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<channel> 
<title>News Sampling from AAAI's AI TOPICS "AI in the news" Collection</title>
<link>http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AITopics/AINews</link>
<description>Some of the many headlines from the "AI in the news" collection in the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's AI TOPICS site.</description> 
<language>en-us</language>
<webMaster>aitopics08@aaai.org (AI Topics)</webMaster>


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<title>Flying Saucers and Mini-Tanks Highlight Spy Robot Competition.</title>
<link>http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3249/british-ministry-of-defense-hosting-spy-robot-competition</link>
<description> Eleven teams, including universities, defense contractors and small companies, are competing in the British Ministry of Defense’s Grand Challenge with autonomous information-gathering vehicles that include flying saucers, a mini tank, several mini-helicopters and darts, among other machines.  ...  During the competition, the robots have to identify threats such as potential snipers and enemy vehicles and other threats, with minimal human guidance. The machines then have to report the information back to troops preparing for an assault. The judges will reward accuracy and autonomy.</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:42:39 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>400,000 Essays Later, Vantage Learning Spells Success in Over Half of Utah's School Districts</title>
<link>http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/400000-essays-later-vantage-learning/story.aspx?guid={C763867D-3EEF-40F6-8928-D9427F4063E2}&amp;dist=hppr</link>
<description>Utah's students are boosting critical writing, reasoning, and computer skills in the classroom, thanks to a licensing agreement for MY Access! the award-winning online writing tool developed by Vantage Learning. Twenty four districts have decided to use MY Access! this school year after teachers, directors and administrators from across the state saw a marked improvement in student performance. Students submitted over 400,000 essays to MY Access! in one school year and administrators decided to expand their use of MY Access! to over 70,000 licenses in over twenty four school districts throughout the Utah school system. ... To use MY Access!, students write an essay based on a teacher's assignment, and submit it to the Web-based system. The program instantly analyzes over 350 semantic, syntactic, and discourse characteristics, and scores the students on focus and meaning, organization, content and development, language use and style, mechanics and conventions, and overall writing proficiency.</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:35:15 -0700</pubDate>
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<title> Gates foresees another revolution.</title>
<link>http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24200503-15321,00.html</link>
<description> MICROSOFT chairman Bill Gates said last week the dramatic growth of the internet would help to eventually eliminate "the last constraints we have", leading to a software-writing revolution. ...  The way people used computers would expand "to encompass all interactive techniques: the touch, the speech, the vision", said Mr Gates, who stepped down in June from his full-time role at Microsoft, which he co-founded.   Major developments in internet services and computer interfaces, "because they're fairly developed in the labs, I can say that in 10 years will be widespread", he said.   As for the following decade, he predicted: "You might get artificial intelligence or robotics, but those are still so undeveloped, at least in widespread impact.".</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:33:58 -0700</pubDate>
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<title> A website that hopes to speak the language of freely available data .</title>
<link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/aug/14/freeourdata.opensource</link>
<description> Flummoxed by a document in Welsh? Now you can get a free translation at cymraeg.org.uk. The Apertium-cy software, described as the first free automatic translator from Welsh to English, is the fruit of a multilingual effort involving developers in Spain, Wales and Ireland pushing forward the possibilities of open-source software and, they hope, free public-sector data. ... Work on the Welsh-language version was led by Francis Tyers and Kevin Donnelly. It contains about 10,000 words in Welsh and English and 150 grammatical rules - enough to get the gist of the text, the developers say. The idea is to provide an easy way for people who don't speak Welsh to keep an eye on Welsh-language media reports in an area of interest, and to provide a "first-pass" translation of documents, improving the productivity of human translators.</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:13:58 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Rapid7's NeXpose Named SC Magazine Recommended Product This Month.</title>
<link>http://www.centredaily.com/business/technology/story/773595.html</link>
<description> In a review published in the August issue, SC Magazine's technology editor and product tester, Peter Stephenson, identifies NeXpose's strengths as "vulnerability assessment and risk analysis in one box" and reports that there are no weaknesses to be found. He describes NeXpose as a "tool that always goes beyond expectations," and points out that NeXpose "can not only scan for network-based vulnerabilities, but also looks inside web apps and databases for potential threats." ... NeXpose discovers the vulnerabilities that hackers most exploit and other products fail to detect by using an expert system to chain together individual external vulnerabilities to reveal potentially hidden vulnerabilities at deeper levels of the systems..</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:47:11 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>'Frankenrobot' Has Biological Brain.</title>
<link>http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/13/frankenrobot-brain.html</link>
<description> Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot to be controlled exclusively by living brain tissue. Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday. Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers said.</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:35:52 -0700</pubDate>
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<title> The Night Sessions (Book Review).</title>
