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March 31, 2002: Emotional
Investment. Michael Hiltzik's review of Flesh and Machines: How Robots
Will Change Us, by Rodney Brooks. Los Angeles Times. "In his latest
book (his first not directed at a technical audience), Brooks chronicles
his attempts to coax animate behavior from a brood of aluminum-and-silicon
creations, as well as his consequent battles with the AI establishment.
... Brooks is convinced that his brand of AI will eventually lead to a
type of consciousness. 'Being a machine does not disqualify something
from having emotions,' he writes. 'And by straightforward extension, does
not prevent it from being conscious.'" March 31, 2002: The
Pilot, Gone. The Market, Huge. By Russ Mitchell. The New York Times
(no-fee reg. req'd). "While pilotless aircraft are not new, the idea
that a robot plane could replace an Air Force fighter pilot was, until
recently, the stuff of futurist science magazines. 'Five years ago, people
said it was ridiculous,' recalled Michael Heinz, who heads Boeing's Unmanned
Systems unit, created last November. But rapid advances in computer and
communications technology, combined with the success of the Predator surveillance
aircraft in Afghanistan, have turned battlefield commanders into true
believers. ... The same forces that swept through commercial technology
in the 1990's were also transforming weaponry and military communications.
Computers, bombs, sensors and U.A.V.'s became smaller, smarter, lighter
and faster. Pilotless aircraft, loaded with computer intelligence and
fast communication links, came to be regarded as essential, airborne nodes
on the battlefield information network." March 31, 2002: Chips
with everything - Sexy computers, microscopes for atoms and personal
tracking devices in the palm of your hand. By Jim McClellan. The Observer.
"The Future Technology will continue to get smaller, smarter and
more interconnected. Things will start to think more - in other words
they'll have some embedded intelligence that makes them more useful. Artificial
intelligence will become more pervasive - but this doesn't mean conscious
machines - they're a long way off. Just complex programmes that help us
manage everyday systems." March 31, 2002: Robot
cleaner ends home drudgery. By Burhan Wazir. The Observer. "'We
have long been tackling the automation of domestic chores,' said Matsushita
director Yoshitaka Hayashi. The firm, which owns Panasonic, has spent
around £1 million developing the robotic cleaner. Hayashi said: 'Robots
will some day guard against fires and burglary in homes while people are
asleep.' ... Consumers can already buy a range of 'personal robots' at
a cost of around £2,000. Most perform basic functions, such as delivering
food and drinks or fetching items." March 30, 2002: The
Push for News Returns. By Kendra Mayfield. Wired News. "The University
of Michigan is working on a similar service called NewsInEssence, which
also uses natural language techniques to find and summarize multiple news
articles on the Web. ... NewsInEssence's search agent, called NewsTroll,
searches for stories related to the same event. The agent then enters
keywords into search engines of news sites and produces summaries of a
subset of stories that it finds. ... But artificial intelligence systems
like NewsInEssence and Newsblaster are far from perfect. Summaries aren't
always as coherent as those written by human editors. Newsblaster often
assumes that all articles in a particular category are about the same
event. Sometimes the sentences have odd punctuation and do not flow smoothly.
... 'I personally don't think it will be able to substitute a human editor,'
[Regina] Barzilay agreed. 'But it will be able to provide more efficient
access to what humans have written.'" March 29, 2002: Don't
insult their intelligence. By Jean-Claude Elias. The Jordan Times.
"The subject of computer intelligence is more 'in' than ever. ...
Researchers in the field of information technology, robotics and physics
have little doubt that one day will come when superior computers/robots
will be available. The only question is when and how exactly." March 29, 2002: PwC
introduces its Menlo Park brand to Europe. The Irish Times. "This
massive tome [PricewaterhouseCooper's (PwC) annual Technology Forecast],
and the relatively small PwC division that researches and produces it,
was 'one of those accidental rolling balls that just got bigger', says
Mr Bo Parker, one of the technologists and editors of the forecast. In
the 1990s, what was then simply Price Waterhouse, sans Coopers, focused
on big accounting firms as clients. Like many business sectors, the financial
industry was having to come to terms with the influx of new technology
into its old-style operations. Mr Parker was very interested in the emerging
area of artificial intelligence (AI) systems - computer software programs
that could analyse and predict and solve problems. 'I was fundamentally
convinced that if an accounting firm wasn't knowledgable about AI, it
would be automated out of business.' Price Waterhouse realised it needed
a small division that specialised in IT knowledge. Full of engineers,
its primary task was to write code, producing specialised software for
clients. But gradually it began also to provide IT advice on areas such
as AI. Thus was PwC's Technology Center in Menlo Park, California, born." March 29, 2002: Scientists
challenge theory of mind's eye. Different parts of brain used to process
real and imagined images. By Brad Evenson. National Post. "Most people
use mental imagery to seek answers to these questions, a faculty known
as the mind's eye. Some of these images are so precise, experimental psychologists
believed the same brain mechanism that handled visual images also allowed
us to imagine what the world is like. But now U.S. and Canadian researchers,
using a scanner to map brain activity as subjects performed cognitive
tasks, have raised doubts about this theory. The study was published this
week in the journal Neuron. ... The findings could have applications in
designing object-recognition systems in robots and artificial intelligence
systems. ... Consider moving a couch through a doorway. Visual recognition
would compare the doorway space with the couch and determine whether it
would fit. Using mental rotation, one might spin the couch on its end
and visualize squeezing it through the doorway." March 29, 2002: Showing
Off the Future of Artificial Intelligence - New robots on display
include device that shows human emotions, using artificial muscles and
silicon skin -- and that's not all. By Kuriko Miyake. PC World. "'Pay
attention to what robotics engineers at universities are doing,' said
Kazuo Hirai, an executive managing director of Honda Motor and a developer
of its humanoid Asimo robot. 'What they are doing now is sowing the seeds
for the future robot market.' Those seeds are on display this week at
the Robodex 2002 exhibition, which opened on Thursday and continues until
Sunday in Yokohama, Japan. ... In addition to making interaction with
robots more human, other researchers are looking at adding artificial
intelligence to their creations. Engineers at Professor Shigeki Sugano's
laboratory at Waseda University are trying to give their Wamoeba robot
a sense of values and the ability to determine for itself how to react
towards given situations, said Yuki Suga, a student at Waseda University.
