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Year 2005 Archive of AI in the news articles
 -- July --
(a subtopic of AI in the news)

 

 

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<< Headlines are listed according to date posted <-> Articles are organized by date published >>

JULY 2005

July 31, 2005: Artificial Intelligence. Flying High column by Roshmi Raychaudhuri. The Statesman. "To make it clear to the uninitiated, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a subject that explores the scientific basis of intelligence in animals and machines, and attempts to build intelligence into different sorts of machines. Had it not been for this new knowledge, many of the ‘happenings’ taking place today would have remained the stuff that made up storybooks and dreams of yesterday. ... The career possibilities in the area of AI seem to be limitless. ... As a student of AI you will learn about the technologies required to do all these things and more.... Most university courses in AI offer the study of robotic and adaptive systems and intelligent computer systems in addition to programming, web computing, animation, software engineering and professional issues. Some institutions allow students the choice between extending the degree in the direction of computer science or of cognitive science. ... However, there is one aspect that is paramount in any discussion about AI -- the question of ethics -- which is outside the ambit of this article."
>>> Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students), AI Overview, Applications, Ethical & Social Implications
-> back to headlines

July 29, 2005: In Memoriam - Yale Psychology Professor Robert Abelson. Yale University press release. "Robert Abelson, retired Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and professor of political science at Yale, died July 13 at Hamden Health Care Center of pneumonia brought on by Parkinson's Disease. He was 76. ... In his book 'Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding' ( with Robert Schank 1977), a Citation Classic, he contributed a social psychological perspective to the emerging field of artificial intelligence."
>>> Tributes, Cognitive Science, History
-> back to headlines

July 29, 2005: In the fast lane. By Stephen Pincock. FT.com. "On a trip to the US last week, I had one of the most unexpected conversations about science I think I’ve ever had. I was in Cambridge, Massachusetts.... It was with a taxi driver, whose cab I jumped into en route to the train station.... When I slid into the back seat, he turned around to ask in an accent tinged with French how my day had been - so I told him, genuinely, that it had been great. 'Why so?' he asked, after which I found myself launching into an exposition of the wonders of artificial intelligence and robotics. He seemed pretty interested in the idea, so we talked for a little while about machine learning and other subjects before he asked me what use all this research was. How would all the money spent on robots help mankind, he wondered? ... 'How will people in poor countries benefit from all these robots?' he said. ... I was beginning to wonder whether the selection criteria for taxi drivers in Cambridge were as rigorous as those for MIT and Harvard when the driver explained that in fact he was a research pharmacist who had once worked for a big pharmaceutical company. ... [I]t made me think about what science loses when it shuts people out."
>>> Ethical & Social Implications, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 28, 2005: The neurology of consciousness - Crick's last stand. Francis Crick suggests where to find the seat of consciousness. The Economist. "Mechanistic explanations of consciousness are hard to come by because consciousness is so poorly understood. Indeed, it is one of the few unexplained phenomena that are genuinely mysterious rather than merely problematical. But Crick, together with his long-time collaborator Christof Koch, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, focused on a part of the mystery that seems tractable. This is the integrated nature of conscious sensation."
>>> Philosophy, Cognitive Science, Emotion
-> back to headlines

July 28, 2005: Computers replacing people - How far can it go? By Al Kaniss. Tester (news and information for Naval Air Station Patuxent River personnel) / available from dcmilitary.com. "It's intriguing to watch as computers are being used for tasks that require much more analysis and other human-like thinking than in the past, such as generating letters to customers, initial screening of resumes for jobs, and filtering e-mail before it reaches its recipients. While I'm sure computers have potential in this area, I saw three examples within the last week where the computer showed its lack of human intellect. ... There has been much talk about, and work in, the field of artificial intelligence - making computers 'think' like humans. For rote tasks in which the process is simple (such as opening a door when motion is detected), computers work pretty well. But for complex tasks, such as deciding what mail should and shouldn't be delivered to your e-mail box, computers may always experience some difficulty. Perhaps I'll do a follow up commentary several years from now on this subject ... unless, of course, by that time this column is being written by a computer."
>>> Customer Service, Natural Language Processing, Filtering, Applications, Ethical & Social Implications
-> back to headlines

July 27, 2005: Robots fly by competition. By Matt Wilson. Technician. "According to Dan Edwards, it's a problem the aerospace industry spends millions of dollars on: making a fully autonomous vehicle capable of flight. This was also the challenge a group of N.C. State students have been working on. The Student Aerial Robotics Club placed 3rd overall at the international Student Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Competition, hosted at Patuxant Naval Air Station in Maryland. According to Edwards, a senior in aerospace engineering and president of the Aerial Robotics Club, unmanned aerial vehicles are on the cutting edge of technology and the club is helping to push the envelope. ... Both the take-off and landing could be done manually, but the rest of the flight had to be done autonomously via software onboard the vehicle."