<link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/aug/09/sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.roundupreviews1</link>
<description> Review of book by Ken MacLeod in which "Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson harbours a deep mistrust of religious faith and not a little unease at the recollection of the brutal methods with which he helped to suppress the religious minority. When a priest is murdered, then a bishop, atheists are at first suspected, and later aggrieved religious fundamentalists. But Ferguson's investigations soon uncover a more sinister plot involving artificial intelligence."</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:34:24 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Handle With Care .</title>
<link>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/science/12ethics.html?_r=1&amp;scp=3&amp;sq=robot&amp;st=nyt&amp;oref=slogin</link>
<description> “The complexity of newly engineered systems coupled with their potential impact on lives, the environment, etc., raise a set of ethical issues that engineers had not been thinking about,” said William A. Wulf, a computer scientist who until last year headed the National Academy of Engineering. As one of his official last acts, he established the Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society there.   Rachelle Hollander, a philosopher who directs the center, said the new technologies were so powerful that “our saving grace, our inability to affect things at a planetary level, is being lost to us,” as human-induced climate change is demonstrating.   ... “It’s a hot topic,” said Ronald C. Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech who advises the Army on robot weapons. “We need at least to think about what we are doing while we are doing it, to be aware of the consequences of our research.” ...Dr. Arkin said robotics researchers should consider not just how to make robots more capable, but also who must bear responsibility for their actions and how much human operators should remain “in the loop,” particularly with machines to aid soldiers on the battlefield or the disabled in their homes.</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:31:17 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>iRobot preps pared-down PackBot for civilians.</title>
<link>http://news.cnet.com/8301-17912_3-10008256-72.html</link>
<description> iRobot announced a new addition to its lineup of industrial robots Wednesday....  Like the PackBot, the Negotiator can climb stairs, work by remote control, and be outfitted with tools for reconnaissance and chemical detection..</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:29:01 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Cell phone tech for swarm robots.</title>
<link>http://news.cnet.com/8301-17912_3-10008243-72.html?tag=bl</link>
<description> The tiny motors normally used to vibrate cell phones can provide researchers with a significantly more affordable option for building robots. A team of students led by Alexis Johnson at the University of Southampton's electronics and computer science school realized the tiny motors intended for cell phone vibration are already designed and manufactured to be attached to circuit boards making them ideally suited for use in swarm robots.</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:27:48 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Computer cashes in big at Texas Hold 'Em tourney.</title>
<link>http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080713-computer-cashes-in-big-at-texas-hold-em-tourney.html</link>
<description> In a series of matches that took place over the Fourth of July weekend in Las Vegas, the researchers' [at the University of Alberta] Polaris poker program won against a group of top-ranked online poker players. ...According to Prof. Bowling, the principal investigator on the Polaris project, "when you look at games where players are asked to make decisions with different amounts of information, missing information, poker is the quintessential game.".</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:45:48 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>When Computers Meld With Our Minds.</title>
<link>http://discovermagazine.com/2008/aug/25-when-computers-meld-with-our-minds/?searchterm=computers%20%22meld%20with%20our%20minds%22</link>
<description> ...e-mails represent just a small sample of the vast amount of digital information being generated by the gigabyte every minute. If we can cope with this rising flood of information, we are likely to be on track for using technology in the creation of superhuman intelligence, according to Vernor Vinge, futurist, best-selling science fiction author, and retired professor of computer science. Machines will become far more than just tools; they will physically merge with us, seamlessly endowing powers that are currently beyond our imagination. And all of this will happen in our lifetime,</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:02:00 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Noted Inventor Files Patent for Combining Artificial Intelligence With Event-Driven Security.</title>
<link>http://www.ebizq.net/news/10056.html</link>
<description> The field of Mr. Rodriguez's invention will set the industry standard for identity management in global companies and government agencies, by preventing identity theft before it happens. The solution provides real-time authentication and authorization of digital identities using an artificial intelligence (AI) based architecture which include neural and semantic network based algorithms. It answers three critical aspects in the new paradigm of security management (1) Are you who you say you are? (2) Where will I allow you to go? (3) What will I allow you to do? These algorithms promote and demote users, in real-time, to provide a multi-factor, risk based</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:00:29 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Language Lessons for Robots.</title>
<link>http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=307296</link>
<description> "Language-learning techniques designed for children are being used in a bid to break new ground by developing algorithms that enable robots to learn and understand concepts. As part of the project by Plymouth University researchers, two robots will be built featuring software that allows them to interact with each other to exchange learned information like humans.".</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:47:45 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Brain Signal Decoder.</title>

