Artificial Intelligence

For millennia scientists have manually combed through data in a bid to find meaningful patterns to solve complex problems. Now, many researchers believe that Machine Learning will fundamentally change the way science is done.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is able to recognise the biological activity of natural products in a targeted manner, as researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated. Moreover, AI helps to find molecules that have the same effect as a natural substance but are easier to manufacture. This opens up huge possibilities for drug discovery, which also have potential to rewrite the rulebook for pharmaceutical research.

An EPFL Master’s student has shown that artificial intelligence can be used to further automate the process of land-use classification in Switzerland, especially for rare and complicated land categories that until now have been classified manually. A stretch of land in Valais Canton served as the sample for her research.

Engineers at EPFL have developed a predictive control model that allows swarms of drones to fly in cluttered environments quickly and safely. It works by enabling individual drones to predict their own behavior and that of their neighbors in the swarm.

Digital twins – a savvy combination of artificial intelligence and personal data – have already begun to revolutionize the way healthcare is provided. But they raise a lot of ethical and legal questions, especially given the vast amounts of medical data that must be collected to train artificial intelligence algorithms. So should we be worried about the eventuality of a digital clone? We spoke with experts from a variety of fields to find out.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is nowadays considered a fundamental asset for developing products and technologies across industries, giving companies who master it a competitive edge. What is still lacking, however, is a thorough discussion about the implications for society to better understand opportunities but also potential drawbacks. In an interview Mirko Kovac and Aslan Miriyev from Empa's Center of Robotics share their views about where AI and robotics research is headed.