  • Also appearing in this edition of Technician, North Carolina State University's Student Newspaper: The evolution. By Elsa Youngsteadt. "In the beginning - The earliest video games were anything but flexible and responsive. Rather, they were based on fixed algorithms that provided the player with extremely limited choices. ... The future - At N.C. State, the Department of Computer Science is making sure that gamers won't get bored with their current options. [Michael] Young and [Arnav] Jhala are researching ways to incorporate artificial intelligence into games, creating a whole new wave of gaming experience. Even in today's relatively complex games, all possible choices and outcomes must be scripted explicitly into the game software, leaving the player limited options for how to interact with the game. However, games based on artificial intelligence would adapt and learn in response to the player's actions and certain general rules, leaving the specific options for game play wide open, according to Young."

>>> Competitions and AI Courses & Academic Departments (@ Resources for Students), Autonomous Vehicles, Robots, Video Games
-> back to headlines

July 27, 2005: Awards to applaud women in tech. BBC News. "Top women in the field of technology are to be recognised in the first Blackberry Women and Technology awards. The awards have been set up by Research in Motion, the company behind the Blackberry mobile device, and Aurora, a women's business networking group. Prizes will be given to women who have been leading lights in academia, journalism, public and private sectors, as well the top female mentors. The awards will raise their profile in what has been a male-dominated world. ... Only 17% of computer science degree entrants are women; most of these are from overseas. Many are put off from considering careers in the field of technology because there seems to be a lack of successful role models. ... The British Computer Society (BCS) found recently that 28% of UK organisations do not employ women technologists. But there are signs that the trend is changing. The BCS also recently reported that more girls were being attracted to careers in technology...."
>>> Careers in AI, Diversity & Equality, and Events (@ Resources for Students), Computer Science, Industry Statistics
-> back to headlines

July 27 - August 2, 2005: Chess, China, and Education - An interview with Feng-Hsiung Hsu. Ubiquity (Volume 6, Issue 27). "Feng-Hsiung Hsu, whose book 'Behind Deep Blue' told the story of world chess champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by the IBM computer known as Deep Blue, is now a senior manager and researcher at Microsoft Research Asia. ... UBIQUITY: When did you get interested in chess, and then computer chess? HSU: I think I started playing chess when I was in primary school. I thought of it as just another game, and liked it the way kids always like to play games. But then when I was in college one day I bumped into a book in the library that was a classic for computer chess, called 'Computer Skills in Men and Machines.' ... UBIQUITY: Your Deep Blue chess strategy was a brute force strategy, is that right? HSU: That was my initial starting point, after reading a paper by Ken Thompson that experimentally verified how you can increase program playing strength by improving computation speed. So we decided to push speed, which we knew how to do and was interesting by itself from a computer science point of view. Of course, when you compete against the world champion you realize you need more than just brute force, obviously. ... UBIQUITY: So where is the state of art of computer chess now? ... "
>>> Chess, History, Go, Shogi (@ More Games & Puzzles), Games & Puzzles, Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students), Interviews
-> back to headlines

July 26, 2005: Embedded AI? By William Wong. EiED Online. "If you thought Bluetooth got overhyped and trashed, then you probably were not around in the 1980s and early 1990s when the artificial intelligence (AI) boon went bust. In many ways it's like the promise of nuclear fusion power-it's just twenty years away. Like these and other technologies, AI is starting to regain its importance in both the academic and commercial arenas. Okay, AI has remained the research darling in many universities. But cranking out students with C++ and Java expertise has often overshadowed the progress that has been achieved in AI, as noted at the 2005 AAAI/IAAI Conference that I attended in Pittsburgh. ... There were more sessions that I can list here, so keep yours eyes open. There are AI applications all over the place. They are just well hidden."
>>> Applications, Conferences (@ Resources for Students)
-> back to headlines

