The team tested the system by giving it a simple prompt: “Design a robot that can walk across a flat surface.”

The computer started with a block about the size of a bar of soap. Knowing it was unable to walk, as instructed, the AI began making iterations of the design.

With each new version, the resulting robot improved on previous flaws. After nine tries, the AI algorithm designed a robot riddled with holes and with three legs, rear fins and a flat face. It generated a robot design that could walk half its body length per second – about half the speed of an average human stride.

The entire design process – from a shapeless block with zero movement to a full-on walking robot – took just 26 seconds on a laptop.

“We discovered a very fast AI-driven design algorithm that bypasses the traffic jams of evolution, without falling back on the bias of human designers,” said researcher Sam Kriegman. “We told the AI that we wanted a robot that could walk across...