AI ALERT

14 April 2005

  
 

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The Headlines:

The Articles:

April 1, 2005: Spam attacks aid Aids fighters. By Nevil Gibson. The National Business Review.
"The war against internet virus makers and spammers has had one beneficial side effect -- in the medical field. Software scientists and biomedical researchers have joined forces to design vaccines using computer techniques to combat HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which causes Aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) and kills nearly 8000 people a day. 'Some well defined models for disease epidemics can be related to computer viruses,' Microsoft researcher Jonathan Pincus says. Computer viruses Slammer and Blaster had fast-spreading effects and computational tools such as 'machine learning' or 'data mining' algorithms, known as epitomes, can also be used to decipher the genetic ability of Aids/HIV to mutate and outwit the human immunity system. Just as spammers add streams of nonsense words to avoid detection from filtering software, so the Aids virus can create new strains but both can do only so much without disabling themselves."
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April 2, 2005: Pentagon Redirects Its Research Dollars. By John Markoff. The New York Times (subscription req'd.). [Note: This article is no longer available for free.]
"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Pentagon - which has long underwritten open-ended 'blue sky' research by the nation's best computer scientists - is sharply cutting such spending at universities, researchers say, in favor of financing more classified work and narrowly defined projects that promise a more immediate payoff. Hundreds of research projects supported by the agency, known as Darpa, have paid off handsomely in recent decades, leading not only to new weapons, but to commercial technologies from the personal computer to the Internet. ... The shift away from basic research is alarming many leading computer scientists and electrical engineers, who warn that there will be long-term consequences for the nation's economy. ... 'There are pressures and demands on Darpa to be relevant,' said Robert Kahn, a former Darpa administrator who is now president of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives in Reston, Va. ... John McCarthy founded the Stanford artificial research lab in 1964, helping to turn it into a wellspring for some of Silicon Valley's most important companies, from Xerox Parc to Apple to Intel. 'American leadership in computer science and in applications has benefited more from the longer-term work,' Mr. McCarthy said, 'than from the deliverables.'"

  • Research Worth Fighting For. Op-Ed by John M. Deutch and William J. Perry. The New York Times (registration req'd.). April 13, 2005. "Of the Pentagon's $419.3 billion budget request for next year, only about $10.5 billion - 2 percent - will go toward basic research, applied research and advanced technology development. This represents a 20 percent reduction from last year, a drastic cutback that threatens the long-term security of the nation. ... There should be no doubt that basic research will continue to make a contribution. Robotics, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, brain and cognitive sciences, nanotechnology, large-scale modeling and simulation: all these fields can have a huge impact. If properly supported, basic technology work is likely to lead to unprecedented results."

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April 3, 2005: Celebrating science. By Rod Ohira. The Honolulu Advertiser.
"Can a computer model the activities of the human brain? ... The answers to these questions -- and many more -- can be found among 345 projects from 427 students on display Wednesday at the 48th Hawaii State Science & Engineering Fair at Blaisdell Center's Exhibition Hall.... Kimberly Reinhold's computer science projects have progressed into uncharted territory over a four-year period. The only child of Big Island pathologists Rhoda and Charles Reinhold, Kimberly became interested in artificial intelligence research after reading an article in one of her father's magazines, Scientific American. ... Reinhold, who has been accepted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the Science Fair inflamed her interest in artificial intelligence research. 'I decided it's what I want to do in life,' she said. ... Kimberly Reinhold's favorite part of the Science Fair is the verbal requirement, which counts as 10 percent of the judging. 'If you can't articulate your project, people won't ever understand its significance,' Reinhold said."
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April 3, 2005: Computers obeying brain signals. By Malcolm Ritter. The Associated Press / available from BusinessWeek online.
"Researchers and volunteers around the world are taking early steps toward a complex but straightforward technological goal: to use electrical signals from the brain as instructions to computers and other machines, allowing paralyzed people to communicate, move around and control their environment literally without moving a muscle. ... Research into harnessing brain signals goes back some 20 years. But lately it seems the research pot is starting to come to a boil, as advances in brain science, electronics and computer software have combined to push the field forward. ... To see firsthand what all the excitement is about, I signed on as an able-bodied research subject at [Jonathan] Wolpaw's Brain-Computer Interface lab, part of the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health."
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April 3, 2005: Attacking Iraq, from a Nev. computer - Unmanned Predators are piloted in US. By Bryan Bender. The Boston Globe / Boston.com.
"'They are looking into artificial intelligence for weapons purposes and that raises very serious problems,' said [Francis Anthony] Boyle, referring to what many see as the next evolution: when computers can be programmed to launch attacks on their own. [Michael] O'Hanlon agreed the US military has entered a brave new world. 'We will have to revisit this every time we go further down this road of robotics and computers,' he said. ''The question is not should a human only kill a human face to face, but . . . does war become so sanitized that it becomes easier and easier to go to war?' For the Predator crews in Nevada, however, the main challenge is simply to remember they are not playing a video game when they step out of their air-conditioned office for a Wendy's hamburger."
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April 4, 2005: Autonomous spacecraft finally ready for launch. By Maggie McKee. NewScientist.com news.
"A NASA mission designed to test 'auto-pilot' techniques in space is gearing up for launch on 15 April, after six months of delays that cost $15 million. The Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) spacecraft was originally scheduled to blast off in October 2004. ... About 100,000 lines of software code include commands designed to help it adjust to unexpected scenarios and avoid crashing into its target. 'We will make it lose its signal, save itself and bring itself back in,' explains [Jim] Snoddy. Such technology is 'critical to any in-orbit, autonomous rendezvous scenario'."