July 26, 2005: Futures market - Welcome to tomorrow's world.. where robots have rights and the moon is just another holiday destination By Nick Webster. Mirror.co.uk. "Cars that drive themselves, artificial brains and human rights for robots... it's just a matter of time. A Technology Timeline compiled by researchers at BT's futurology department has come up with a list of advances it says will change tomorrow's world. ... Here is their technology timeline ... 2006 - 2010: Emotionally Responsive Toys ... 2013 - 2017: Robots Guide Blind People ... 2016 - 2020: Electronic Life Form Gets Basic Rights ... 2021 - 2025: E-Translation ... 2031 - 2035: Computer Geniuses ... 2051+: Brain Downloads."
>>> The Future, Toys, Emotion, Assisitive Technologies, Robots, Ethical & Social Implications, Machine Translation, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 26, 2005: The CEO's Tech Toolbox - Podcasts, RFID tags, and mesh networks are among the 10 new technologies that should be on the radar of every chief exec. BusinessWeek online. "The technologies that will matter most to CEOs depend on the industry they're in. But here are 10 newer technologies that CIOs and analysts we've interviewed suggest should make the list. ... Wouldn't it be great if you had a personal secretary that could anticipate your information needs? Tech powerhouse IBM is developing a piece of software called the Uber-Personal Assistant (UPA). Souped up with artificial intelligence, the Assistant will analyze your schedule, e-mails, and the text you're typing to figure out exactly exactly what you're working on. Then, it will alert you to new e-mails pertinent to that project."
>>> Business, Applications, Agents, Interfaces
-> back to headlines

July 26, 2005: Terrorism - Robot checks. By Jennifer Foreshew. Australian IT section of The Australian. "The artificial intelligence system used to monitor the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be adapted to create a robot capable of inspecting and removing suspicious luggage from public places. Monash University and Sydney software provider iOmniscient will partner on the three-year project, which recently received a $171,000 grant from the Australian Research Council's Linkage Project. The robot will be based on iOmniscient's videocamera surveillance system, which monitors a busy scene for objects that are not moving. The technology rescans video images until it finds when a suspicious item was first placed somewhere, and by whom."
>>> Law Enforcement, Vision, Robots, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 25, 2005: Students imagine a world where technology kills boundaries. PublicTechnology.net. "Some of the top projects in this year’s Imagine Cup will fight it out from 27th July - it's a Microsoft-sponsored global technology competition designed to show students the real-world opportunities that are available through technology. ... Imagine Cup 2005 drew some 16,000 students from more than 92 countries — up from 10,000 students from 90 countries in 2004, and 1,000 students from 25 countries in its inaugural year of 2003. The growth is due in part to the addition by Microsoft of five new invitationals -- Visual Gaming, Office Design, IT Business Plan, Information Technology and Web Development -- some of which have categories for high-school students to enter. ... A team from Romania won the Web Development invitational ... the four-person team created a visually stunning Web site presenting information, forums and other interactive features focusing on fuzzy systems -- an alternative to traditional logic with applications at the leading edge of AI -- and their uses in medical rehabilitation. ... In addition to sections on theory and applications, the site includes quizzes, a functional 'expert system' and a 'fuzzypedia' -- a Web-based encyclopedia written collaboratively by peers and designed to spread information about AI techniques in medicine worldwide."

  • Also see: SA entrants bullish on Imagine Cup. By Warwick Ashford. IT Web (July 26, 2005). "Two Masters students from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, formerly the Port Elizabeth Technikon, are to represent SA at the third annual international Microsoft Imagine Cup taking place in Yokohama, Japan in the next five days. ... This week, the students' Sentinel Intrusion Detection System (IDS) software will go up against entries from 43 other countries. ... 'The Sentinel IDS application is based on our supervisor's doctoral thesis that proposes a model for an intrusion detection system that combines the rules-based procedures of fuzzy logic with the learning abilities of neural networks to trigger alerts,' said [Robert] Goss before departing for Japan."

