{"id":1166392,"date":"2026-03-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-video&#038;p=1166392"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:03:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:03:38","slug":"will-machines-ever-be-intelligent","status":"publish","type":"msr-video","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/video\/will-machines-ever-be-intelligent\/","title":{"rendered":"Will machines ever be intelligent?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Technical\u202fadvances are moving at such a rapid pace that it can be challenging to define the tomorrow we\u2019re working toward.\u202fIn\u202fThe\u202fShape of Things to Come,\u202fMicrosoft Research leader\u202fDoug Burger\u202fand experts from across disciplines\u202ftease out the thorniest\u202fAI\u202fissues facing technologists, policymakers, business decision-makers, and other stakeholders today. The goal: to amplify the shared understanding needed to build a future in which the AI transition is a net positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this first episode of the series, Burger is joined by Nicol\u00f2 Fusi of Microsoft Research and Subutai Ahmad of Numenta to examine whether today\u2019s AI systems are truly intelligent. They compare transformer-based large language models (LLMs) with the human brain\u2019s distributed, continuously learning architecture, exploring differences in efficiency, representation, and sensory-motor grounding. The discussion probes what intelligence really means, where current models excel or fall short, and what future AI systems might need to bridge the gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-cta\"><a data-bi-type=\"button\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/story\/the-shape-of-things-to-come\/\">View The Shape of Things to Come podcast series<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technical\u202fadvances are moving at such a rapid pace that it can be challenging to define the tomorrow we\u2019re working toward.\u202fIn\u202fThe\u202fShape of Things to Come,\u202fMicrosoft Research leader\u202fDoug Burger\u202fand experts from across disciplines\u202ftease out the thorniest\u202fAI\u202fissues facing technologists, policymakers, business decision-makers, and other stakeholders today. The goal: to amplify the shared understanding needed to build a future [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1166427,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr_hide_image_in_river":0,"footnotes":""},"research-area":[13556],"msr-video-type":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-session-type":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"msr-episode":[],"msr-research-theme":[],"class_list":["post-1166392","msr-video","type-msr-video","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/6gdlcbhtqSk","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_video_file":"http:\/\/0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video\/1166392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-video"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video\/1166392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1166468,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video\/1166392\/revisions\/1166468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1166427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1166392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=1166392"},{"taxonomy":"msr-video-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video-type?post=1166392"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=1166392"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=1166392"},{"taxonomy":"msr-session-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-session-type?post=1166392"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=1166392"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=1166392"},{"taxonomy":"msr-episode","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-episode?post=1166392"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-theme?post=1166392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}