You know, we've seen more than a few movies that begin this way. And they always end badly. Always. Here's uber-genius Hod Lipson giving an engaging presentation that was - for reasons inscrutable to us - not subtitled "how I spent my summer vacation ushering in the Age of the Machines:"

At least he's enthusiastic about it. More information is buried in the original story.

References:
* Robots that are "self-aware": Hod Lipson on TED.com [TED Blog]

Previously:
* The Cute Yellow Thin Wedge Of The Coming Robot Wars [Video]
* Neural Nets See Things The Way We Do, Vulnerable To Basic Optical Illusion
* A Peircean Checklist For Conscious Artificial Intelligence