Boris Sofman is the cofounder and CEO of Anki, a startup that had been in stealth for five years until it unveiled its first product with a bang as the headline demo at this years WWDC. Before founding Anki, Boris worked at iRobot and earned his sci-fi creds by getting a PhD from the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. Here, he talks to Michael Grothaus about the future of AI.

Lets get this one out of the way first, because its every developers dream. You were chosen to be the opening demo at this years WWDC. How did that feel?

It was such an exciting experience! And an honor as well. We'd been working on Anki for over five years without publicly announcing anything, so to finally be able to share with the world in such a way was simply incredible. We'd actually been working with Apple for a while already regarding selling Anki Drive in Apple stores. There really seemed to be an excitement at Apple not just around Anki Drive, but how we're using their devices in ways no one has used them before.

What is AI exactly?

AI is the science of using data to allow systems to behave with intelligence and with a purpose. This can be purely in software (a video game character, a chess program, voice recognition), but the most exciting application for us is when you combine it with robotics to make physical things behave with a level of intelligence never before possible.

Will any computers ever have true intelligence that operates at a human level?

The core approach to any AI problem is to represent the structure and constraints of the problem in a way that is computable. This is harder for some problems than others, and as a result there are areas where AI is already superior to a human, but others where it will be a long time before AI can come close to a human's capabilities. We're nowhere close to a general-purpose AI that can do everything a human can, but we're increasingly capable of addressing complex challenges and we're knocking off problems that were previously untouchable.

And your company, Anki, is working on some of those challenges?

Yes. Anki is an artificial intelligence and robotics company that is taking these technologies out of the lab and into peoples everyday lives. With these technologies, we're able to program physical objects to be intelligent, adapt and interact with their surroundings, and to surprise people with what is possible. Consumers have never before fully benefited from these technologies, which promise to make all aspects of our lives more fun, more useful, and more efficient. Anki Drive, which is a video game programmed for the real world, is the first step for us and demonstrates whats possible with Anki technology.

You made some breakthroughs with Anki Drive. Tell me about them.

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