  • Autonomous military satellite to inspect others in orbit . By Kelly Young. NewScientist.com news. April 12, 2005. "The US Air Force has launched a micro-satellite that could lead to an autonomous robotic mechanic that fixes satellites in orbit. ... During its mission, the XSS-11 craft will approach dead or unused US satellites or old rocket parts. At each rendezvous, the Air Force satellite will burn its engines to move around the object while taking a range of pictures. Normally, ground controllers instruct a satellite when to fire its engines. But, after a commissioning and testing phase, XSS-11 will only take instruction on where to find a dead satellite. Then, with its on-board planner, it will calculate when to burn its engines. ... NASA is also interested in using such technology for a Mars-sample-return mission, so that a lander would be able to dock autonomously with a mother ship after a visit to the surface. Spacecraft autonomy is one of the requirements for President George W Bush’s plan for human missions to the Moon and Mars."

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April 4, 2005: The higher education of gaming - Musem exhibit offers visitors look at the evolution of video games. The Columbia Chronicle Online.
"After more than 40 years of joysticks, cartridges and copious titles, one Chicago institution is currently chronicling the history of video games, while another is hoping to enter the lucrative market. Currently at the Museum of Science and Industry, 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive, an exhibit, 'Game On: The History, Culture and Future of Video Games,' documents the origins of the pixelated medium through a labyrinthine exhibit with playable consoles, original character sketches and game cover art. ... Scott Beveridge, network and multimedia exhibit manager with the museum, said that video gaming and academia share a close relationship. 'With these games and ideas of artificial intelligence and immersed environments, you see a long tradition [between] higher education and video game development,' Beveridge said. 'Now, a team of 50 is needed to develop a game, along with a certain amount of education and sophistication.'"
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April 4, 2005: Kids' camps - more careers than crafts. Forget the image of years gone by. Many of today's summer camps are tailored for instruction, from robotics to rock 'n' roll. By Sharon Ginn. St. Petersburg Times / Floridian.
"Many of these niche camps are less than 10 years old, some only a few years old. They run the gamut from outrageous luxury to intensive instruction to a special place to just make some friends. Here are some of the more interesting residential camps in Florida and around the nation. ... Computer camp sounds dull, until you get to the part where they let you make a robot. That's the big bonus of CyberCamps' robotics course, which is programming camp in disguise. 'During the week of camp, kids will actually build a robot that they will have to program to do some things,' said David Kinard, marketing director at CyberCamps, based in Washington state."

  • Robot camp, courtesy IIIT-Hyderabad, soon - On the lines of the annual camp organized by NASA, IIIT aims at holding a camp with at least 50 functional robots in place. By Sunitha Natti. CIOL (Cyber India Online Ltd.). April 8, 2005. "In an attempt to build awareness on navigating a robot, Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad is planning to hold an annual robot camp for students of eleventh and twelfth standard soon. The proposed camp would be similar to the one that is being organized by NASA for students in the month of June every year. IIIT-Hyderabad associate professor PJ Narayanan said, 'Such camps are essential to convey the thrill of robotics to students and educate them on robotics applications.'"

