That’s right, we could have a real Terminator on our hands by 2029, at least according to Ray Kurzweil, a leading US inventor. We’re not necessarily talking killing machines here, but Kurzweil believes that by that time machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence.

The engineer predicts that machines and humans will eventually merge through devices implanted in the body. Kurzweil thinks that these robots would boost our intelligence and health.

“I’ve made the case that we will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence by 2029,” he said. Read more »

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are working to create mini robots which are capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together. These “claytronic” robots, as they are called, use electromagnetic forces to move around, communicate, and even share power.

The team is also experimenting with using electric instead of electromagnetic forces to help the robots cling together, as magnetic forces are less efficient at smaller scales.

But software, not hardware, may be the group’s biggest challenge, says UK scientist Alan Winfield. “Right now we just don’t know how to design a system that produces a higher overall intelligence from a group of simple agents.”

[Via NewScientist] Video after the jump. Read more »