AI ALERT

28 December 2007

  
 

newspapersWelcome to the AI ALERT, a service from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, showcasing an eclectic subset from the AI in the news collection in AI TOPICS, the AAAI sponsored pathfinder Web site. As explained in our notices & disclaimers, the AI ALERT is intended to keep you informed of news articles published by third parties. The mere fact that a particular item is selected for inclusion does NOT imply that AAAI or AI TOPICS has verified the information (articles are offered "as is") or that there is endorsement of any kind. And because the excerpt may not reflect the overall tenor of the article, nor contain all of the relevant information, you are encouraged to access the entire article.

The Headlines:

The Articles:

December 8, 2007 [issue date]: How do we preserve scientific data for the future? By Paul Marks. New Scientist (Issue 2633: pages 28 - 29; subscription req'd). "[H]ow will we preserve the huge amount of data produced by science experiments today in a way that guarantees it will be accessible in the future? Losing scientific data is nothing new. 'Many space projects from the 1970s, both at NASA and the European Space Agency, are either lost or cannot be read with current computers and software,' says Peter Tindemans, an adviser on archiving technology to the Netherlands government. 'Science's funding bodies have not paid for long-term storage repositories' Now, with ever more data being produced, saving it is critical."

  • Also see: The Afterlife Is Expensive for Digital Movies. By Michael Cieply. The New York Times (december 23, 2007). "[C]ompanies like Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures for decades have been tucking their 35-millimeter film masters and associated source material into archives, some of which are housed in a Kansas salt mine, or in limestone mines in Kansas and Pennsylvania. A picture could sit for many, many years, cool and comfortable, until some enterprising executive decided that the time was ripe for, say, a Wallace Beery special collection timed to a 25th-anniversary 3-D rerelease of 'Barton Fink,' with a hitherto unseen, behind-the-scenes peek at the Coen brothers trying to explain a Hollywood in-joke to John Turturro. It was a file-and-forget system that didn't cost much, and made up for the self-destructive sins of an industry that discarded its earliest works or allowed films on old flammable stock to degrade. (Indeed, only half of the feature films shot before 1950 survive.) But then came digital. And suddenly the film industry is wrestling again with the possibility that its most precious assets, the pictures, aren't as durable as they used to be. ... In a telephone interview earlier this month, Milton Shefter, a longtime film preservationist who helped prepare the academy's report, said the problems associated with digital movie storage, if not addressed, could point the industry 'back to the early days, when they showed a picture for a week or two, and it was thrown away.'"
  • This might be a good time for you to check out AAAI's Video Archive Project.

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December 10, 2007: Soccer-Playing Robot Puppies at the First Science Festival in Belgrade | Roboti igraju fudbal na prvom Festivalu nauke u Beogradu. News from the Embassy of the United States of America, Belgrade, Serbia. "Dr. Sheila Tejada, Professor, Computer and Information Science Department, Brooklyn College in New York, visited Belgrade on a U.S. Speaker program from November 29 to December 3, 2007. Dr. Sheila Tejada gave a presentation on robotics and artificial intelligence at the First Science Festival that took place in Belgrade on December 1 and 2, 2007. Dr. Tejada demonstrated a pair of robot puppies that have been created and developed for RoboCup international robotic soccer competitions which can also be employed for research, in education, in urban rescue efforts and as medical help in private homes. ... In addition, Dr. Tejada delivered a lecture at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, for a group of 50 undergraduate students and professors. After the lecture, Dr. Tejada and the robots were surrounded by enthusiastic students who asked her for advice on how to develop a similar project at the University of Belgrade. Dr. Tejada was also approached later on the streets of Belgrade by teenagers who had seen her at the festival and had additional questions about the robots."

  • Also see:
  • Glimpse Into World of Artificial Intelligence. The Press and Journal via this is north scotland.co.uk (December 18, 2007). "Schoolchildren from all over Tayside were given a glimpse into the world of artificial intelligence yesterday at Dundee University. ... Janet Hughes, of the school of computing, said pupils were told about the various applications for artificial intelligence. 'Artificial intelligence is a very real force with practical applications across a vast range of areas. ... ' she said."
  • Robots put on show in Smithfield. By Thomas J. Morgan. The Providence Journal (December 11, 2007). "The robots took over yesterday at Bryant University. Well, not exactly. But the contraptions put together by Prof. Brian Blais' students did capture attention while strutting their stuff in the rotunda of the school's Unistructure. Blais, whose field is science and technology, said one of the objects of the exercise was to demonstrate artificial intelligence, or AI in robotics parlance. His students assembled 10 robotic examples, all created from Leggos, the children's engineering kit. ... Blais said no remote controls were permitted. The robots had to figure out tasks by themselves."