... At one of Chiba University's laboratory, researchers led by Professor
Kenzo Nonami are developing a six-legged robot which works as a land-mine
detector. ... Advances in robot technology aren't just being led by large
organizations and research labs. ... [A] Japanese university student spent
just $75 and six months to develop a radio-controlled robot that can walk
on two legs." March 29, 2002: Building
the Linux of the Robot World - Technical details of 'Pino' are available
online, as designers aims to create an open-source humanoid robot. By
Martyn Williams. PC World. "The researchers, part of the Japanese
government-funded Kitano Symbiotic Systems Project, have been working
for the last three and a half years on the development of a humanoid robot
named 'Pino'. The robot is named for Pinocchio -- the wooden doll in a
classic children's tale that tried to become huma -- -and shares his namesake's
long nose. The project is named for its leader, Hiroaki Kitano, an expert
in artificial intelligence. Now, with the project approaching its final
year of initial funding and the robot largely complete, the group is publishing
full technical details of Pino, both software and hardware, on the Internet
in the hope that it will spur further development." March 29, 2002: Robots
take aim at human heartstrings. By Masayuki Kitano and Edmund Klamann.
Reuters / also
available from Yahoo UK / and
The New York Times (no-fee reg. req'd). "Huge technological hurdles
and possibly decades of research lie ahead before humanoid robots become
common household items, but scientists realise they face a psychological
obstacle as well: machines made in man's own image make some people uneasy.
"The theme of Robodex is robots that co-exist with humans," said Toshi
Doi.... Doi and other robotics researchers believe the Japanese will be
among the first to accept robots into everyday life. Japan, which gave
the world 'Astro Boy' -- the 1960s animated TV programme with a boy-robot
hero -- is already home to half the world's industrial robots and 90 percent
of Aibo robotic pets. ... [A]ctions, not appearances, are what will count
in fostering amicable human-robot relations, according to Advanced Telecommunications
Research Institute International." March 28, 2002: A
Tracking System That Calls Balls and Strikes. By David F. Gallagher.
The New York Times (no-fee reg. req'd) "The system's eyes are two
cameras perched high on the rim of the stadium, one on either side of
the diamond. The cameras send video feeds to a standard Dell PC at the
QuesTec command post in a windowless room near the Mets clubhouse. The
PC is equipped with special software that analyzes frames of the incoming
video looking for a baseball-like moving object while ignoring pigeons
and flying hot-dog wrappers. ... The data is available almost instantly,
allowing the computer to create a broadcast-ready, 3-D reconstruction
of the ball's path before a human has time to set up the video replay.
" March 27, 2002: Bringing
Artificial Intelligence into the Chemistry Lab. By Andrew Wood. Chemical
Week. "Chemical and pharmaceutical firms will shortly have access
to the first software that uses artificial intelligence to design syntheses
for target organic molecules. The software, Portable Synchem, was developed
by the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook. ... Synchem
uses 'machine learning,' an artificial intelligence technique developed
at Stony Brook. It uses a database of synthetic reactions to work out
plausible routes to target molecules, which the scientists say allows
chemists to discover valid routes without requiring hands-on guidance
or actual experimentation." March 27, 2002: MTEC
to fund advanced-robot project. By Sirinart Sirisunthorn. The Nation
- Thailand. "The National Metal and Materials Technology Centre (MTEC)
is sponsoring a project to develop advanced robots with artificial intelligence
that would take the place of humans in undertaking dangerous or complicated
tasks, including performing surgery. associate Professor Parithat Phanthubanyong,
MTEC's director, said the advanced-robot development project - conducted
by Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Engineering - would be financed
by the centre to the tune of Bt3 million a year for three years." March 27, 2002: Comment
-Information warfare is within reach for the educated terrorist. By
David Love. The Scotsman. " The government has taken the lead with
its critical national infrastructure programme, but it can only highlight
the problem for business. While the largest organisations, upon whom the
UK economy is dependent, understand the sophisticated nature of the threat
from cyber criminals in the form of commercial espionage and computer
fraud, others must also become alert to the danger. A new breed of sophisticated
company defences, which integrate protection across computing platforms
and increasingly use artificial intelligence as part of their armoury,
are helping in the battle against cyber criminals." March 26, 2002: The next step in human evolution. The Independent (London). "'I want the work on cyborgs and artificial intelligence to be monitored and stopped before it goes too far,' says [Kevin] Warwick, who is professor of cybernetics at Reading University. 'I hope my work is a wake-up call for the human race.' ... Already we are handing over more and more control to computers and giving them the power to evolve. Britain's telephone networks, for example, have learnt how to route their own calls and continuously change and adapt their programming to cope with changes in demand."
>>> Ethical & Social Implications, Robots, Applications, Industry Statistics March 26, 2002: Game
Developers Choice Awards Winners Named. Computer Graphics World. "The
International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has announced the recipients
of the 2nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, game development's highest
honors. ... Excellence in Programming - Richard Evans for artificial intelligence
in Black & White." March 25, 2002: Good
old days with your robot. New Zealand Herald. "Friendly robots
will look after many of today's workers when they retire, says a leading
scientist. Dr David Bibby, general manager of science policy at the crown
research institute Industrial Research, believes robots will be necessary
because there will be too few working-age people to look after the expected
numbers of the elderly. ... But Auckland University engineering lecturer
Kepa Morgan said engineers should think about the ethics of handing old
people over to robots before rushing into such new technology." March 25, 2002: Computer-based
tutorials boost. By Anuja Ravendran. The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia).
"Computer-based tutorials are especially appealing to busy individuals
who do not have time to take computer lessons at computer learning centres.
