As a child, I was interested in cars, planes, and rocket ships. But since I have always been all thumbs and poor at math, becoming an engineer was never really an option. My fascination for technology has remained, among other things because humans and machines are growing ever closer together.

Where reality ends, Gerd Reis’ “Augmented Vision” begins: This is the name of the department at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, where the computer scientist teaches machines not just to see – but also to understand.

Thanks to a navigation algorithm, drones are learning to autonomously perform acrobatic maneuvers. Using simulations, the autonomous aircraft are trained to become faster, more agile, and more efficient.

Researchers have developed a new method for decoding the thinking of artificial intelligences. This is particularly important for situations in which self-learning computer programmes make decisions with implications for human lives.

Need a hug and no one familiar to wrap your arms around? A doctoral student at the "Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems" is developing a hugging robot that could once alleviate loneliness.

There is already a chronic shortage of qualified staff in the nursing sector, and demographic change will only exacerbate this development. Consequently, a research team at the German Aerospace Center is developing robots for use in nursing homes.

Shalev Lifshitz is the world’s youngest AI researcher. In this interview he explains how conflicts between humankind and machines can be solved.