Can AI want something? URochester awarded Templeton Foundation grant to find out

The $4.2 million in funding launches a new institute to investigate one of science’s biggest mysteries: the difference between life and machines. What separates living things from machines? Bacteria swim toward food. A bird builds a nest. A person plans for the future. Machines, on the other hand, do whatever they’ve been programmed by people to do. But today’s artificial intelligence systems can sometimes feel more like sentient beings than machines. They solve complex problems, write essays, c