Since they can be used anytime, anywhere, allow for self-paced learning
and are more cost-effective than online learning, these tutorials are
fast becoming popular among locals, says M. Mohamed Iqbal, vice president
and chief operating officer of White House Business Solutions Inc." March 25, 2002: The
Fix-It Kids Take Over - Tech's Newest Generation Just Wants to Make
Things Work. By Michael S. Malone. Forbes ASAP. "This is the Gunn
Robotics Team, preparing for the annual national robot competition, FIRST
(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), to be held
in late April in Orlando, Florida. Fifty kids and a handful of adults
have jammed into a third of the capacious classroom. They sit on desks,
tables, and counters, since the rest of the room has been surrendered
to equipment that spills out of the equally crowded machine shop next
door. ... 'I used to worry about my older son,' the mother adds, 'especially
when he was working on the [robotics team] project and would come dragging
home at 2 o'clock in the morning. But then I saw how engaged he was. It
didn't hurt his grades; it actually helped them. He learned so much. He's
a freshman now at MIT. Now my second son is on the team. I don't worry
about him.' The new gearheads are different from their immediate predecessors
in another important way: They're cool." March 25, 2002: Japanese
electronics maker shows test-model vacuum-cleaning robot. AP / The
Mercury News. "With eye-like
lights glowing in the front and the back, the vacuuming robot comes with
50 sonic, infrared and other types of sensors so it turns before running
into walls and avoids falling off steps. Running for 55 minutes on a single
battery charge, it figures out the size of a room by circling around it
once and then travels horizontally and vertically to crisscross the room
to vacuum 92 percent of the floor space, Matsushita said. ... Matsushita
said its autonomous-control technology can be used in other housekeeping
robots that can work as a security guard or a caretaker for children or
the elderly when equipped with features like cameras and mobile connections." March 24, 2002: Korea
to Host Robot Soccer Finals. By Kim Deok-hyun. Korea Times. "More
than 110 robot soccer teams from 23 countries will compete in an upcoming
robot soccer tournament, an organizer with the Korea Robot Soccer Association
(KRSA) said yesterday. ... The event is designed to offer an opportunity
to test the results of research on the software aspects of artificial
intelligence and robotics, by demonstrating a high-level of competence
for specific tasks such as shooting and intercepting." March 24, 2002:
UBS Goes High - Tech to Fight Money Laundering. Reuters / available
from The New York Times (no-fee reg. req'd) / also
available from CNET ( UBS clamps down on money laundering - 3/25/02).
"Swiss bank UBS AG said on Monday it would use a British technology
firm's artificial intelligence software to monitor all banking transactions
in a bid to thwart money laundering. ... The London Stock Exchange, for
example, uses Searchspace's artificial intelligence software, dubbed Intelligence
Enterprise Framework, to detect particular market abuses, such as insider
trading and share price ramping activities." March 23, 2002: Lilith
- Geek Music to Girls' Ears. By Katie Dean. Wired News. "It's
a familiar story: A middle school girl stops going to the computer lab
after school because boys hog the machines. That was Susannah Camic's
experience. It bothered her enough that she wrote a 10th-grade essay about
it. Her paper sparked the beginning of the Lilith Computer Group, a club
designed to get girls more involved in computing in middle school." March 22, 2002: IBM's
eLiza - Self-healing IT. By Maggie Biggs. ZD Net. "The new eLiza
technologies let IBM products fix themselves, taking the human element
out of the picture. As a result, network administrators can focus their
efforts on more critical work. eLiza involves not only all of IBM's products
and services, but those of other technology providers such as Nortel Networks
and BMC Software. This isn't the first we're seeing of eLiza. A mid-1960s
IBM project--known as ELIZA--focused on communication between humans and
computers and was the precursor to much of today's artificial intelligence
technology. IBM's new eLiza initiative also focuses on supplying intelligence,
but for enterprise infrastructures rather than between humans and computers." March 22, 2002: Humanoid
robot goes to work on Linux. By Graeme Wearden. ZDNet (UK). "Japanese
manufacturer Kawada has released details of a Linux-based humanoid robot
that it believes could be employed in the workplace. The robot, called
HRP-2P (which stands for Humanoid Robotics Project-2 Prototype) runs on
a real-time version of the Linux operating system, called ART-Linux. ART-Linux
is based on the well-known RT-Linux, which is designed for robotic applications,
as well as data acquisition and systems control functions.... In disclosing
the internal architecture of Hoap-1 Fujitsu urged open-source developers
to try and improve the robot's operating system code." March 22, 2002: Brit
Wires Nervous System to Computer. By Jeremy Lovell. Reuters / available
from CNET and
the Macon Telegraph. "A controversial British robotics scientist
has had his nervous system wired up to a computer in an experiment he
hopes will eventually give paralyzed people more control over their own
bodies. Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at Reading University,
southern England, has had minute sensors implanted into the main nerve
in his left arm and hooked up to a radio transceiver which will send and
receive messages from a computer. ... The professor said the aim of his
experiment was to give people with spinal injuries at least some ability
to move by remote control or to give them back the control of their bodies.
Warwick, who has made a name for himself investigating artificial intelligence
and the potential for directly linking men to machines...." March 21, 2002: Voice
Recognition Leaps Into Appliances. By Neil McManus. The New York Times
(no fee reg. req'd). "And yes, voice control is also kind of fun.
... It is a feature that could find its way into many more living rooms
and kitchens. Todd Mozer, chief executive of Sensory, a company based
in Santa Clara, Calif., that makes specialized speech recognition chips
for appliances, said that more than 15 million such devices had been sold
worldwide. If you include cellphones with voice-dialing, the estimate
rises to 100 million. ... Speech recognition existed at Bell Laboratories
in the 1950's, but it did not appear commercially feasible until 1967,
when A. J. Viterbi, a professor of engineering at the University of California
at Los Angeles, introduced an algorithm that helped digital signal processors
match voice patterns to data stored in a computer's memory." March 21, 2002: World's 'first' talking washing machine unveiled. Ananova. "The Electrolux Kelvinator, which will be launched in India, has a vocabulary of more than 90 English and Hindi phrases. It says things like 'drop the detergent', 'close the lid' and 'relax' accompanied by a tinkling of piano keys or a trumpet fanfare."
>>> Speech, Smart Rooms, Fuzzy Logic March 21, 2002: Start-up
of the month - We're building a brain! Silicon.com. "But a small
London based start-up called Lobal Technologies is working on a system
to simulate the way humans use language more closely than ever before.
Lobal is working on an artificial intelligence system so intelligent its
staff hate it being called 'artificial intelligence.' In a tiny office
on a quiet mews development near Baker Street tube station in London the
six staff of Lobal spend their working days raising a virtual baby. The
baby is called LAD - which stands for Language Acquisition Device. It's
basically a computer than can talk like a human. ... The point about LAD
is that it actually understands what you say and formulates its own response
based on a model of the world in its own head." March 20, 2002: Roving
reporter on battlefields could be a robot. By Kevin Maney. USA Today.
"The robot news hound is the Afghan Explorer. The first one should
be ready in two months. It's being built at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology Media Lab by scientist Chris Csikszentmihalyi.... As Csikszentmihalyi
points out, if the military can send drone spy planes over the Afghan
mountains, why can't citizens or news organizations send in drone reporters?
... Csikszentmihalyi built on existing research. The vehicle design is
based on NASA's Mars Explorer. A scientist at the University of California
at Berkeley has created a similar robot called PROP, or personal roving
presence. It's intended to go into corporate settings." Spring 2002: A
Body of Knowledge. By Stephen Kiesling. Spirituality & Health Magazine.