<link>http://www.newscientist.com/blog/invention/2008/08/brain-signal-decoder.html</link>

<description> Interfacing with the brain to control devices such as wheelchairs, robots and prosthetic devices has great potential. Monkeys have shown impressive ability to control robot limbs using brain implants, but must "rewire" their brains through training to do it. ...  It would make things easier to use the signals naturally used for hand-eye coordination. But nobody has been able to figure out how the part of the brain responsible for hand-eye coordination, the primary motor cortex, does its job. Even recording the activity of this brain region has proved difficult.   ...  The result is a brain implant that can translate the hand trajectory signals produced by the brain and use them to control an external device.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:05:05 -0700</pubDate>

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<title>Pneumatic robot arranges limbs for MRI 'sweet spot'.</title>
<link>http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14452-pneumatic-robot-arranges-limbs-for-mri-sweet-spot.html</link>

<description> A pneumatic robot that positions patients' limbs inside an MRI scanner allows physicians to exploit a bizarre phenomenon where hard-to-see tendons jump into sharp focus when held at the right angle.  That "magic angle" effect happens when a tendon is at 55° to a scanner's powerful magnetic field and can help with diagnosing tendon injuries. ...  The robot judges its own position, and even uses image processing software to check whether it has reached the right angle.  (with video).</description>

<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:03:43 -0700</pubDate>

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<title>Avatars as communicators of emotions.</title>
<link>http://www.basqueresearch.com/berria_irakurri.asp?Berri_Kod=1822&amp;hizk=I</link>

<description> Current interactive systems enable users to communicate with computers in many ways, but not taking into account emotional communication. A PhD thesis presented at the University of the Basque Country puts forward the use of avatars or virtual Internet personages as an efficient form of non-verbal communication, principally focusing on emotional aspects.</description>

<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:00:15 -0700</pubDate>

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<title>A Conversation with Christos Papadimitriou.</title>
<link>http://www.ddj.com/architect/208807268</link>

<description> Christos Papadimitriou, the C. Lester Hogan Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, is this year's recipient of the Katyanagi Prize for Research Excellence. Carnegie Mellon University has cited Dr. Papadimitriou as "an internationally recognized expert on the theory of algorithms and complexity, and its applications to databases, optimization, artificial intelligence, networks and game theory."  DDJ: Diverging from the philosophical to the mundane, your work on protein folding touches on an interesting economic phenomenon. Dr. Dobb's Journal is a magazine that addresses working programmers. As we pursue our careers, are we going to be sucked into biotech in large numbers?   CP: I would say that, quite generally, computer scientists are going to find themselves interacting more with other fields.</description>

<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:41:30 -0700</pubDate>

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<title>Sci-fi film: The apes weren't cuddly.</title>

<link>http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-ca-scifi13-2008jul13,0,6151127.story</link>

<description> Classic sci-fi films address issues that make adults think. 'Wall-E' promises the moon, then ends up just chasing the Happy Meal set.</description>

