Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed a predictive artificial intelligence (AI) that can learn to see by touching and learn to feel by seeing.

CSAIL PhD student Yunzhu Li says in an article about the system they developed, “By looking at the scene, our model can imagine the feeling of touching a flat surface or a sharp edge. By randomly touching around, the model can predict the interaction with the environment solely from tactile feelings. Bringing these two senses together could empower the robot and reduce the data we might need for tasks involving manipulating and grasping objects.”

The news, which states that the developed system is still at the beginning of its journey and works in controlled environments, reminds me of the reality that machines are humanizing, in addition to the situation of humans becoming mechanized, which I have heard frequently lately. I suppose we are not volunteering to swap roles for now, either.