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April 5, 2005: The robot nurse. The Engineer Online.
"Surgeon Michael R. Treat and his team at Robotic Surgical Tech have developed a robotic surgical assistant, named Penelope, to organise and manage all the surgical instruments used in an operating theatre -- essentially replacing all the jobs usually assigned to a scrub nurse.... Penelope uses voice recognition to respond to a surgeon’s request for an instrument, handing it to the surgeon with a robotic arm. Using a visual processing capability, Penelope also retrieves the instrument when it is no longer needed. For safety, the robot even assists in keeping track of the number of surgical instruments used, helping to ensure that none are accidentally left inside the patient! Penelope anticipates which instrument the surgeon will need next and selects that item from its tool kit, just as an experienced scrub nurse would. And like a nurse, Penelope can learn the instrument preferences of various surgeons."
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April 6, 2005: UCD scientist patents ‘smart’ email. By Brian Skelly. SiliconRepublic.com.
"A University College Dublin (UCD) scientist has filed a patent application for a new technology that he believes can turn email into a much more effective business tool. US-born Dr Nicholas Kushmerick, a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at UCD, has developed the technology over the past year during his part-time position as visiting scientist on IBM’s Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) initiative. This is a programme that aims to forge links between the computer maker’s Dublin software lab and the academic community in order to turn new technology into marketable products. Kushmerick developed the technology, known as Active Email Manager (AEM), in concert with New York-based IBM researcher Tessa Lau. Together they developed a machine-learning algorithm that automatically keeps track of tasks and associated emails, in order to build up a work flow for each task. ... [T]he advent of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has...made Ireland one of the best places in the world to do research, according to Kushmerick, who doubts whether he would still be in Ireland were it not for SFI. 'When I arrived in Dublin there was a modest amount of funding for computer science. With SFI it’s completely changed.'"
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April 7, 2005: A tiny robot swarm - fiction no longer. By Robert C. Cowen. The Christian Science Monitor.
"The cartoon superheroes were frustrated. They confronted a menacing robot that quickly repaired any damage they inflicted. It was made up of a swarm of microscopic robots - so-called nanobots - that could change its function and shape at will. Suddenly the swarm became fluid and flowed away. That cartoon scenario may seem entertaining. But the reality is startling. Engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration want to pull off a similar trick. They are testing a robot that they hope to shrink to nanobot size and eventually form what NASA calls 'autonomous nanotechnology swarms' (ANTS). The researchers aim to give ANTS enough artificial intelligence to make smart decisions as well as know intuitively when and how to walk and swarm. ... [E]ven though its major payoffs are decades away, nanotechnology already is a big deal. Worldwide government funding of nanotech research reached $3.6 billion last year with some 40 nations joining in, according to National Science Foundation (NSF) figures."
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April 7, 2005: Moore on 40 years of his dictum. By Michael Kanellos. CNET News.com.
"Gordon Moore is one of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley and one of the few still alive. His famous dictum turns 40 on April 19. He spoke to reporters recently about the electronics industry's progress, artificial intelligence, the emergence of China and the early days of the industry. ... Will the additional computing power you get from following Moore's Law ever get us to computers with the equivalent of human intelligence?Moore: Human intelligence in my view is something done in a dramatically different way than Von Neumann computers, and I don't think the route we're pursuing now is going to get to something that looks like human intelligence. I do think, though, that eventually we will change our approach and do things much closer to the way they're done biologically and have a very big chance to get into something that looks for all intents and purposes like human intelligence. But I really don't think it's a simple approach. The amount of power that we would need to do everything the human brain does is probably more than we generate on Earth by our current approach."
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April 8, 2005: The robot as manager; it does not compute. By Shelly Anderson, Sports Columnist. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"What if a well-programmed computer, or a robot with a computer brain, took the place of a major-league manager for a season? We could call such a contraption a cyber manager. Cyb for short. Think about it. ... Two local computer whizzes with connections to Carnegie Mellon don't see Cyb in a dugout soon. 'It's a very interesting idea,' said Raul Valdes-Perez, a former professor at CMU whose specialties are artificial intelligence and data mining. ... 'I think sports teams will use data more and more to guide them, but designing a system to really take over is just hard to do,' Valdes-Perez said. ... If Cyb would come along, he's much more likely to tweak conventional wisdom than to redesign managing, said Michael Trick, a Bosch professor in CMU's Tepper School of Business who along with his colleagues this year produced the first computer-generated master schedule for Major League Baseball."