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December 14, 2007: Microsoft launches "I Love Robots" competition. By Amy-Mae Elliott. Pocket-lint.co.uk via Yahoo! News UK. "'Is your robot so impressive that you'd like to tell the whole world about it?' If the answer to that question is yes, then Microsoft invites you to enter its national 'I Love Robots' competition at www.iloverobots.wotudo.net. ... If you're short on robot parts, but have the vision, then "Bionic Blueprint" offers those with grand ideas but no robot of their own the chance to have their dream robot designed in a virtual world, providing a professionally constructed blue-print for their ultimate robot."
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December 15, 2007 [issue date]: Commentary - A science-literate president, please. By Lawrence Krauss. New Scientist (Issue 2634: page 52; subscription req'd). "I still believe that widespread disinterest in the scientific literacy of our next president does not mean the issue is irrelevant. It may rather reflect the fact that most Americans are themselves scientifically illiterate. A 2001 National Science Foundation survey of scientific literacy among US adults, for example, found that 50 per cent could not say for sure that the Earth orbits the sun and takes a year to do it. Earlier this month, I joined a group of scientists, including several Nobel laureates and heads of major scientific societies, in issuing a public call for a presidential debate devoted to science and technology."

  • Also see the New Scientist Special Report: Focus on America - What are some of the biggest science and technology questions confronting America? In a series of special reports, New Scientist is taking an in-depth look at the issues shaping America's culture, its future and its impact on the wider world.

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December 17, 2007: Information technology: In pursuit of innovation. By Kester Eddy. FT.com. "It is well past six o'clock in Maribor, Slovenia's second city, and most of the working population is already home for supper. Not so Darko Pihler and Iztok Krambeger, who are locked in conversation in a city-centre office around what appears to be a micro-helicopter, replete with four rotors. 'It flies! It's a UAV, an unmanned aerial vehicle. These have been around for years, but we have given ours autonomy -- that is, some artificial intelligence that means it can fly without continuous human supervision,' says Mr Pihler, general manager of Astron, a start-up high-tech company. ... In statistical terms, software experts may number just 4,700 people, or 0.6 per cent of Slovenia's 802,000 workforce; but their numbers grew 13 per cent last year, against the average job expansion rate of just 2.5 per cent. ... Ziga Turk, Slovenia's minister for growth, accepts that too many students are choosing humanities, but says education policy has now tilted to favour technical subjects."
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December 18, 2007: A New Approach to Medical Education - Medical schools need to abandon the concept of medicine as art and begin training students to function in a rapidly evolving, team-oriented, science-based field. By Charles J. Shanley, M.D., and David Ellis. Hospitals & Health Networks Online. "Modern science is team-oriented, technology-facilitated, informatics-supported and evidence-based. Modern medicine, like any other science-based profession, must adopt these practices and principles if it is to provide safe, effective and accessible care to an increasingly mobile society in the information age. For this reason, we expect that the art- or craft-based model of medical practice will trend inexorably toward a postmodern paradigm dominated by applied 'medical' science. We acknowledge that the modern practice of medicine is much more than applied science (at least not science in it purest form). But if medical schools are to prepare students for a 21st-century, science-based health care system, it is imperative that we challenge some of the assumptions underlying the traditional paradigm of medical practice as an art. ... As Baldwin notes, doctors are simply 'reluctant to introduce technology that upends old habits and threatens productivity.' It surely doesn't help that medical school has inadequately prepared physicians even to understand the biostatistics in many research reports, according to recent reports in Journal of the American Medical Association and the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. How can they be expected to intelligently lever decision support and artificial intelligence, let alone the nuances of computational biology in postmodern medicine? ... The postmodern physician will be less of an artisan and more of a scientist. Armed with a sound working knowledge of applied mathematics, informatics and statistics, the postmodern physician would never rely on the notoriously incomplete and unreliable (and often unavailable) paper-based medical records. None would want to pit his or her fallible experience, memory and cognitive skill against the EMR data-mining and decision-support tools able to handle extreme complexity and assist in diagnosis and evidence-based treatment."
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December 19, 2007: Yahoo! Researchers Awarded Top Honors in Computer Science and Information Technology from ACM and IEEE. Business Wire press release via newsobserver.com. "Yahoo! Inc. ... , a leading global Internet company, today announced that three world-renowned scientists from Yahoo! Research have been recognized for their achievements in fields key to developing the next-generation of Internet experiences, including computer science, artificial intelligence, data mining, and algorithm engineering. Dr. Andrei Broder was named Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Dr. Ron Brachman and Dr. Raghu Ramakrishnan were named Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). These prestigious honors recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to both the practical and theoretical aspects of computing and information technology. ... Brachman is the vice president of worldwide research operations for Yahoo! Research and is responsible for all operational activities for the organization; his responsibilities also include overseeing academic relations for all of Yahoo!. Brachman was selected as an IEEE Fellow for his leadership in knowledge representation and reasoning in computer science and artificial intelligence."
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December 27, 2007: Intelligent Design. Gallery-Going by John Goodrich. The New York Sun. "'Machine Learning' at the Painting Center, however, explores abstract impressions of technology rather than the physical appearances of hardware. This elegant exhibition presents the busy, boldly patterned abstract paintings of four New York City-based artists. As curator Matthew Deleget explains in the exhibition catalog, none of them consciously investigated 'machine learning' -- a form of artificial intelligence through which computers discern patterns in vast amounts of data. Nevertheless, their paintings all reflect the hyperkinetic, technology-inspired style that has gained a solid niche in the contemporary art scene. ... In one sense, the paintings seem all too well-adapted to the I.T. era. ... In the catalog, Mr. Deleget writes that the sheer speed and quantity of visual information in the Internet Age has changed the nature of abstract art. He mentions a new model: 'painting as user interface.' The phrase neatly summarizes an art as efficient as our technology, but it's liable to send a shiver down the spines of the more traditionally inclined."