"Other brains in the body? Apparently so. What got me thinking about
this was, once again, the humanoid robots at MIT. A big advance in making
robots move like humans was Rodney Brooks's development of 'distributed
intelligence' -- small brains spread throughout the robot that concentrate
on particular tasks. Without these small brains, the problem of walking
is too complicated for the robot's central processor." March 20, 2002: School
board approves new robotics class. By Kristie Linden. Oakmont Advance
Leader Star. "Robots are coming to Riverview. This week school board
members approved a science elective in robotics and gave the go ahead
for the district to host a robotics camp this summer. Robin Shoop and
Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Consortium
selected Riverview to test a program designed to go to a national level.
... Creating interest in math, science and technology among middle school
students is the project goal." March 2002:
It's
Alive! - From airport tarmacs to online job banks to medical labs,
artificial intelligence is everywhere. By Jennifer Kahn. Wired (10.03).
"Quietly, though, AI researchers were making more than progress -
they were making products. It's a trend that's been easy to miss, because
once the technology is in use, nobody thinks of it as AI anymore. 'Every
time we figure out a piece of it, it stops being magical; we say, 'Oh,
that's just a computation,'' laments Rodney Brooks, the director of MIT's
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. 'We used to joke that AI means 'almost
implemented.'' In truth, we may never chat up a computer at a cocktail
party. But in smaller yet significant ways, artificial intelligence is
already here: in the cruise control of cars, the servers that route our
email, and the personalized ads clogging our browser windows. The future
is all around us." March 2002: Wild
Things -They fight. They flock. They have free will. Get ready for
game bots with a mind of their own. By Steven Johnson. Wired (10.03).
"It is the year 2002. After an explosion of R&D funded by software
giants and startups, more than a third of US households are populated
by sophisticated artificial intelligence bots - their decisionmaking guided
by complex neural nets and simulated emotions, their perceptual systems
honed to detect subtle changes in their environment. Every day millions
of Americans interact with these creatures, encountering advanced technology
from nuanced natural language routines to gesture recognition to machine
learning. Perhaps most impressive: As the AIs have grown smarter, they
have begun to communicate among themselves, sharing new ideas and collaborating
on group tasks. This is not some hopelessly optimistic sci-fi scenario
from 20 years ago. It is reality. Consumer-grade artificial intelligence
is alive and well in the world of games. ... What's more striking about
the latest generation is the appearance of unscripted, emergent behavior
- the AI stumbling on new ways of responding to the world, strategies
and behaviors that weren't deliberately planned by the designers." March 2002: Monster
in a Box - The inside story of an ingenious chess-playing machine
that thrilled crowds, terrified opponents, and won like clockwork. By
Tom Standage. Wired (10.03). "After two games against the Turk, Charles
Babbage began to sketch out plans for his own thinking machine. This was
the genesis of the first mechanical computer. ... Indeed, Kempelen's contraption
has taken on a new significance since the invention of the digital computer.
Artificial intelligence researchers started writing chess-playing programs
in the 1940s, showing just how prescient Kempelen had been in suggesting
that the game was a good first step for machine intelligence. And with
its setup of a man pretending to be a machine, the Turk anticipated the
standard test proposed by British scientist Alan Turing in 1950: A device
can be deemed intelligent if it can pass for a human in a written question-and-answer
session." March 19, 2002: Sony
unveils singing, dancing robot. Ananova. "'By inputting music
and lyrics data into the robot, it can produce a singing voice with vibrato,'
Sony said, adding the robot can also perform 'complicated, personalised
(dancing) performances.'" March 19, 2002: Sony
reveals singing robot. BBC. "Equipped with two cameras, it can
tell the difference between the edge of a table and patterns on the floor
- a distinction that was harder for Aibo, with only one camera 'eye',
to make." March 19, 2002: Honda
says it will sell household robots within 9 years. By Kae Inoue. Bloomberg
News / available from the Detroit News. "The robots will be able
to perform domestic duties, and Honda plans to make them 'affordably priced,'
said Masato Hirose, the senior chief engineer in charge of Honda's humanoid
robot development. ... The robot's possible future uses include looking
after disabled people and the elderly, rescue work and deployment in hazardous
construction sites, the company has said." March 19, 2002: San
Antonio companies score big with test mandate. By Joshua Benton. The
Dallas Morning News. "The federal education bill signed by President
Bush in January requires states to test their students.... Someone's got
to design, build, refine and grade the dozens of tests that don't yet
exist. And with the testing industry already stretched by rapid expansion
- it has gone from a $141 million industry to a $390 million one from
1996 to 2001, according to the nonprofit group Achieve - some are concerned
that companies might not be ready to deal with the coming demand. ...
The more difficult problem comes when grading answers that aren't multiple
choice Ð essay questions or short, open-ended responses. Traditionally,
those have required hiring human graders, often retired or vacationing
teachers. But getting qualified graders - willing to work long hours in
the short bursts required by testing calendars - isn't always easy. As
a result, companies such as Harcourt are looking hard at artificial intelligence:
computer programs that can read and grade essays as though they were human.
Dr. [Margie] Jorgensen said that AI technology has advanced to the point
that a computer grader is virtually indistinguishable from a human. 'It
feels to me that it's so close to being doable,' she said. 'I think in
a couple of years you'll see AI being used to grade a major test.' Both
Harcourt and CTB/McGraw Hill now offer AI grading of essays on selected
writing tests.'" March 19, 2002: Robots
- entertainers or companions? Reuters / available from ZDNet UK. "It's
a question anyone might ask about a potential live-in partner -- should
your household robot be cool or practical? For consumer electronics giant
Sony, which on Tuesday unveiled the sleek and diminutive SDR-4X that can
sing in vibrato and dance with fluid or funky motions, robots ought to
be entertaining. But for automaker Honda, which showed off the latest
version of its Asimo robot at a Tuesday luncheon with foreign reporters,
such machines should one day perform useful tasks for their human masters." March 18, 2002:
Video games 'stimulate learning.' BBC. "The UK study concluded
that simulation and adventure games - such as Sim City and RollerCoaster
Tycoon, where players create societies or build theme parks, developed
children's strategic thinking and planning skills. Parents and teachers
also thought their children's mathematics, reading and spelling improved."