<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:37:41 -0700</pubDate>

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<title>Theorist says humor is pattern recognition.</title>
<link>http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/07/09/UPI_NewsTrack_Health_and_Science_News/UPI-60431215639840/</link>
<description> A British science writer says he has determined humor is just the recognition of a pattern that a person finds surprising.  "Humor occurs when the brain recognizes a pattern that surprises it and that recognition of this sort is rewarded with the experience of the humorous response, an element of which is broadcast as laughter," said researcher and theorist Alastair Clarke. "It is not the content of the stimulus but the patterns underlying it, that provide the potential for sources of humor. For patterns to exist it is necessary to have some form of content but once that content exists, it is the level of the pattern at which humor operates and for which it delivers its rewards."  Clarke also predicts the use of his hypothesis will facilitate the creation of a less robotic form of artificial intelligence.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:36:40 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Expert systems help Italian ministries provide quick, accurate responses to search terms.</title>
<link>http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/07/08/3535120.htm</link>
<description> Expert System, leading provider of semantic  software that discovers, classifies and interprets text information, today  announces that the Italian Ministry of Culture and Heritage has chosen  COGITO Semantic Search to improve and simplify the search of its online  content and provide accurate, multi-lingual search results.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:35:54 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Artificial Intelligence - alive and kicking.</title>
<link>http://software.silicon.com/applications/0,39024653,39257529,00.htm</link>
<description> Artificial intelligence technology (AI) is being used all around us but don't expect any philosophical discussions with your hoover quite yet.  "People think of AI and they think of brains in boxes or Terminator - kind of death destroying robots - and actually of course we haven't built those systems and there isn't a brain in a box somewhere worrying about its self existence," head of AI at Southampton University, professor Nigel Shadbolt, told silicon.com.  "What AI's done by trying to set itself lofty goals about understanding how to build intelligent software or flexible software, it's produced along the waytonnes of methods and insights that are now routinely deployed everywhere."</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:33:43 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Four students in Portugal have built a robot which will helps clean floors..</title>
<link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7498442.stm</link>
<description> Four Students in Portugal have built a cleaning robot designed to clean floors.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:29:36 -0700</pubDate>
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<title>Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C.</title>
<link>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/science/31computer.html</link>
<description> "After a closer examination of a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology known as the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games." July 31, 2008.</description>
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<title>Robots that climb walls.</title>
<link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7494974.stm</link>
<description> "US scientists have developed robots using the same principles of electro-magnetics that make balloons stick to ceilings after being rubbed.  The robots, developed by a team in SRI's Mobile Robotics and Transducers Programme, are around the size of a remote-controlled car and have caterpillar tracks similar to those on toy tanks.  The technology could be used to enable robots to work in areas that are difficult for humans to go, such as tunnels or outside large buildings." July 8, 2008.</description>
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<title>'Oldest' computer music unveiled.</title>
<link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7458479.stm</link>
<description> "A scratchy recording of Baa Baa Black Sheep and a truncated version of In the Mood are thought to be the oldest known recordings of computer generated music.  The songs were captured by the BBC in the Autumn of 1951 during a visit to the University of Manchester.  The recording has been unveiled as part of the 60th Anniversary of "Baby", the forerunner of all modern computers." 17 June 2008.</description>
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<title>Have you hugged a robot today?.</title>
<link>http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/31/robots.artificialintelligence</link>
<description> "Mechanical creatures that respond to humans are cute, but are also a step on the way to improving our relationship with machines. ... to [Steve] Bannerman, a former Apple staffer who set up Quicktime TV (which became the iTunes Store), Pleo, as the dinosaur is called, might just be the future of human-machine interaction. Pleo, made by a company called Ugobe, coos and even sings. Rub its neck and stomach and it blinks its baby-like eyes and turns towards you and writhes happily. ... Pleo fascinated him: "I fell in love with this dinosaur," he says. "I loved the artificial intelligence component." July 31 2008.</description>
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<title>Robo-relationships are virtually assured: British experts.</title>
<link>http://news.smh.com.au/technology/roborelationships-are-virtually-assured-british-experts-20080730-3nb9.html</link>
