Tiny living Pac-Man robots have learned how to reproduce - CNN

This week, many were asking this one: What is a robot, really?

Films and TV shows have offered us myriad archetypes of what robots could be like -- as varied as the terrifyingly clever Cylons of "Battlestar Galactica," the intrepid R2-D2 in the Star Wars saga and the lovable and helpful "Wall-E."

Living robots called xenobots turn those expectations on its head.

"Most people think of robots as made of metals and ceramics but it's not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people," said Josh Bongard, a computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont.

What does the future hold for humans and our relationship to artificial intelligence?

The scientists who created xenobots say they can now reproduce, but it's entirely unlike any reproduction process by plants or animals.

The xenobots, first unveiled in 2020, were formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog.

They can move, work together in groups and self-heal -- and now, make more xenobots.

Using artificial intelligence, rather than genetic manipulation, the xenobots took on a Pac-Man shape to collect and bundle stem cells that formed new tiny xenobots.

The xenobots are very early technology and don't yet have any practical applications.