These Robots Teach Themselves New Tasks By Watching YouTube

05:29

January 12, 2016

Newly unveiled Haier Ubot household robots are shown in a kitchen display at the CES 2016 Consumer Electronics Show on January 8, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (David McNew/AFP/Getty Images)

What's your least favorite task around the house? Cooking dinner? Sweeping? Washing the dishes? Laundry?

Imagine if you had a robot who could do that for you. And not just do it, but teach itself to do it, with no help from you. It sounds like something out of the Jetsons, but it may be closer to reality than you think.

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson talks to Ozan Sener, one of the researchers on a project called RoboBrain who's working on teaching robots to teach themselves how to do different tasks by watching "how to" videos on YouTube.

Guest

Ozan Sener, Cornell University Ph.D. student in electrical and computer engineering.

This segment aired on January 12, 2016.