<description> Both Heart Robot and iC Hexapod are "emotibots" -- robots programmed to react to human emotions -- on display this week at the Antenna Gallery at London's Science Museum.  For McGoran and iC Hexapod's inventor, Matt Denton, creating robots that   recognise and respond to basic human emotions is a logical step as people's daily lives become increasingly dependent on technology. "People know about artificial intelligence but the perception is that robots are cold and calculating industrial automatons," McGoran, who is studying robotics at the University of the West of England, told AFP. "But over the last decade, there has been a new field where robots have   become the opposite of that." June 30, 2008.</description>
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<title>Teaching the public about nanotech increases their concerns.</title>
<link>http://www.techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=5793</link>
<description> Educating the public about nanotechnology and other complex but emerging technologies causes people to become more "worried and cautious" about the new technologies' prospective benefits, according to a recent study by researchers at North Carolina State University. A new study by researchers at North Carolina State University on public attitudes towards nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies shows that educating people about the new technologies results in those people becoming more concerned about the potential impact of the technologies. July 27, 2008.</description>
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<title>Complex classic meets robotic complexity.</title>
<link>http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_579236.html</link>
<description> Robotics and a rose garden are two seemingly disparate elements that Quantum Theatre will use to bring William Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" to life. A collaboration between Quantum Theatre and The Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, "Cymbeline" will begin performances Thursday in the Rose Garden of Mellon Park. Using 21st-century technology and an outdoor setting are not just gimmicks to get attention, says Quantum Theatre's artistic director Karla Boos. "It maximizes how to facilitate what I want to experiment with and serves the exploration of the play," she says. Don't come expecting to see R2-D2 or Robbie the Robot substituting for actors. "This is something far different from a walking, talking android," says Illah Nourbaksh, an associate professor at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University who has been working with Boos and her design team on the production. Instead, Boos hints, the production will employ elements of robotic technology in more symbolic ways that may surprise and involve the audience. July 27, 2008.</description>
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<title>Search site aims to rival Google.</title>
<link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7528503.stm</link>
<description> Called Cuil, from the Gaelic for knowledge and hazel, its founders claim it does a better and more comprehensive job of indexing information online. The technology it uses to index the web can understand the context surrounding each page and the concepts driving search requests, say the founders... Instead of just looking at the number and quality of links to and from a webpage as Google's technology does, Cuil attempts to understand more about the information on a page and the terms people use to search. July 28, 2008.</description>
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<title>Robot Teachers (w/embedded video).</title>
<link>http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/07/29/economics/890face072908.txt</link>
<description> A third year computer science graduate student, Whitehill and his colleagues are working to make a new generation of robots that would be effective and responsive teachers. They believe the key is to train them to recognize and respond to facial expressions, the way humans do naturally. Whitehill described the demonstration, part of his research at the University of California, San Diego's Machine Perception Laboratory, as "almost like having a remote control built into your face." The research falls under the umbrella of artificial intelligence -- the creation of machines that can behave like humans -- and Whitehill envisions a not-so-far-away future when robots will replace people as teachers, at least in areas that require a lot of repetition, such as foreign language and math drills. He doesn't, however, foresee them ever replacing philosophy teachers, for example. July 29, 2008.</description>
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<title>Celebrating the UK's Computer Pioneers.</title>
<link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7521868.stm</link>
<description> The computer seems the very essence of the modern world, especially as the gadgets we sit before and carry around shrink as fast as they become more powerful. But if truth be told the computer has had a long and honourable history that stretches back to the closing years of the World War II. And, say conservations and computer history enthusiasts, Britain played a big part in the development of the modern computer... [Alan] Turing established the conceptual and philosophical basis for the rise of computers in a seminal 1936 paper called "On Computable Numbers". July 24, 2008.</description>
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<title>Hands-Free Driving Likely To Spur More Voice Recognition.</title>
<link>http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/messaging/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208802370</link>
<description> New rules in California and Washington make the market ripe for improved speech-enabled cell phone applications, a Nuance study suggests. This week's inauguration of "hands-free" cell phone use for drivers in California and Washington focuses attention on the spread of voice recognition technology for mobile phones. With Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) preparing to add voice-enabled search to its mobile platform this summer and with more voice recognition features offered all the time for individual cell phone owners, drivers are increasingly being offered a broad array of new speech recognition features. July 3, 2008.</description>