>>> Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
-> back to headlines

July 25, 2005: Computers graduate in education. IST Results. "Computers will increasingly behave like real teachers thanks to a recently completed EU project that developed an information and communication technology (ICT) training system that chooses course materials appropriate to the topic and the student. Currently, educators develop courses appropriate to particular topics, to be used in classes of 10 or more. But the Diogene project’s system can select course materials suited to the topic and a single student, something that would be too time consuming for most teachers. It means students get exactly the materials they require, and that is relevant to their level of expertise and the subject they want to learn."
>>> Education, Knowledge Management, Ontologies, Fuzzy Logic, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 25, 2005: Turning the concept of search on its head. By Michelle Johnson. The Boston Globe & Boston.com. "Wouldn't it be great if your computer could do all of the work for you? If, for instance, it would anticipate what you need, search for it, then automatically deliver relevant information. You'd never have to guess the right keywords or lift a finger to type in the address of a search engine. Well, that's the idea behind Watson, a tool that turns the concept of search on its head. Watson, software produced by Chicago-based Intellext, does the searching for you. It runs in the background as you work, analyzing your documents and looking for relevant information. ... The program was spawned by researchers at Northwestern University, one of them an expert in artificial intelligence."
>>> Information Retrieval, Interfaces, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 24, 2005: LAPD recruits computer to stop rogue cops. By Jeremiah Marquez. The Associated Press / available from BusinessWeek online. "Dogged by scandal, the Los Angeles Police Department is looking beyond human judgment to technology to identify bad cops. This month, the agency began using a $35 million computer system that tracks complaints and other telling data about officers -- then alerts top supervisors to possible signs of misconduct. ... The system, developed by Sierra Systems Group and Bearing Point, mines databases of complaints, pursuits, lawsuits, uses of force and other records to detect patterns that humans might miss or choose to ignore. In the past, much of that data existed only on paper, spread across bureaus. That made it difficult to compile detailed performance profiles of officers and spot potential abusers. ... Other troubled police departments, including New Orleans and Miami-Dade County, have turned to such tracking systems. New Orleans recorded a drop in citizen complaints, and Miami-Dade saw a decrease in use of force reports in the first years after systems were implemented, according to a 2001 study by the Justice Department. ... Some rank-and-file officers fear the tracking system could mistakenly tag hardworking personnel and hurt their careers. ... Others wonder whether computer algorithms can analyze something as complex as police behavior."
>>> Law Enforcement, Data Mining & Knowledge Discovery, Machine Learning, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 24, 2005: Manoa Valley Theatre satire fails to live up to potential. Play review by John Bergery. Honolulu Star-Bulletin. "Playwright Alan Ayckbourn probably named the play 'Comic Potential' because the story is about an android with an unexpected potential for comedy.... [Leslie] Bartels carries this MVT production with her convincing portrayal of an android soap opera actor whose artificial intelligence program somehow becomes capable of original thought and an appreciation of comedy. ... It also poses a thought-provoking question: At what point would an android be able to say 'no' to a relationship with a human?"
>>> Science Fiction, Robots, Ethical & Social Implications, Humor Research (@ Toons)
-> back to headlines

July 24, 2005: Remote, I Want Control. The Economic Times. "Remotely detecting when someone has fallen, for instance, is not especially challenging. But detecting a subtle loss of memory, a deviation from a daily routine, loneliness or fear is another matter. It means determining people’s habits and when they diverge from the norm. It means looking at quality of life with a broad point of view, not just in terms of their physical well, but also measuring their psychological and social health. Working with several university departments of psychology and sociology, Accenture has developed Intelligent Home Services as a research area. It is intended to enable a new class of assistive technologies. It includes the use of generic sensors to track activity and artificial intelligence techniques to learn habits automatically so that deviations can be spotted."
>>> Assisitive Technologies, Smart Houses & Rooms, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 24, 2005: Stealth: A.I. vs Man - An elite group of pilots race against time to stop a computerised jet from triggering a nuclear Armageddon in Stealth. The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) / available from Sunday Mail & Malay Mail Online. "They are the best of the best and they know it. US Navy pilots Henry Purcell (Jamie Foxx), Kara Wade (Jessica Biel) and Ben Gannon are part of a close-knit elite division of test pilots flying highly classified stealth fighter jets referred to as Talons. When their commanding officer Captain George Cummings (Sam Shepard), introduces the team to their new 'wingman' --- an artificial-intelligence-based unmanned combat aerial vehicle nicknamed 'EDI' --- action in the skies takes on a whole new meaning. War and technology take centre stage in writer/director Rob Cohen’s action adventure Stealth, but the movie also explores the deeper issue of technology as a 'child' we have created and what can happen if that child surpasses us in ability."
>>> Science Fiction, Autonomous Vehicles, Military, Ethical & Social Implications
-> back to headlines