March 17, 2002: Navy
accelerates robot submarine plans. Associated Press / available from
CNN. "Elated by the success of unmanned spy planes over Afghanistan,
the U.S. military is rushing ahead with plans to build a new fleet of
'drones.' This time, they're robot-controlled submarines. ... But sonar-loaded
submarine drones are a much tougher nut to crack than their flying cousins,
operated remotely by pilots with a joystick and computer terminal. Since
most radio waves can't penetrate water, UUVs can send and receive only
low-bandwidth sound signals -- not enough to allow a remote operator to
take control. The sonar data is downloaded when the drone returns to the
mother ship. 'There's no human in the loop,' [Capt. David] Olivier said.
'We call it intelligent autonomy.' Instead, undersea drones rely on artificial
intelligence to direct search patterns and distinguish a deadly mine from,
say, a wrecked boat." March 16, 2002: From
robot dolls to cyborgs, humans have dreamt of artificial intelligence.
2 Book Reviews - The Secret Life of Puppets, by Victoria Nelson - and
- Living Dolls, by Gaby Wood. Reviewd by Pat Kane. The Independent. "Victoria
Nelson in effect takes the Clarke line and brilliantly inverts its sense.
That is: any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Where Gaby Wood sees an opportunity for some passable essay-writing, Nelson
sees a looming civilisational crisis. Even as we cling to the Enlightenment
virtues of democracy and techno-science, our pop imaginations are obsessed
with golems, androids, fabulously powerful machines, in-humans and trans-humans
of all kinds. No matter how much we officially expect our physical universe
to behave like clockwork, we keep dreaming of matter invested with spirit." March 15, 2002: Are
You Being Served? By Joe Nickell. Technology Review. "They aim
to build so-called 'service bots' -- software-hardware hybrid systems
that understand spoken or written English (or any other dialect or language
preferred by the customer), interpret vague or broad queries, possess
a thorough understanding of both the company's products and the customer's
past interactions, and speak or write answers in an intelligible, context-
and emotion-sensitive fashion. ... It may all sound pie-in-the-sky, but
numerous technology companies, as well as research centers at leading
academic institutions, are hammering away at the challenges of building
a better service bot. The first generation is already here. Ford Motor
Company employs a chatty online bot named Ernie, built by San Francisco-based
NativeMinds, who helps technicians at its network of dealerships diagnose
car problems and order parts. IBM's Lotus software division employs a
service bot from Support.com that can examine a user's software, diagnose
problems and fix them by uploading patches to the user's computer -- without
any necessary intervention by human tech support personnel." March 15, 2002: Bots
Invade the Arts. By Chloe Veltman. Wired News. "'Robotic art
expresses our ambivalence toward machines,' says Ollivier Dyens, author
of Metal and Flesh, a book about the relationship between technology,
biology and culture. Today, machines are not only a ubiquitous part of
our environment, but they are also slowly encroaching upon our personal
space --with microchips finding their way into prosthetic limbs, intravenous
communications systems, clothing and jewelry. The in-your-face field of
performance robotics expresses the dissolving interface between biology
and technology perhaps more keenly than other art that uses machines as
a source of inspiration." March 15, 2002: Smile
for the computer. By Ivan Noble. BBC. "It is unnerving enough
to walk around a trade fair and see your own face projected on a giant
screen. But it is even more unnerving when a computer instantly spots
your face on the picture, circles it in yellow and checks it in seconds
against a database of known troublemakers. ... For less high-profile locations,
the German electronics company Siemens has produced a fingerprint mouse
called the ID mouseThe mouse software is even intelligent enough to spot
the difference between a live finger and a dead finger, or even the finger
of a person who has spent too long in the bath, he added." March 15, 2002: 'Metropolis'
anime has classical feel. By Colin Covert. Star Tribune. "The
anime feature 'Metropolis' is a distant cousin to Fritz Lang's science-fiction
classic: It's based on a 1949 comic book that was inspired by the 1927
silent film. ... [Ziggurat's] centerpiece is a throne where Duke Red will
place his half-human, half-computer girl Tima, thus seizing world power.
The head of state is colluding with Duke Red; his city is on the verge
of political collapse as human workers replaced by robots prepare to rise
up in revolution." March 15, 2002: BBC/Open University
Programme 2 -
Artificial Intelligence. (00:30) Part of the series, The Next Big
Thing. "Leading scientists join Professor Colin Blakemore for a live
and topical debate to discuss The Next Big Thing in science. This week,
the panel looks at the issue of Artificial Intelligence. In the 21st century,
A.I. is gradually moving more and more into people's everyday lives, especially
as the interest in computers and computer games grows. New Artificial
Intelligence advancements are constantly becoming available - so who knows
what the future might bring? Find out how Artificial Intelligence came
to the forefront of scientific debate in story so far. Understand the
science behind the subject in a.i. in depth. Consider the opinions of
eminent scientists in hear the arguments." March 14, 2002: AI
by another name. The Economist. "Like big hairdos and dubious
pop stars, the term 'artificial intelligence' (AI) was big in the 1980s,
vanished in the 1990s -- and now seems to be attempting a comeback. The
term re-entered public consciousness most dramatically with the release
last year of 'A.I.', a movie about a robot boy. But the term is also being
rehabilitated within the computer industry. Researchers, executives and
marketing people are using the expression without irony or inverted commas.
... Perhaps the biggest change in AI's fortunes is simply down to the
change of date. The film 'A.I.' was based on an idea by the late director,
Stanley Kubrick, who also dealt with the topic in another film, '2001:
A Space Odyssey', which was released in 1969. '2001' featured an intelligent
computer called HAL 9000 with a hypnotic speaking voice. ... It may be,
however, that now that 2001 turned out to be just another year on the
calendar, the comparison with HAL no longer seems quite so important,
and AI can now be judged by what it can do, rather than by how well it
matches up to a 30-year-old science-fiction film. 'People are beginning
to realise that there are impressive things that these systems can do,'
says Dr Leake hopefully. 'They're no longer looking for HAL.'" March 14, 2002: Linkrot
- A growing problem. By James Middleton. Computing. "Up to 30
per cent of current hyperlinks don't work Linkrot has been a growing problem
since the conception of the world wide web, and the problem has attracted
attention from internet watchers in very high places. Some believe that
the only solution will be the evolution of a 'semantic' internet which
allows machines to process and 'understand' data rather than merely display
it." March 14, 2002: Students
create robots for KLICK! - Program gives kids opportunity to learn
about computers, other technology. By Alison Vanengen. Record-Eagle. "The
Robo Chicks are the first all-girl team at Brethren. The two-day festival
at Brethren Middle School brought 23 two-student teams from six regional
middle schools. The teams spent the day Wednesday building and testing
autonomous robots for competition today. The robots are built from Lego
Mindstorms Invention System kits, then programmed with a special programming
language that enables them to perform certain tasks. For example, The
Robo Chicks created a robot that looks like a simple car, but with the
addition of light and touch sensors, they can program it to follow a black
line or turn around when it bumps into something." March 14, 2002: Robots
motivate girls to take on the boys. By Joy Fox. Cranston Herald. "Forty
girls at the Park View Middle School joined an after school robotics program
with one driving purpose: to show the boys that they can work with computers
and design robots, too. And boy, have they proved their point. ... Last
week, the girls traveled to Stanley Bostich to see robots in action. In
the entire manufacturing plant there was only one woman engineer, according
to [Allan] Hurst. Hurst says if he can get one of his team members interested
in continuing in engineering or robotics his efforts would 'all be worthwhile.'"