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<title>IT pioneer Joseph Weizenbaum dies. By Christoph Hammerschmidt. EE Times. March 7, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206902354</link>
<description>"Computer pioneer and philosopher Joseph Weizenbaum (85) has died in Berlin."</description>
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<title> New Science Ministry Will Focus on Fundamental Study. By Cho Jin-seo. The Korea Times. March 5, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2008/03/133_20186.html</link>
<description>"The SERI report asked the government to focus on six fundamental science fields, while leaving the IT and other profitable sectors to the private sector. The six fields are smart logistics and energy infrastructure; bionomics and drugs; renewable energies; unmanned military equipment; nanotechnology; and artificial intelligence."</description>
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<title>Supersmart machines have some sort of future. By Daniel Connolly. commercialappeal.com. March 5, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/mar/05/terminator----or-a-dog-in-a-top-hat/</link>
<description>"Dreams of godlike machines were in the air at the Artificial General Intelligence conference at the University of Memphis this week."</description>
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<title>World-wise web? By Richard Waters. FT.com. March 4, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4fba0434-e98c-11dc-8365-0000779fd2ac.html</link>
<description>"The basic building block for this new technology movement is something known as the 'semantic web'".</description>
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<title>US seeks terrorists in web worlds. By Chris Vallance. BBC News. March 3, 2008</title>
<link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7274377.stm</link>
<description>"Codenamed Reynard it aims to recognise 'normal' behaviour in online worlds and home in on anomalous activity."</description>
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<title>Japan experiments with robots as part of daily life. AP Digital via The Sydney Morning Herald. February 29, 2008</title>
<link>http://news.smh.com.au/japan-experiments-with-robots-as-part-of-daily-life/20080229-1vrp.html</link>
<description>"For Japan, the robotics revolution is an imperative. With more than a fifth of the population 65 or older, the country is banking on robots to replenish the work force and care for the elderly."</description>
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<title>Translation camera phone. BBC News. February 27, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/archvJ2.html#feb27d</link>
<description>"Nokia's Karri Pulli shows Darren Waters a mobile that reads Chinese and translates it into English."</description>
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<title> Automated killer robots 'threat to humanity': expert. By Marlowe Hood. AFP via Yahoo! News. February 27, 2008</title>
<link>http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080227/ts_afp/technologyrobotsmilitary_080227111811</link>
<description>"Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP."</description>
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<title>The age of robots dawns at Stanford - New center to focus on cars. By Kristina Peterson. San Jose Mercury News. February 25, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8357272</link>
<description>"Speaking with his frequent rival in robotics competitions, Carnegie Mellon robotics Professor Red Whittaker, [Sebastian] Thrun capped the first public meeting of the Menlo Park-based Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence on Thursday by listing his goals for the new Stanford center opening next fall."</description>
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<title>Could AI speed VA claims? By Rick Maze. Army Times. January 30, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/military_vetclaims_artificialintelligence_080129w/</link>
<description>"A House subcommittee that is considering the use of artificial intelligence to speed the processing of veterans' disability claims heard compelling evidence Tuesday about the problems facing veterans and their families trying to receive earned benefits."</description>
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<title>Smart Sticky Notes Organize Themselves. By Tracy Staedter. Discovery News. January 18, 2008</title>
<link>http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/01/18/smart-sticky-notes.html</link>
<description>"They look similar to Post-It notes but combine artificial intelligence, natural language processing, ink recognition technologies, and radio frequency identification tags into a modern version of the reliable analog."</description>
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<title>AI news reader brings academia to the real world. iTnews Australia. January 17, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.itnews.com.au/News/68352,ai-news-reader-brings-academia-to-the-real-world.aspx</link>
<description>"When he found himself staring at a screenful of irrelevant headlines in search of the few news stories of interest, Artificial Intelligence enthusiast Alex North decided that it was time to delegate the task to a machine."</description>
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<title>New MSc in Artificial Intelligence. innovations-report. January 16, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/informationstechnologie/bericht-101322.html</link>
<description>"A new MSc programme in Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will equip graduates with the skills needed to fill the high demand in sectors from biotechnology to finance will be available this year. The MSc which will be offered by the University of Southampton's School of Electronics &amp; Computer Science (ECS) in October this year...."</description>