  • And see: Take your android by the hand. By Francesca Martin. Guardian Unlimited Arts (December 19, 2007). "Wayne McGregor, resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet, has started work on a new piece looking at the links between artificial intelligence and choreography. Called Entity, it will be McGregor's first new production with his own ballet company, Random Dance, in two years, and will premiere at London's Sadler's Wells in April before touring nationwide. ... 'The thrust of these pieces is in the very title of the work, Entity, which describes this intangible otherness that we are trying to grapple with and create,' [McGregor said]."

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A Year-End Tradition - Looking Back, Looking Ahead:

  • The 7th Annual Year in Ideas. The New York Times Sunday Magazine (December 9, 2007). "For the seventh consecutive December, the magazine looks back on the passing year through a special lens: ideas. Editors and writers trawl the oceans of ingenuity, hoping to snag in our nets the many curious, inspired, perplexing and sometimes outright illegal innovations of the past 12 months. Then we lay them out on the dock, flipping and flopping and gasping for air, and toss back all but those that are fresh enough for our particular cut of intellectual sushi. For better or worse, these are 70 of the ideas that helped make 2007 what it was. Enjoy."
    • The Death of Checkers. By Clive Thompson. The New York Times Sunday Magazine (December 9, 2007). "This July, Jonathan Schaeffer, a computer scientist at the University of Alberta in Canada, announced that after running a computer program almost nonstop for 18 years, he had calculated the result of every possible endgame that could be played, all 39 trillion of them. He also revealed a sober fact about the game: checkers is a draw. As with tic-tac-toe, if both players never make a mistake, every match will end in a deadlock."
  • Year in Review 2007 - Science: Entrepreneurs, NASA shoot for the moon. By Stefanie Olsen. CNET News.com (December 14, 2007). "At the intersection of science and technology, 2007 was overrun by robots and space adventures. ... Among other prize competitions, NASA sponsored the ... the $2 million Lunar Lander Challenge, a race to build and fly a lunar rover. Next year, someone might actually win the lunar challenge, but contestants now can opt to compete in the privately funded Google Lunar X Prize. The year's highlight in the field of robotics was clearly the DARPA Urban Challenge, the third in a series of robot car races sponsored by the defense department. Carnegie Mellon University, which raced a modified Land Rover, won the $2 million prize for first place, performing the cleanest and fastest, driving on roughly 60 miles of urban terrain. It was a milestone in the development of autonomous vehicles. Scientists and futurists also thought about the road ahead for artificial intelligence and the potential for machines to one day outthink humans. In the meantime, iRobot and other start-ups plan to keep developing robots that can help people with everyday chores--and maybe a few scientific breakthroughs."
  • Israeli research among '50 most significant scientific breakthroughs in 2007.' By Ofri Ilani. Haaretz.com (December 16, 2007). "A groundbreaking discovery in the field of artificial intelligence, conducted by two Tel Aviv University academics, and Israeli research into treating Parkinson's disease, have been selected as among the past year's greatest advancements in science by a top U.S. periodical. Scientific American magazine placed Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob and Dr. Itay Baruchi's creation of a type of organic memory chip on its list of the year's 50 most significant scientific discoveries. In their research, the Israeli academics used nerve cells taken from rodents, and managed to create a simple method that simulates how information or memories are stored in humans and animals. Scientists hope that their work could lead to the development of computers that will be able to think creatively."
    • See all of the SciAm 50 - This year's SciAm 50 awards are replete with instances of new machines or chemicals that come close to the true meaning of innovation as something entirely new. Scientific American (January 2008).
  • Top 10 technology videos. By Will Knight. NewScientist.com news (December 21, 2007). "From smooth grooving robots to revolutionary desktop fabricators, from prosthetic flippers to liquids with a life of their own, 2007 has thrown up more eye-popping tech videos than ever before. And so, to give you a flavour of the clips that have drawn in the most visitors during the year, here's a list of the 10 most popular, in reverse order: ..."
  • Top 25 Science Stories of 2007 - A year of discoveries, close calls, tragedies and triumphs in review. By Lisa Stein, news editor, online. Scientific American (December 21, 2007). "[T]here were also some exciting new developments and discoveries.... And who could forget the long-awaited debut of the Apple iPhone.... Or robots sent in to help in the fruitless search for trapped miners after a deadly Utah mine collapse? ... The editors and reporters of SciAm.com have listed our top 25 science and health news picks of 2007 below (in no particular order), with the understanding that these are but a small sampling of the many notable stories of the year."
  • 2007 in review. A Nature News Special (December 21, 2007).
    • Top 10 Lists
    • Also see: Breakthrough of the Year - The Runners-Up. Science (December 21, 2007; Vol. 318. no. 5858, pp. 1844 - 1849). "[10] Game Over: Computer scientists finally took some of the fun out of the game of checkers. After 18 years of trying, a Canadian team proved that if neither player makes a mistake, a game of checkers will inevitably end in a draw. The proof makes checkers--also known as draughts--the most complicated game ever 'solved.' It marks another victory for machines over humans: A mistake-prone person will surely lose to the team's computer program. ... "
        • And be sure to listen to the related Science podcast (December 21, 2007).
  • IBM dishes five predictions for the future - IBM's last installment of its annual 'Next Five in Five' list looks forward to intelligent traffic systems and energy grids, more organic food, and better technology for doctors. By Chris Kanaracus. IDG News Service / InfoWorld (December 24, 2007). "[IBM] said that during the next five years, a 'wave of connectivity' between vehicles and roadways will help keep traffic flowing smoothly, drive down pollution, and get you to your destination easier, 'without the stress.' This will be accomplished through 'intelligent' traffic systems that automatically adjust light patterns and shift traffic to alternative routes, as well as cars that exhibit 'reflexes' thanks to communication with other vehicles and roadside sensors, according to IBM. ... IBM's list received a measured nod from Edward Cornish, editor of The Futurist magazine and past president of the World Future Society, an organization based in Bethesda, Maryland. ... The Futurist has released its own list of predictions for 2008 and beyond. The organization contends, among other things, that ... 'nonhuman entities,' such as robots fueled by artificial intelligence, will make more decisions."
