The threat that machines will act independently of their operators has stoked fears for longer than artificial intelligence has been a concept — but could a computer actually learn to scare us? Enter the Nightmare Machine. Three researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are seeking to answer that question, using a deep-learning algorithm to teach a computer to produce images of faces and places that scare people. Pinar Yanardag, a postdoctoral researcher on the project, cites luminaries like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking as acknowledging the potential threat of artificial intelligence. Mr. Hawking expressed doubt over whether artificial intelligence would be the best or the worst thing to happen to humanity, and Mr. Musk likened it to "summoning the demon." "We know AI terrifies us in the abstract sense," Ms. Yanardag said in an email. "But can AI scare us in the immediate, visceral sense?" It works like this: The computer uses an algorithm to create a "fake" set of faces from real images, then another algorithm to extract the image style from one photo and apply it to another. For example, the algorithm may pick zombie-like features from one image and apply them to a computer-generated face. The result: a contortion that might be called scary. Read more at http://www.chronicle.com/article/Can-an-MIT-Computer-Learn-to/238237