--- title: "New Robot Is “On The Path to Machine Self-Awareness,” Says Creator" description: "## Know Thyself" date: "2019-02-04" modified: "2019-02-04" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/new-robot-self-awareness" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "consciousness" - "robots" - "self-awareness" --- # New Robot Is “On The Path to Machine Self-Awareness,” Says Creator ![Researchers say they've built a robot arm that can construct a self-image — which they frame as a step toward machines that are truly self-aware.]() *\Image: Columbia University\* ## Know Thyself Researchers at Columbia University say they've built a robot arm that can construct a self-image from scratch — a capability they frame, provocatively, as a step toward machines that are truly self-aware. "This is perhaps what a newborn child does in its crib, as it learns what it is," said Hod Lipson, a professor of mechanical engineering who worked on the robot, in a [press release](). "We conjecture that this advantage may have also been the evolutionary origin of self-awareness in humans. While our robot’s ability to imagine itself is still crude compared to humans, we believe that this ability is on the path to machine self-awareness." ## It's Alive The robot arm, described in a [new paper]() in the journal *Science Robotics,* learns how to operate by experimenting — with no programming about physics, geometry or its own construction. But after a flailing around process the researchers call "babbling" and a period of "intensive computing," the arm's algorithm starts to make sense of the world. After its self-discovery process, according to the researchers, it managed to handle complex situations including repairing itself and writing text with a marker. ## I, Robot Those accomplishments are impressive, but the arm is a long way from writing a poem. Still, Lipson frames the project as an important step toward understanding how humans learn to conceive of themselves — and perhaps one day building robots that understand themselves as we do. "Philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists have been pondering the nature self-awareness for millennia, but have made relatively little progress," Lipson said. "We still cloak our lack of understanding with subjective terms like ‘canvas of reality,’ but robots now force us to translate these vague notions into concrete algorithms and mechanisms." **READ MORE:** [A Step Closer to Self-Aware Machines]() \[Columbia University\] ***More on self-aware robots:*** [Artificial Consciousness: How To Give A Robot A Soul]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()