July 23, 2005: Ear recognition may beat face biometrics. New Scientist (Issue 2509: page 23). "Ear-shape analysis could be better than face recognition at automatically identifying people. Mark Nixon, a biometrics expert at the University of Southampton, UK, has developed a technique to capture the shape of an ear and represent it in code. Unlike faces, ears do not change shape over time."
>>> Biometrics (@ Image Understanding), Law Enforcement, Vision, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 23, 2005: i, Fighter Jet. By Brandee J. Tecson. MTV.com. "In a world rife with terrorist attacks, nuclear threats and the imminent prospect of 'digital warfare,' the premise behind director Rob Cohen's latest film ['Stealth'] feels part science fiction, and part ripped-from-the-headlines techno-thriller. ... The AI technology behind these hypersonic fighter jets (dubbed Extreme Deep Invader, or EDI, in the film) is not merely a Hollywood concoction: It's being developed today, and [Jessica] Biel, for one, sees the notion of a droid Army, Navy and Air Force as not-so-far-fetched. 'This technology is happening for real,' says the 23-year-old actress, 'and that's what's so interesting about this film. This is stuff the Navy and the military are working on to see if it's really possible.' ... 'For those who think this [technology] is science fiction -- it isn't. It is science fact,' director Cohen ('The Fast and the Furious,' 'XXX') insists. 'These planes are online in Afghanistan and Iraq today, and they are part of an effort to take human pilots out of the battle front. The film is a cautionary tale of what could happen if we take this idea to its logical extreme.' ... [Josh] Lucas notes that a future of digitally driven warfare, if directed solely by artificial intelligence, will lack the moral dimension that is especially crucial in the heat of combat. ... Naval Liaison Lieutenant Commander Christy Hagen coordinated all interactions between the production and the Navy, and confirmed that the Navy is already using UCAVs in its present missions. 'They have become a vital military tool that can be effectively used to help keep our pilots safe,' she says."
>>> Science Fiction, Autonomous Vehicles, Military, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 23, 2005: Firm Pioneers Recommendations Technology. By Howell Llewellyn. Billboard Magazine (subscription req'd.). "Online music services have long tried to identify and categorize consumer tastes in order to make further sales recommendations. Now science may have found a way to greatly elevate the sophistication of such interactions. A group of Spanish artificial intelligence researchers (and music fans) say they have advanced the art of defining consumer patterns, by applying AI technology to musical tastes. ... Musicstrands.com VP of marketing and communication Gabriel Aldamiz says it is the only music recommendations site that offers advice based on what people really listen to."
>>> Marketing, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 22, 2005: Software learns to recognize spring thaw. By NASA. North Texas e-News. "Spring thaw in the Northern Hemisphere was monitored by a new set of eyes this year -- an Earth-orbiting NASA spacecraft carrying a new version of software trained to recognize and distinguish snow, ice, and water from space. Using this software, the Space Technology 6 Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment autonomously tracked changes in the cryosphere, the section of Earth that is frozen, and relayed the information and images back to scientists. ... While other spacecraft only capture images when they receive explicit commands to do so, for the last year Earth Observing-1 has been making its own decisions. Based on general guidelines from scientists, the spacecraft automatically tracks events such as volcano eruptions, floods and ice formation. The most recent software upgrade allows the spacecraft to accurately recognize cryosphere changes such as ice melting. ... 'This new software is capable of a rudimentary form of learning, much the way a child learns the names of new objects,' said Dominic Mazzoni, the JPL computer scientist who developed the software. ... Similar software has been used to distinguish between different types of clouds in images captured by JPL's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer...."
>>> Earth & Atmospheric Science, Image Understanding, Vision, Machine Learning, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 22, 2005: Are We There Yet? Hollywood vs. the future. By Michael H. Kleinschrodt. The Times-Picayune & NOLA.com. "The movies have loved to predict the future ever since director Georges Méliès shot a rocket out of a cannon in 1914's silent short 'A Trip to the Moon.' Almost 100 years later, films still struggle to work out the details of lives yet to be lived. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) The plot: An astronaut (Keir Dullea) must match wits with a murderous supercomputer named HAL. ... I, Robot (2004) The plot: In 2035, a Chicago police detective (Will Smith) tracks a robot suspected of murder. The vision: Every household in America has a humanoid robot to act as maid, cook and errand runner."
>>> Science Fiction, The Future
-> back to headlines

