Researchers in artificial intelligence have long been fascinated (some would say obsessed) with the problem of simultaneous localization and mapping, which they refer to as SLAM. SLAM is the process of building up a map of an unfamiliar building as you’re navigating through it—where are the doors? where are stairs? what are all the things I might trip over?—and also keeping track of where you are within it (so you can find your way back downstairs and out the front door). For the great majority of humans, SLAM happens with minimal conscious thought. But teaching machines to do it has been a
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