
ZephyrMN
April 4, 2022 at 1:43 pm
Too much hubris, and dreams, nothing to show though…
Hoàng Duy
April 4, 2022 at 2:21 pm
Hi
I just watched your presentation, it’s so good
I have a question to ask you
You talked about the idea of a robot for research, I haven’t seen you talk about risk
Assuming the robot is a child, what will you do when a good kid grows up to be a bad person?
What will you do to protect humanity from risk?
If anyone knows, please comment so I can understand,
thank you for reading
ArLi Weng
April 4, 2022 at 4:09 pm
is risk, all we r. for now human care who hold the button, but u c, that button now doing killing, if we doing well, child never do that. just think about: what’s protect? from what? the ET?
ArLi Weng
April 4, 2022 at 4:09 pm
is risk, all we r. human care who hold the button, but u c, that button now doing killing. the problem is do we have right to do before we don’t have
Hoàng Duy
April 5, 2022 at 2:29 pm
@ArLi Weng thanh you very muck
Muniratu Ali
April 4, 2022 at 2:26 pm
Is she talking about robots and stuff
L0g1cSeer
April 4, 2022 at 3:00 pm
Well considered to our technological needs of adaptability!
Madara ram
April 5, 2022 at 11:31 am
Thank you for your assistance
ArLi Weng
April 4, 2022 at 3:41 pm
we known how tool use for, not by we capability or intelligence, it’s all because parents told, imaging a baby never been educated.. the robot same too, just one step pls, allow to modify by it’s self. we tech the childs, y, not right something, but we got today all because we can modify our self, if not, this video never exist, because we already do 😜
ArLi Weng
April 4, 2022 at 3:41 pm
we known how tool use for, not by we capability or intelligence, it’s all because parents told, imaging a baby never been educated.. the robot same too, just one step pls, allow to modify by it’s self, i mean the software. we tech the childs, y, not right all the time, but we got today all because we can modify our self, if not, this video never exist😏
Positive Frequencies
April 4, 2022 at 4:58 pm
Some people are just absolutely wicked. There is really an imbalance of good & evil, bad is outweighing any good in the human species.
Shubha Sankaran
April 4, 2022 at 8:37 pm
This i feel is really idealistic…… But am secretly hoping it to succed in becoming realistic😇😇😇😇😌😌
Good luck guysss
Mr. Mercury
April 4, 2022 at 11:06 pm
I don’t know how there are people who are dumb enough to work on stuff like this, like they are so smart, yet so… dumb isn’t the right word, perhaps it’s hubris that pushes them to do it even thoigh they know the risks involved.
RC Hunter
April 4, 2022 at 11:18 pm
Like dig!!!!
pouya
April 5, 2022 at 3:37 am
We are conscious programmed meat robots inside a Matrix Designed and programmed to colonize Earth and other planets!
If you look at the function of all the organs of the body including the brain, you will find out all the organs of the body have an automatic function, including heart rate, gastrointestinal tract and blood flow, and brain neurons activity !
Now, if we assume free will Exist in humans and we are the product of this that, then we must be able to explain how 100 billion brain neurons are interacting with each other to produce a thought!?
In fact no human really knows what is going on inside their brain, When a thought is produced! The only thing we understand from the thought and what is produced inside our brain is the image and sound that the brain is producing, and the brain automatically adds our thoughts to our vision!
Thinking is like a transparent curtain that adds an extra layer of information to our vision, we see our thoughts but they do not exist in front of us! It is the human ability to see things that do not exist outside of the human body in the Matrix !
The body-mind problem (Illusion of freewill) occurs in the humans when the nervous system get contracted! when this happens the thought process automatically begins to think! And since most people have more or less nervous system contractions, they have this extra thought in their mind always ! And in the long run, these thoughts almost become an additional operating system, and it decides for itself and gets the person in trouble!
This extra operating system is the same ‘I’ that everyone has but does not have an external existence. If the nervous system calms down, this extra thought process automatically stops! when this ‘I’ or visual curtain being removed from the vision , then it’s clear to understand that there is nobody inside the human body! Means human face is a hyper realistic mask!
Then consciousness could realize it’s nature and Understanding is not of the body! consciousness in the human form sees itself as somebody and it is separate from the function of the body!
The human body is essentially part of nature or Matrix , and we experience the world as consciousness through a mediator which is our body! In this Matrix , everything is pre-programmed , because all human beings are part of the Matrix , and in fact, there is really no one in this Matrix , except A consciousness and a running simulation including all humans!
All thoughts are extra thoughts, because life is a predetermined simulation! People get lost is their own story and this makes different level of consciousness in the societies, and somehow people at some level get stuck or programmed and they live with it!
that’s why a small group of people are controlling the most of humans! It’s because of the different consciousness level exist between humans!
The Cause of this problem is both physically and mentally ! The physical part is related to the normal circulation of a liquid called CSF in the human spine ,and it’s mental affect on the human brain and how brain is functioning !
CSF is one Molecule away from sea water! one of its function is to wash the brain and regulate the brain activity! We are living in a time that most people are dealing with some type of muscle or body spasms, and this makes the spine unbalance ! If this unbalance become so high, the normal circulation of the CSF will decrease, until it could get completely blocked!
If the normal circulation of the CSF get Disturbed,somehow human consciousness will get disconnected from its source, the person start living as a mind story, or locally!
This could make lots of mental and physical issues for some people+Repetitive thoughts, or self talking all the time! Bringing back the normal balance of the spine will circulate the CSF normally and thing get changed!
For some people this release could be a nerve on their hand, some in other part of human body! Human nervous system is like a tree, and this Stuckness could be at any body part!
Roy Plisko
April 5, 2022 at 5:58 am
This is the age of Tesla and Google. We don’t need a machine learning speech from 2005. Show the progress. Show us the robots building each other in timelapse. Show us the robot colony bumping around learning stuff Show us a new baby robot with improvements. If you can’t show that any of this works… then it’s just the same old tropes we’ve already heard.
Madara ram
April 5, 2022 at 11:27 am
Dear, TED. I did write a comment yesterday on your youtube channel and for some unknown reason, I do not see it in the comments section today. Please kindly let me know if you did remove the comment under name “logic seer” for any justifiable reason.
John Loibl
April 5, 2022 at 6:10 pm
So in a few decades we all die , there’s no other outcome, we will have no say in anything, they will find the optimum use for a human and museum it
John Loibl
April 5, 2022 at 6:12 pm
The future is digital souls and we all know it
Malo Otua
April 5, 2022 at 8:53 pm
How could any sane rational person think this is a good idea?
EnchantedImaginationASMR
April 7, 2022 at 2:15 am
I just came here to say “replicaters.”
Siimeon
April 7, 2022 at 5:20 pm
Guys, brothers and sisters! Can you all please wake up to living Jesus Christ? Big things are going to happen in 2022, and we need to hear from the Lord and receive the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all TRUTH. Love you all. 💛💛💛💛
pete james
April 8, 2022 at 12:58 am
i want a robot girlfriend that looks and feels human but who never rejects me, never nags me, never tells me to do stuff i dont wanna do, like a human female would, lets me sit around smoking and drinking without telling me im a fat ugly slob but who makes love to me anyway, is always in a good mood is always smiling, gives me a massage whenever i want, and you people ask, why would a man want an AI woman, lol because an AI woman would be x1000 times better than a real human woman.
pete james
April 8, 2022 at 1:10 am
if the movie terminator 2 were REAL, this company would obviously be on sarah connors KILL LIST,lol