July 22 - 28, 2005: I Think, Therefore I Am -- Sorta. The belief system of a virtual mind. Quark Soup column by Margaret Wertheim. LA Weekly. "Far more than mere cartoons, these virtual people have each been endowed with a virtual mind complete with its own internal 'desires' and 'goals.' Technically known as 'agents,' they are driven by a revolutionary software system known as PsychSim that enables programmers to simulate the cognitive faculties of human minds. Dr. Stacy Marsella, a leading agent researcher and one of the primary architects of PyschSim, declares that agents actually 'think for themselves.' Indeed, the ultimate goal of agent research is to create autonomous self-determining minds capable of a full spectrum of human behavior. A small, dark-haired man with a doctorate in artificial intelligence, Marsella is a project leader at USC’s Information Sciences Institute in Marina del Rey, one of the world’s top centers for agent research. ... Last year, Marsella and his colleague Dr. David Pynadath developed an agent-based game [Carmen’s Bright Ideas] in which parents of childhood cancer patients engage in virtual counseling sessions with a virtual therapist. ... But what does it mean to talk about a virtual mind? What, indeed, is a mind of any variety? ... Until very recently, artificial-intelligence researchers believed that modeling the mind was simply a matter of simulating rational cognition, an activity that was seen to be epitomized by strategical games such as chess and go -- but over the past decade, computer scientists have come to understand that a virtual mind needs a virtual psychology. To 'think' requires not just an ability to carry through a chain of logical inferences; it also requires a mental environment, or psychic context, in which such rationalizations can be given meaning. "
>>> Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, Video Games, Education, Military, Chess, Go, Cognitive Science, Representation, Reasoning, Chatbots (@ Natural Language Processing), Applications
-> back to headlines

July 22, 2005: The marriage of spirituality and the machine is a recipe for disaster. Science and religion are best left to travel on parallel paths. Opinion by Rachael Kohn. The Sydney Morning Herald. "[T]he desire to see scientific breakthroughs as opportunities to rethink the quality of our spiritual life has been with us since the mid-19th century when Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christian Science. ... It could be that the urge to recast the spiritual life as applied technology has its roots in the aspirations of scientists. When the father of computers, Charles Babbage (1791-1871), invented the analytical engine in 1856, he attributed spiritual significance to his adding machine, claiming it was proof of the truth of miracles, including life after death. When the founder of artificial intelligence, Alan Turing (1912-54), an atheist, designed machines built to think like humans, he cheekily proposed a version of karma, in which the machine would be the final resting place for his soul. There is something fundamentally transcendent about technology. It is the product of human genius yet it is premised on the limitations of our species and the perennial desire to overcome them. The ancient Greeks understood the link between technology and transcendence. The Promethean urge to steal the sacred fire...."
>>> Ethical & Social Implications, History
-> back to headlines

July 21, 2005: On your marks, get set, code! Phil O'Sullivan, contributor. CNN. "Computer software code writing may not be everyone's idea of a competitive sport, but thanks to a type of contest that is growing in popularity, things may soon change. U.S.-based company TopCoder runs coding competitions for up-and-coming software programmers. The contests -- called codejams -- take place online as well as at venues, attracting up to 60,000 participants for big competitions, with prize money reaching up to $20,000. ... Yahoo chief executive Usama Fayyad told CNN that finding the right kind of future employees was no easy task. He said the code jams gave the company the chance to look at parts of the world it would not normally have access to."
>>> Competitions & Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students); also see this related article
-> back to headlines

July 21, 2005: It Gasps, It Yawns, It Even Listens: Furby Is Back, Kilobytes to Spare. By Andrew Zipern. The New York Times (reistration req'd.). "Remember Furby? When this furry little electronic toy came out in 1998 it was an instant hit - more than 40 million were sold worldwide. Now Furby is back in a new version that has 500 kilobytes of memory, which is six times what the original had, and uses voice recognition to respond to its owner. ... If you ask Furby to tell you a joke, it will most likely deliver a knock-knock zinger."
>>> Toys, Speech, Natural Language Processing
-> back to headlines