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<title>Don't just stand there, think. By Drake Bennett. The Boston Globe. January 13, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/01/13/dont_just_stand_there_think/</link>
<description>"The brain is often envisioned as something like a computer, and the body as its all-purpose tool. But a growing body of new research suggests that something more collaborative is going on - that we think not just with our brains, but with our bodies. ... The term most often used to describe this new model of mind is 'embodied cognition'...."</description>
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<title>Silicon poet pens haiku on demand. New Scientist. January 12, 2008</title>
<link>http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19726386.000-silicon-poet-pens-haiku-on-demand.html</link>
<description>"Naoko Tosa of Kyoto University in Japan has written a program that takes two or three keywords entered by a user and creates a three-line poem related to them in the haiku's structure of five, seven and five syllables per line." [Be sure to click on "program" to access video.]</description>
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<title>When Google Grows Up. By Andy Greenberg. Forbes.com. January 11, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/01/11/google-carr-computing-tech-enter-cx_ag_0111computing.html</link>
<description>"Forbes.com spoke with [Nicholas] Carr about Google's ambition to become the world's computer, the evolution of search into artificial intelligence and Google co-founder Sergey Brin's plan to read our minds."</description>
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<title> The rain falls mainly on the Himalayas. By Daniel Spitzberg. McGill Reporter. January 10, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/40/09/prasher/</link>
<description>"'Accurate estimations of water flow are fundamental to identify appropriate conservation measures,' says Shiv Prasher, James McGill Professor of Bioresource Engineering. 'We employed artificial intelligence (AI) modelling tools to go where the standard tools for modelling watersheds could not reach.'"</description>
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<title>University Alliance Works To Increase Robotics Education, Research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. CMU news release. January 8, 2008</title>
<link>http://news.cs.cmu.edu/Releases/demo/344.html</link>
<description>" Carnegie Mellon University and six other research universities have joined forces with eight historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in a collaborative project to promote robotics and computer science education for African-American students."</description>
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<title>Pondering a computer with a conscience. By Louise Continell. The Buffalo News. January 7, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.buffalonews.com/185/story/245477.html</link>
<description>"In his new book, 'Are You a Machine? The Brain, The Mind And What It Means to Be Human,' [Eliezer J.]Sternberg said some believe we should be able to design super-intelligent machines to think millions of times faster than we do."</description>
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<title>CMU finds human brains similarly organized. By David Templeton. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. January 4, 2008</title>
<link>http://www.postgazette.com/pg/08004/846628-114.stm</link>
<description>"For this study, Tom M. Mitchell, chairman of Carnegie Mellon's department of machine learning, and other scientists on the team developed the algorithm, or computer procedure used to analyze brain patterns, that was precise enough to tell accurately what tool the person was observing."</description>
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<title>Upgrading to Philosophy 2.0. By Andy Guess. Inside Higher Ed. December 31, 2007</title>
<link>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/12/31/apa</link>
<description>"There was no theorizing about ghosts in the machine at an annual meeting of philosophers last Friday. Instead, they embraced technology's implications for their field, both within the classroom and beyond."</description>
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<title>Surveillance Society: New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You. By James Vlahos. Popular Mechanics. January 2008 issue</title>
<link>http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4236865.html</link>
<description>"'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."</description>
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<title>Students Use Legos to Build Working Robots. By Stacy Nadelman. CurryPilot.com. December 29, 2007</title>
<link>http://www.currypilot.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=16492</link>
<description>"In what field could the youth in this area have to contribute in making the world a better place? Artificial intelligence. "</description>
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<title>A Year-End Tradition: Looking Back, Looking Ahead. December 28, 2007</title>
<link>http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/assets/AIalerts/alert.12.28.07.html#yearend</link>
<description>A special collection of articles from today's AI ALERT.</description>
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<title>More articles can be found in our "AI in the news" collection.</title>
<link>http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/current.html</link>
<description>"AI in the news" is  just one of the many 'AI Topics' resource collections available online and without charge from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), formerly the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.</description>
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