What is a black box? A computer scientist explains what it means when the inner workings of AIs are hidden

Metaphorical black boxes shield the inner workings of AIs, which protect software developers’ intellectual property. They also make it hard to understand how the AIs work – and why things go wrong.

Saurabh Bagchi, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University • conversation
May 22, 2023 • ~5 min

How to investigate when a robot causes an accident – and why it's important that we do

Researchers have developed a black box for robots: an internal record of the robot’s inputs and actions. This will help investigate accidents and hopefully prevent future incidents.

Keri Grieman, Research Associate, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford • conversation
March 24, 2022 • ~6 min

How explainable artificial intelligence can help humans innovate

AI algorithms can solve hard problems and learn incredible tasks, but they can't explain how they do these things. If researchers can build explainable AI, it could lead to a flood of new knowledge.

Forest Agostinelli, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of South Carolina • conversation
Jan. 13, 2021 • ~7 min

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