  • 2007 - The year in technology. By Tom Simonite. NewScientist.com news (December 24, 2007). "The past year has seen plenty of new technologies and inventions unveiled.... Robots have also got better at travelling. Improved robotic navigation technologies revealed in 2007 include a fish-like electrical sensing system, software that tries to guess what may be just around the next corner, and a robot that could map out its surroundings as it dived into the deepest freshwater sinkhole on Earth. ... Another technology that got smarter in 2007 was surveillance, with software watching students for signs of boredom and billboards tracking a person's gaze from 10 metres away to judge their level of interest. Even virtual characters were being watched, with a lurching automated avatar performing psychology experiments on unsuspecting users of the popular virtual world Second Life. ..."
  • The Year in Hardware - The past 12 months have featured touch screens, context-aware gadgets, autonomous vehicles, and brain-computer interfaces. By Kate Greene. Technology Review (December 26, 2007). " ... Context-Aware Gadgets ... Brain-Computer Interfaces ... Autonomous Vehicles: This year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held a robotic-car competition that attracted the world's best minds in robotics and artificial intelligence. ..."
  • The Year in Poker - July, 2007. By Haley Hintze. Poker News (December 26, 2007). "July in poker means just one thing: Main Event time at the World Series of Poker. ... Other big events wrapped up as well, and the usual sprinkling of news 'from the outside' made it an interesting month: ... Laak, Eslami Score One for Humans in Man-Machine Poker Championship -- Conducted as part of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in Vancouver, Canada, the first ever Man-Machine Poker Championship took place in late July. ... [T]he program --- the current result of years of work by U. of Alberta artificial-intelligence researchers --- put up a solid battle before losing in a narrow decision."
  • Year in review - Car tech gets political. By Candace Lombardi. CNET News.com (December 26, 2007). "The New York auto show's Taxis of the Future exhibit and the many green-themed cars showcased at the LA Auto Show, Tokyo auto show, and Geneva auto show this year illustrated a continued shift toward car technology with fuel efficiency in mind. We saw thoughts on city transport vehicles, robot vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and plug-in hybrids. ... The beginning of a high-tech onslaught of automation and computer technology in cars also became evident. Automakers unveiled plans for their 2008 car models that included tech options like Bluetooth, self-parking, lane departure warning systems, and adaptive cruise control--features previously restricted to luxury models. ... Partnerships between major tech companies and automakers were also forged.... Roboticists also took the combination of artificial intelligence and the coming robotics revolution in cars further than ever. The DARPA Urban Challenge race featuring robotic cars took to 'city' streets this year to prove autonomous vehicles have a future."
  • Robot love, slutty rats, bromance. By Siri Agrell. globeandmail.com (December 27, 2007). "Here, a roundup of some of 2007's relationship trends: the good, the bad and the one that involves Alec Baldwin. I Heart Robot - ... artificial intelligence expert David Levy believes that relationships between people and machines are not just a reaction to the frailties of the human soul. His book, Love + Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships hypothesizes that it's only a matter of time before our interaction with machines gets, well, physical."
  • The Best "Human Nature" Stories of 2007 - The year's top 10 science and tech stories. By William Saletan. Slate (December 28, 2007). "5. Cyborgs. ... Now the U.S. military is merging artificial intelligence with humans, including a helmet that, according to its manufacturer, delivers 'a visual readout for combat commanders showing the cognitive patterns of individual soldiers.' In humans, unlike animals, the cybernetic component hasn't become internal or dominant. Yet."
  • Gaming's Year of the Boom. By Scott Colbourne. The Globe and Mail (December 28, 2007). "If you were going to choose a year to camp out in a cabin and survey the video-game scene, it would be hard to beat 2007. ... Through November, according to the industry-tracking firm NPD Group, Canadians spent more than $1.1-billion on game software, hardware and accessories, with sales up 65 per cent compared to 2006 and the December rush still to be tallied. ... Another change hit the interactive development scene in Canada in 2007: This country has been making a lot of games for a while now, but this year, with its Montreal and Vancouver hot spots adding more studios and projects, Canada firmly established itself in the top tier of game producers. ... This was a good year for the science of games, the physics dictating collisions and movement and the artificial intelligence displayed by enemies and virtual onlookers. The best example of this is Valve Software's Portal, a game that allows players to solve puzzles by sending a female protagonist through space-time holes."
  • Post-Posting Updates
    • The Year in Robots - In 2007, our artificially intelligent companions moved closer to replacing us on the battlefield, improving healthcare (on Earth and in space) and even befriending our children. By Larry Greenemeier. Scientific American News (December 28, 2007). "This sampling merely scratches the surface of the past year's advances in robotics that whet the appetite for what's to come: Early next year, for instance, researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder will benchmark robotic devices to precisely mix and measure medications used in treatments such as chemotherapy. The robotic Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit are currently hunkering down in anticipation of the harsh Martian winter season but will soon resume their exploration of the Red Planet. And Scandanavian research firm Sintef is developing artificially intelligent equipment to help offshore oil and gas drilling platforms run more safely and efficiently. In all, 2008 promises continued progress in the area of artificial intelligence...."
    • 2007 AiGameDev.com Awards for Game AI - The Results. AiGameDev.com (December 31, 2007). "Here are the results for the 1st Annual AiGameDev.com Awards for Game AI, where the best games of the year are nominated and voted by professionals, enthusiasts, and researchers in artificial intelligence for games. ..."
      • And see: The 2007 Game AI Awards. Gamasutra (January 2, 2008). "Gamasutra has teamed up with AIGameDev.com to present their 1st annual Game AI award winners for 2007, honoring the best in artificial intelligence for games released last year, from BioShock to Half-Life 2 and beyond."
    • The year in goodbyes. With grit or grace, they left their mark. By Joseph P. Kahn. The Boston Globe (January 1, 2008). "They were adventurers who tested the limits of human endurance and artists who explored the outer reaches of human creativity. Some made us smile at life's absurdities. Others changed history and how we view it. Collectively the many notable figures who died in 2007 left legacies that will long endure. Science and medicine -  Techies revered computer scientist Ken Kennedy, Internet pioneer Eric Wolf, and artificial intelligence whiz Donald Michie. ... Inventors and innovators - The world would be a duller place without inventors and innovators like the late Robert Adler, an engineer who designed the first TV remote control, and computer scientist John Backus, who invented Fortran programming language."