  • Tennis machine keeps it 'real.' By Jamie Cwalinski. redandblack.com. April 13, 2005. "Even though they play in the strongest conference in collegiate tennis, the most challenging and intimidating competition the Lady Bulldogs may face might not even be human. Opposing them will be Boomer, the first ever robotic tennis machine capable of not only firing balls for a variety of drills but playing through an entire match. Georgia is the first college in the nation, and one of only six institutions nationwide, to use Boomer."
  • Automated table football player wins European robotics award. CORDIS News. April 14, 2005. "A robot that can play table football as well as an advanced human player is one of the winners of the second 'Technology Transfer Award' for outstanding achievements in European robotics. ... The 'Star Kick' table football robot was developed by Thilo Weigel at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany. ... The Star Kick robot offers researchers insights into sensor interpretation, control, autonomous systems, planning and machine learning. The long term goal behind the project is to develop methods that can also be applied in other areas, such as service robots, but its creators point out that it could also become an attractive pastime as an intelligent opponent, or training partner for professional players."

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April 8, 2005: Computers That Fix Themselves. By David M. Ewalt. Forbes.com.
"Next-generation networks may incorporate technology that takes humans out of the mix altogether. That's why technology providers are promoting the idea of autonomous computing, a vision of systems that can monitor, administer and repair themselves. ... A computer that controls itself may sound outlandish or even dangerous, something like the artificial intelligence 'HAL' in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001. But these systems wouldn't be sentient or even particularly intelligent. Autonomic systems would bear more of a resemblance to simple biological organisms than a fully fledged, HAL-style artificial intelligence. Autonomic computing systems wouldn't regulate themselves with one super-intelligent and aware mind. 'These systems are going to consist of collections of interactive, semi-autonomous programs...something like software agents that collaborate with each other,' says [Jeff] Kephart. They'd operate as the sum of many independent, relatively dumb processes--just like the autonomic functions of the human central nervous system, from which they take their name."
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April 8, 2005: MIT seeks computing revolution - 'T-Party' venture with Taiwanese firm aims for 'human-centered,' intuitive technologies. By Robert Weisman. The Boston Globe & Boston.com.
"MIT is teaming up with Taiwan's Quanta Computer in a five-year, $20 million research effort to define the future of computing and create the next generation of communications platforms and products. ... 'We're rethinking what computers are,' said Rodney A. Brooks, director of MIT's Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab, known as CSAIL, which will run the project.... T-Party is the natural successor to CSAIL's Project Oxygen, now winding down. It pioneered 'human-centered computing' innovations, such as reconfigurable microchips and voice-activated software, in an effort to make computers as invisible to users as the air they breathe, in the vision of MIT's late Michael Dertouzos, the project's founder. CSAIL researchers have worked with six business partners on that $30 million project. This time, MIT researchers will be paired with just one company."

  • MIT, Taiwanese laptop maker team up to ponder future of computing. By Mark Jewell. The Associated Press / available from StarNewsOnline.com. April 8, 2005. "[Rodney] Brooks envisions digital devices that could recognize whether a user is at home, at the office or in a car, and automatically reformat how information is presented on screen to fit the circumstances. For example, a commuter checking e-mail on the go might prefer to read snippets of e-mails rather than digest a single message taking up the entire screen. 'The system should reconfigure itself depending on where I am physically,' Brooks said."

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April 9, 2005: Will machines ever understand us? By Justin Mullins. New Scientist (Issue 2494; subscription req'd.).
"If you have ever called a directory enquiries or flight information service, the chances are that you have spent a few happy minutes speaking to a computer. And according to some business analysts, talking to a computer in this way will soon become an everyday experience, one that changes the way we live and work. This future relies on one enabling technology: voice-recognition software. Yet experts in the field can't decide quite how well things are progressing. Some say it will be 50 years before a computer can truly understand what we say; others believe you'll soon be chatting to your fridge. According to the New York-based business information company Datamonitor, the North American market for speech-recognition software will grow by more than 25 per cent each year between 2005 and 2008."