March 13, 2002:
Virtual Actors Get Smarter - Artificial Intelligence Adds Realism
to Computer-Generated Animations. By Rick Lockridge. TechTV / available
from ABC News. "If human extras had played the thousands of warriors
who rampaged through the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring, the filmmakers might have been forced to pawn the rings
to make payroll. Fortunately, the film's computer-generated Orcs were
convincing. The Orcs were autonomous and smart. They knew how not to bump
into each other, and they could recognize good characters from bad." March 13, 2002: Review
- The ultimate questions - Mind, Matter and Mystery: Questions in
Science and Philosophy, Edited by Ranjit Nair Scientia. Reviewed by Partha
Ghose. The Statesman. "The very first essay is by Penrose on 'Can
a computer understand?', in which he gives an exposition of his by now
well-known position, hotly contested by proponents of artificial intelligence,
that a human mind can 'understand' but computers based on computations,
however complex, cannot. He gives an argument from a chess position which
is easy for human players but which even Deep Thought, until recently
one of the most powerful chess playing computers that had a number of
victories over grandmasters, made a mess of." March 12, 2002: Robots
provide soccer on the cheap. By Edward Stern. Asahi. "Imagine
a game of three-a-side football, where players less than two inches high
kick around an orange golf ball. And these players always do what the
manager tells them-because they don't have a mind of their own. This is
robot football, or MIROSOT as it's known in the business. Kim Jong Hwan,
a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
in Taejon is the brain behind the game. ... Since Kim kicked off the first
game in 1995, MIROSOT has spread around the world as a bizarre attraction,
with teams now competing from as far afield as Seattle and Belfast. But
for its founding father, the game is still a source of hard scientific
data on artificial intelligence and motion-control technology." March 11, 2002: IT
Confidential. By John Soat. InformationWeek. "Columbia University
in New York held a conference last week on the ethical and societal implications
of the accelerating developments in science and technology. The conference,
called 'Living With The Genie,' featured scholars and deep-thinkers from
a wide variety of disciplines, from anthropology and architecture to philosophy
and sociology. Representing the IT community were Bill Joy, one of the
authors of the Unix operating system and the brains behind Sun Microsystems;
Mr. Artificial Intelligence, Raymond Kurzweil; and Mitch Kapor, founder
of Lotus Development." March 11, 2002: Car
computer could detect drunken steering. By Will Knight. New Scientist.
"A dashboard computer system that monitors the delay between a driver's
eye movement and steering could be used to identify drunk drivers, claims
a UK researcher. ... A camera was used to monitor eye movement and a computer
matched this to steering wheel movement. [Dilwyn] Marple-Horvat says a
similar system could be installed in cars and used to automatically alert
police or even slow a car down if it detects that a driver's coordination
is impaired." March 10, 2002: The
Fighting Next Time. By Bill Keller. The New York Times (no fee reg.
req'd). "The revolutionaries agree, too, that one of those moments
is upon us. They agree that threats to America have become less predictable,
that the next war is likely to be very different from Vietnam or the gulf
war and that the proper response entails incorporating new technology
-- vivid information-gathering sensors, fast computers, precision guidance,
robotics -- and new fighting dogma to make our forces more aware and more
agile." March 10, 2002: 'Digital
Biology' - Is This Chip Educable? By Carl Zimmer. The New York Times
(no fee reg. req'd). "As Peter J. Bentley demonstrates in 'Digital
Biology'[New York; Simon & Shuster], the cool, rational temple of
technology is becoming infested with biology's weedy enigmas. Microchips,
for example, can now evolve. Bentley describes how Adrian Thompson, a
British engineer, came up with a few dozen random arrangements of transistors
and programmed a computer to test how well they did various jobs, like
distinguishing between high-pitched and low-pitched tones. The first generation
of chips always performed miserably, but some of them a little less miserably
than the rest. The computer saved the less miserable designs and combined
them into hybrids. In the process, it also sprinkled a few random changes
into the designs, mutations if you will. A few offspring could distinguish
between the tones slightly better than their parents -- and they produced
a third generation. By mimicking evolution for a few thousand rounds,
the computer produced chips that did their job exquisitely well. ... Bentley
is interested in more than just building the next algorithm. He wants
to understand the deep meaning of digital biology -- what common principle
ties together projects as disparate as computer immune systems, neural
networks and virtual ant colonies." March 10, 2002: Honor
Roll. Buffalo News. "Anne Forest, professor of theology and computer
science at St. Bonaventure University and known internationally as an
expert on the relation between science and religion, is one of a dozen
people chosen recently by the National Academy of Engineering to serve
on a nationwide steering committee on society, ethics and technology.
... Forest is the director of Nexus: The Science and Religion Dialogue
Project, begun in 2001 to oversee St. Bonaventure's growing science and
religion program. She formerly specialized in researching artificial intelligence
and the development of autonomous robots at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology." March 9, 2002: Ang
wins top prize in science innovation contest. By V. Shankar Ganesh.
New Straits Times. "If composing music has always been a problem
for you, then 16-year old Ang John Wei may just be the person you are
looking for. Not that he is going to compose the music, but the software
he has written might. His project entitled 'Polyphonic Melody Editor Exchange
Internet Browser for Music Composers' landed him top honours in the individual
category in the Intel National Schools' Science Innovation Competition
2002. ... In the team category, the first prize went to Sekolah Menengah
Kebangsaan Taman Datuk Harun, Selangor, with their project entitled, 'Artificial
Intelligence System - Androsis 1.0'." March 9, 2002: Humans
love to watch other beings and things imitate them. By Dan Webster.
