
But for some industry leaders, chatbots and image-generators are far from the final robotic frontier. Next up? Consciousness.
âThis topic was taboo,â Hod Lipson, the mechanical engineer in charge of the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University, told The New York Times. âWe were almost forbidden from talking about it â âDonât talk about the c-word; you wonât get tenureâ â so in the beginning I had to disguise it, like it was something else.â
Consciousness is one of the longest standing, and most divisive, questions in the field of artificial intelligence. And while to some itâs science fiction â and indeed has been the plot of countless sci-fi books, comics, and films â to others, like Lipson, itâs a goal, one that would undoubtedly change human life as we know it for good.