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January 2008 [issue date]: Surveillance Society - New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You. In the era of computer-controlled surveillance, your every move could be captured by cameras, whether you're shopping in the grocery store or driving on the freeway. Proponents say it will keep us safe, but at what cost? By James Vlahos. Popular Mechanics. "Liberty Island's video cameras all feed into a computer system. The park doesn't disclose details, but fully equipped, the system is capable of running software that analyzes the imagery and automatically alerts human overseers to any suspicious events. The software can spot when somebody abandons a bag or backpack. It has the ability to discern between ferryboats, which are allowed to approach the island, and private vessels, which are not. And it can count bodies, detecting if somebody is trying to stay on the island after closing, or assessing when people are grouped too tightly together, which might indicate a fight or gang activity. 'A camera with artificial intelligence can be there 24/7, doesn't need a bathroom break, doesn't need a lunch break and doesn't go on vacation,' says Ian Ehrenberg, former vice president of Nice Systems, the program's developer. Most Americans would probably welcome such technology at what clearly is a marquee terrorist target. An ABC News/Washington Post poll in July 2007 found that 71 percent of Americans favor increased video surveillance. What people may not realize, however, is that advanced monitoring systems such as the one at the Statue of Liberty are proliferating around the country. ... 'Society is fundamentally changing and we aren't having a conversation about it,' [Bruce] Schneier says. ... In the late 18th century, English philosopher Jeremy Bentham dreamed up a new type of prison: the panopticon. It would be built so that guards could see all of the prisoners at all times without their knowing they were being watched, creating 'the sentiment of an invisible omniscience,' Bentham wrote."