The Spokesman-Review. "Carl Sagan once said, 'It is of interest to
note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English --
up to 50 words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported
to have learned dolphinese." Sagan's observation seems fitting this week
in light of the video release of Steven Spielberg's 'A.I.: Artificial
Intelligence' (see capsule review below). We humans are thrilled whenever
some other entity, whether animal or mineral, apes our actions. In 'A.I.,'
the imitator is a robotic boy played by Haley Joel Osment. But he's hardly
the first." March 8, 2002: A.I.
- shades of genius. By Neal Watson. Edmonton Sun. "Maybe there
was just too much genius at work in A.I. - Artificial Intelligence. ...
The evidence is on the screen in A.I., an ambitious, engrossing, but maddening
and strangely unsatisfying film. It is available on video and a two-DVD
set this week. ... I had a much stronger, more negative reaction to the
film when I saw it last summer in the theatre. I found it more involving
during a second viewing on DVD." March 8, 2002: Video review - 'A.I.' By Bill Ward. Star Tribune. March 8, 2002: Go,
Robots, Go for Morris. By Bill Egbert. New York Daily News. "High
school students, NASA, robotics and the Bronx are not words that often
go together, but students from Morris High School in the South Bronx are
down at NASA's Kennedy Space Center today competing in a national robotics
tournament. ... Far from a Battlebot-style gladiator fight, the FIRST
competition stresses teamwork and cooperation. Schools are paired randomly
in teams which then compete to grab soccer balls from a hopper on one
side of the court and drop them into a 7-foot-high goal at the other end.
While each team tries to dunk as many balls as possible, they also try
hard to prevent the opposing team from beating their total." March 7, 2002: Lord
of the Hackers. By Sherry Turkle. The New York Times (no fee reg.
req'd). "'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' is a
brainy and beautiful film ... It takes nothing away from its artistry
to allow that its appeal, like that of the books on which it is based,
owes much to the computer culture that made J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy
world its own. That culture has a particular way of using the computer
to think about the world, a binary perspective that is appealing but problematic.
Our fascination with Tolkien's work says more about us than it does about
Tolkien. In many ways, Middle Earth, the universe of 'The Lord of the
Rings,' is like a computer program, rule-driven and bounded. In the early
1970's, the computer scientists at Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory were so enamored of the books (they were first published in
the 1950's, but did not gain popularity in America until a decade later)
that they designed three elfin fonts for their printers. ... But the work
of J. R. R. Tolkien captures a certain computational aesthetic that is
reflected in the mass culture. This sensibility tends to be binary. Perhaps
such simplicity helps explain the current popularity of 'The Lord of the
Rings'; at a time when friends and enemies are sometimes indistinguishable,
the black-and-white world of fantasy holds a particular allure." March 7, 2002: Robot
sub finds Antarctic food stash. BBC. "A major food reserve hidden
under Antarctic sea ice has been discovered by a robot submarine. ...
The discovery was made by UK scientists from the British Antarctic Survey,
the Open University and the Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen. The operation
was the first under-ice mission for the £5m Autosub, one of the most advanced
underwater probes ever made. ... 'Prior to the advent of Autosub, it was
impossible to investigate the environment under sea ice over ranges of
more than a few metres,' said Dr. [Andrew] Brierley." March 7, 2002: Robots
in history - Imitation of life. The Economist. "Machines that
imitate life, or automata, became popular as expensive playthings during
the 18th century. From glorified clocks they quickly evolved into a procession
of mechanical dancers, birds and musical figurines of increasing complexity.
... The men who made them, as Gaby Wood relates in 'Living Dolls', were
driven by the desire to play God. ... Ms Wood expertly highlights the
many parallels and connections between all of these tales. She ends with
a visit to a modern Japanese robotics laboratory...." March 7, 2002: Games
Watch. By Greg Howson and Steve Boxer. Guardian. "Metal Gear
Solid 2 ... Most impressive of all is the eerily realistic artificial
intelligence (AI), with soldiers, who gang up and hunt mercilessly, even
reacting to your shadow. But while the action is addictive, the story
is equally important." March 6, 2002: Robots
gain virtual sight via software - Carmakers could save down time.
By Jeff Bennett. Detroit Free Press. "They can see. For decades,
robots have blindly worked alongside human counterparts in the automotive
world. ... The Automated Imaging Association predicts that machines sold
with vision capabilities will become a $5-billion industry by the end
of this year. In 1999 it was a $1.68-billion industry. Artificial vision
allows robots to do things once thought impossible such as drive cars
and buses, play badminton, put out fires and pick up objects for people
with disabilities. ... Braintech demonstrated how a robot adjusted itself
to complete its de-buffing work no matter where a part was placed. ...
'It's like pin the tail on the donkey without the blindfold,' said Vince
Taylor, Braintech's spokesman." March 6, 2002: Interactive
robot has character. By Eric Smalley and Susanna Space. Technology
Research News. "In addition to using traditional storytelling and
theatrical techniques, the researchers are studying the human side of
human-computer interaction. 'Since our goal is the illusion of human intelligence
or intent in the service of a story, a large part of our results concern
the human audience rather than the robot,' said [Todd] Camill. 'We are
exploring the social dynamics between human and machine by exploiting
the tendency of people to project human qualities on the objects around
them.'" March 6, 2002: Math
program has struggling students' number. Boulder pilot project turns
F's into A's. By Jim Hughes. Denver Post. "But Rose Ogilvie, a math
teacher at Monarch High School, is testing a new math program that uses
computers to help math-averse kids push their way into mathematical realms
that have always been closed to them. And it's working, say Ogilvie and
her students. Some of them even say it's made their least-favorite subject
. . . well, fun. ... Developed by Carnegie Mellon University, the Carnegie
Learning Program uses artificial-intelligence technology to track successes
and mistakes, offer students help when they get stuck and allow them to
progress at their own speed." March 6, 2002: Students
build a better robot. Teams construct working machines for competition.
By Mary Alice Benoit. Chicago Tribune. "Using a plastic sprinkler
cover, an inner tube, a radio controller and parts from a disassembled
computer printer, students from Fremd High School in Palatine created
Cold Fusion, a robot designed to safely remove radioactive rods from a
nuclear reactor. The Fremd robot will join robots from 17 other Midwestern
junior high and high schools to compete Saturday in the Illinois Area
B.E.S.T. (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) Robotics competition,
to be held at Triton College in River Forest." March 5, 2002: Robot
helps fight terrorism - Army shows off device that detects car bombs.
