Skip to Content
Artificial intelligence

This robot is not throwing away its shot

Researchers have used a technique called one-shot learning to teach a robot to pick up things it’s never seen before.

What is one-shot learning? It’s AI software that can perform a task after being given a single data point.

The news: In a paper published on arXiv (PDF), researchers at UC Berkeley revealed they had developed a robotic system that can pick up an object it’s seeing for the first time. The robot’s algorithm was first trained by watching videos of humans and robots picking up a variety of objects. Then came the “one-shot” part: it watched a single video of a human picking up a new object and then had to mimic what it saw.

But: One-shot learning of entirely new kinds of movements—like going from grabbing an object to pushing it, for example—is still out of reach. The researchers believe that with more data and improvements to the robot’s learning model it could get to that point.

Why it matters: Machine learning requires gobs of data and lots of time to train an algorithm. Advancing one-shot learning could streamline the process and dramatically cut down on the computing resources needed to teach AIs new tricks.

Deep Dive

Artificial intelligence

DeepMind’s cofounder: Generative AI is just a phase. What’s next is interactive AI.

“This is a profound moment in the history of technology,” says Mustafa Suleyman.

AI hype is built on high test scores. Those tests are flawed.

With hopes and fears about the technology running wild, it's time to agree on what it can and can't do.

You need to talk to your kid about AI. Here are 6 things you should say.

As children start back at school this week, it’s not just ChatGPT you need to be thinking about.

AI language models are rife with different political biases

New research explains you’ll get more right- or left-wing answers, depending on which AI model you ask.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.