  • Also read this opinion piece: Watching the Watchers - Why Surveillance Is a Two-Way Street. If governments and businesses can keep an eye on us in public spaces, we ought to be able to look back. Op-Ed by Glenn Harlan Reynolds. Popular Mechanics (January 2008). "Today's pervasive surveillance may seem like something out of 1984, but access to technology has become a lot more democratic since Orwell's time."
  • Also listen to this podcast: America's New Surveillance Society. By Matt Sullivan. Popular Mechanics (December 7, 2007). "Every day we're being watched a little bit more, by intelligent cameras, unmanned aircraft and newfound gadgetry. We'll get an exclusive report on FAA-approved drone tests by American law-enforcement agencies, suggestions from Instapundit blogger and PM contributing editor Glenn Reynolds on how to watch back, and a first look at a eye-tracking hardware that might make Google millions."

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January / February 2008 [issue date]: Q&A: Peter Norvig - The evolution of Web search. By Kate Greene. Technology Review. "As director of research at Google, Peter Norvig is intimately involved in the attempt to manage the world's information. He's a good match for the job, having spent much of his life thinking about how computers think and making them do it more efficiently. An expert on artificial intelligence, he has taught at universities, held research jobs in the corporate world and at NASA, and cowritten the influential textbook AI: A Modern Approach. ... TR: Companies such as Ask and Powerset are betting that the future is in natural-language search, which lets people use real, useful sentences instead of potentially ambiguous keywords. What is Google doing with natural language? PN: We think what's important about natural language is the mapping of words onto the concepts that users are looking for. ... TR: Where do you see Google search in two to five years? PN: You'll see integration of various kinds of content. We're getting into speech recognition and all the kinds of interfaces on phones, where you have a tiny screen and awkward keyboard. ..."
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