By Anita Lienert. Detroit News. "Automotive engineers are getting
ready to fight terrorism with a tiny robot that can detect car bombs and
will eventually be able to sniff out anthrax and radioactive material.
... An operator using wireless technology, which includes a joystick and
a TV monitor, maneuvers Odis from a distance, sliding it underneath a
vehicle to check for bombs in the undercarriage. Odis can be programed
to sound a warning bell if it finds anything suspicious." March 5, 2002: Dr.
Aibo, You're Wanted in O.R. By Charles Mandel. WIRED. "Artificial
intelligence takes on a whole new meaning with the announcement that a
Canadian company is developing a robot smart enough to be a brain surgeon.
... The robots will perform a variety of procedures, including placing
biopsy needles into the brain, and dissecting blood vessel abnormalities
during micro-surgery, a procedure normally done with a microscope and
requiring tremendous hand-eye coordination on the part of the surgeon.
The robots are expected to be reliable, immune to fatigue and precise
to near-absolute accuracy. ... [Garnette] Sutherland says the robots will
not dispense with the need for skilled neurosurgeons, but will improve
the standard of neurosurgery." March 4, 2002: 'Text
mining' software business grows. By Emery P. Dalesio. The Associated
Press / available from the Sun-Sentinel. "The products are part of
a growing inventory of so-called 'text mining' software that seeks patterns
hidden in vast data collections. Revenue from sales of all types of data
mining software -- of which text mining is a subgenre -- will grow from
about $540 million this year to about $1.5 billion in 2005, according
to market research firm IDC. Text mining programs can write reports --
and even recommend a course of action -- by gleaning clues from e-mail,
medical reports, news dispatches or consumer comments recorded by call
center operators. ... University of Louisville medical researchers are
using SAS software to retrieve buckets of information on ailments and
treatments found in medical literature. The software can group articles
on a particular kind of clinical research and reject others." March 4, 2002: Radio
Interview with Rodney Brooks. Fresh Air. WHYY-FM / available from
NPR. "Rodney Brooks, the director of the Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). His new book
is called Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us. Brooks offers
a vision of the future of humans and robots." Visit the site and
listen
to the interview. March 4, 2002: Snakes
that seek - A slithery kind of robot being developed at CMU. By Byron
Spice. Post-Gazette. "One day 'snakebots' could help in urban search
and rescue work. ... The potential value of snake robots became obvious
in the aftermath of the Twin Towers' collapse. Within 24 hours of the
attack, researchers from several research centers and robot manufacturers
were on the scene with about a dozen robots, varying in size from a shoebox
to a suitcase. The remote-controlled robots ventured into areas too small
or too unstable for human emergency workers. By 8 a.m. the day after the
attack, a robot had found its first human victim in the rubble, noted
Robin Murphy of the nonprofit Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue." March 2002: I,
PC. By Christina Wood. Popular Science. "The coming generation
of PCs, [Steven] Schwartz says, will know everything HAL knew, but they
won't be remote from us. Instead of residing in a box or being tethered
to the wiring of a ship, they'll be intimately laced into the fabric of
our bodies and day-to-day lives. 'I don't think about my shoelaces all
day long,' says Schwartz. 'Neither should I have to think about my computer.
It will become a part of me.' If that's the next wave of computing, clearly
little that's come before fully prepares us for it -- a time when it will
be impossible to distinguish where the PC ends and the person begins.
We'll wear networks and technology the way we wear clothing; we'll have
personal software agents that will do our bidding even while we sleep,
exploring both the Web and real-world venues for things we need to know,
and keeping us prepared for even the most unlikely incidents." March 2, 2002: 'Halo'
tops 2002 video game awards - Fifth Annual Interactive Achievement
Awards. By Marsha Walton. CNN. "The other top video game honor --
computer game of the year -- went to 'Black & White,' from Lionhead Studios.
Here, players act through characters -- tigers, apes -- and can be either
benevolent or evil. The story unfolds depending on the ethical decisions
made by players. There's an element of artificial intelligence, as well.
If, for example, you pet and scratch your tiger's belly after it eats
a villager, it will 'learn' that eating villagers is a good thing -- and
continue to do it." March 2, 2002: Digital
characters 'talk' to the deaf. By Jon Wurtzel. BBC. "Using digital
avatars as signing translators could significantly expand the ways deaf
and hard of hearing people communicate with the hearing world. The avatars
are computer animations designed to look and move like real people. A
computer program takes spoken English and converts it in real-time to
text. The digital avatars then take this English text and sign its meaning
on a display screen, in effect becoming a translator between spoken English
and British sign language. ... Businesses should pursue this technology,
and not just because it is the right thing to do. The deaf and hard of
hearing account for 8.6 million of the 59 million people in the UK. Combine
that with the millions throughout the world who would also benefit, and
a huge market opportunity emerges for the right products." March 1, 2002: Metropolis.
Movie Review by Louis B. Hobson. Calgary Sun (Entertainment, page. G2).
"Metropolis was written in the 1940s by Osamu Tezuka, the father
of Japanese comic books, animation and graphic novels. It is a cautionary
tale about the interaction of robots and their human creators. Metropolis
is the most modern of Earth's cities and the most adventurous. Its people
have begun building an immense tower that houses a weapon which could
control or destroy mankind depending on who controls it." March 2002: The New Face of A.I. WIRED. >>> "It's Alive! From airport tarmacs to online job banks to medical labs, AI is everywhere. By Jennifer Kahn. Read the rest on newsstands now - complete content available online March 12, 2002. Features Gaming's Evolutionary Leap They fight. They flock. They have free will. Get ready for game bots with a mind of their own. By Steven Johnson. Monster in a Box - The inside story of an ingenious chess-playing machine that thrilled crowds, terrified opponents, and won like clockwork. By Tom Standage." March 2002: A.I.
Reboots. By Michael Hiltzik. Technology Review. "Cyc and its
rival knowledge bases are among several projects that have recently restored
a sense of intellectual accomplishment to A.I. -- a field that once inspired
dreams of sentient computers like 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL 9000 and
laid claim to the secret of human intelligence, only to be forced to back
off from its ambitions after years of experimental frustrations. Indeed,
there is a palpable sense among A.I.'s faithful -- themselves survivors
of a long, cold research winter -- that their science is on the verge
of new breakthroughs. 'I believe that in the next two years things will
be dramatically changing,' says [Doug] Lenat." |
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