A new study from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) demonstrates that large language models (LLMs) can be used to automate and significantly accelerate the process of robot design. The research team developed a system where a user provides a high-level text description of a desired robot’s function, and an LLM iteratively generates and refines the robot’s physical structure and control software. This approach bypasses traditional, time-consuming manual design and simulation cycles. In experiments, the system successfully designed functional robots for simple tasks, such as forward locomotion, directly from prompts like ‘design a robot that can walk.’ The work highlights the potential for AI to not only control robots but to invent new physical forms tailored to specific needs, though significant challenges in scaling to complex designs remain. Read the full article at: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/05/13/1092511/ai-designs-unique-robots-from-scratch-in-seconds/