  • Non-acoustic sensors detect speech without sound. By David Hambling. New Scientist (Issue 2494; page 21). April 9, 2005. "DARPA is also pursuing an approach first developed at NASA's Ames lab, which involves placing electrodes called electromyographic sensors on the neck, to detect changes in impedance during speech. A neural network processes the data and identifies the pattern of words. The sensor can even detect subvocal or silent speech. The speech pattern is sent to a computerised voice generator that recreates the speaker's words."

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April 11, 2005: Commentary - Technology Challenges for the Next Pope. By Rob Enderle. TechNewsWorld.
"With the passing of Pope John Paul the II comes an opportunity to look back -- as well as ahead -- at the kinds of technological changes that can occur in 30 years. ... Artificial Intelligence - If the Church believes strongly that a woman who has lost brain function is still alive and a fetus at its earliest stages is human, what will they think about a virtual something that emulates a person to the highest degree? We have a number of advanced universities and well funded companies working at a feverish pace to be the first to create true artificial intelligence. ... Now let's take that extra step: We are likely to be able to interface into the human body in a complex way in about 15 years. What if, in the case of catastrophic brain injury, we tie the body into an artificial personality? Is that life?"
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April 12, 2005: Japan's hi-tech carers. By 2050, the over 65s in Japan are expected to make up a third of the population... and it's likely that technology will be relied upon to help look after them. BBC News.
"To help combat the loneliness of longevity - and in true Japanese style - the country has turned to technology for guidance. ... Paro, based on a baby harp seal, has taken 12 years and £5m ($9.5m) to create. Based on the well-known properties of animal therapy, Paro has been designed to provide relaxation, entertainment and companionship through physical interaction. Covered in soft white antibacterial fur, Paro's artificial intelligence means it can mimic animal behaviour and over time, even develop its own character. ... In clinical trials, Paro has been shown to reduce stress, depression and anxiety in elderly people, by offering them the chance to demonstrate affection... and receive a little back."
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April 12, 2005: Why robots are scary--and cool. By Jonathan Skillings. CNET News.com.
"For early researchers in artificial intelligence who were out to play God, it turned out the devil was in the details. ... The newer generation of AI researchers is taking a more humble approach to the cognitive conundrum, according to Anne Foerst, who's a rare combination of computer scientist and theologian--two types that don't always see eye to eye. ... In her new book, 'God in the Machine: What Robots Teach Us About God and Humanity,' Foerst draws on her experience at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to paint a picture of how people and robots can and should interact--and whether, at some point down the road from today's Aibo and Asimo contraptions, the human community might confer 'personhood' on robots. ... She spoke recently with CNET News.com about changes in the field of AI, social learning for robots and the need for embodied intelligence--that is, the ability for thinking creatures, and machines, to interact with and survive in the real world. Q: How does a theologian end up at the MIT AI Labs?... What did you find out about the people who study AI--what makes somebody want to study AI?... Are there classes of robots? ... What's the distinction between computers and robots? ... I want to ask you about the ethics of people working with robots, using robots. Should we build robots to do our dirty work? If we're going to think about according them personhood, are we ready to send them into combat to do mine sweeping and things like that?"
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April 13, 2005: Robot Pals. Scientific American Frontiers television broadcast on PBS.
Alan Alda [host]: "The problem with most robots is that they tend to be, well, robotic. They know nothing they aren't programmed to know, and can do nothing they aren't programmed to do. But for many applications where robots could be useful, they need to be more like humans, able to respond as a cooperative partner rather than a mindless machine. In this program, we'll meet some robots that are learning to figure out for themselves what their human companions have in mind."

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April 14, 2005: Latest from MIT: Artificial Stupidity. By Jay Fitzgerald. BostonHerald.com.
"Welcome to wack-ademia. Fed up with invitations to submit papers for science conferences, three MIT students devised a software program that deliberately churned out nonsensical scientific gibberish. Now one of their computer-generated 'papers' has been accepted by a Florida conference. Their fake report - 'Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy' - is intended to show that many so-called academic conferences have few or no minimum standards. The gatherings' purpose: simply to make money. 'We decided to test the limits,' said Jeremy Stribling, a graduate student at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab in Cambridge."

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