July 21, 2005: New application quickens research. By Michael Kunzelman. Associated Press / available from The Telegraph Online. "It would have taken Dr. Scott Weiss years to search by hand through 2.5 million medical files, looking for patients who had been diagnosed with asthma. By scanning the files with a new computer system, it only took his team of Harvard researchers a few days. The computer’s artificial intelligence sifted through 20 years’ worth of files for patients at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and eight other Partners Health Care hospitals. ... 'Being able to screen 90,000 people is not something I would have anticipated doing in my 28 years as a researcher,' he said. 'It’s clearly a big jump in efficiency and speed.'"
>>> Medicine, Public Health & Welfare, Bioinformatics, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications; also see this related article
-> back to headlines

July 21, 2005: Scouse brains will help unlock mystery of Mars. By Kate Mansey. Daily Post & icLiverpool. "It may sound a little far-fetched but, when it comes to Liverpool University's latest venture, you definitely couldn't make it up. Scientists at the academic institution have begun research for space agency Nasa which wants to send robots to Mars - complete with a Scouse brain. The American agency has asked Liverpool researchers to develop software for robots who, they hope, will be able to think for themselves and carry out pioneering space travel to the Red Planet - all on their own.. Professor Michael Fisher, the director of Liverpool University's Verification Laboratory, said: 'Robots would be able to think for themselves to carry out technical work in space. Autonomy is a major cost driver for space exploration since human missions require large earth-based teams for support. Nasa is currently working with us to develop programs which will make their own decisions."
>>> Space Exploration, Robots, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 21, 2005: Yahoo! Chief Data Officer Dr. Usama Fayyad Chosen as 2005 Fellow by American Association for Artificial Intelligence. Yahoo! Inc. press release from Business Wire. "'The appointment of Dr. Usama Fayyad as a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence is a highly deserved recognition of his seminal contributions to both the theory and practice of artificial intelligence,' said prof. Tom Mitchell, chairman of the AAAI Awards Committee and past president of AAAI. 'His research in this area has produced important machine learning and data mining algorithms that open up new opportunities for automated, intelligent analysis of very large data sets. Dr. Fayyad's work both in developing the underlying technology of artificial intelligence and in using it to impact the commercial world will have great impact on the lives of individuals in new ways.' ... In addition to Fayyad, this year's AAAI newly elected fellows include Raymond J. Mooney, professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas, Austin; Andrew W. Moore, professor of Robotics and Computer Science at the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University; and David E. Smith, planning & scheduling group lead at the NASA Ames Research Center. ... 'I have been a member of AAAI since I was a graduate student and published my first major publications in its conferences, and to be recognized by my peers as a 2005 AAAI Fellow for the work I have done at Yahoo! and elsewhere is indeed a great honor,' said Fayyad."
>>> Careers in AI and Associations & Organizations (@ Resources for Students), Information Retrieval, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Applications; also see this related article
-> back to headlines

July 21, 2005: Robotic modelling reveals ancient hominid stride. By Will Knight. NewScientist.com. "An ancient human ancestor once thought to have shuffled its way across the plains of Africa in fact walked upright much like modern man, a study of robotic models has revealed. UK researchers built robot-based computer models of Australopithecus afarensis - a human ancestor that lived more than three million years ago. ... The researchers then added virtual muscle to their simulation and used genetic algorithms to 'evolve' the optimal walking movement for the creature. ... Genetic algorithms employ the principles of Darwinian evolution to come up with an optimised - or 'evolved' - solution to a problem."
>>> Genetic Algorithms, Machine Learning
-> back to headlines

July 20, 2005: From Mars to the Med Center. By Tiffanie Wallace. 13WMAZ.com. "The Medical Center of Central Georgia has machines, robots and technology to help patients to a speedy recovery. The newest robot you'll find roaming the hallways is literally a cleaning machine. It's called the Intellibot. Hospital Environmental Director Rodney Gause says the Intellibot scrubs, disinfects and dries thousands of square feet of hospital floors. Gause says the Intellibot does it faster than people. 'That's the beautiful thing about this machine it allows us to focus more on patients.' ... Gause says it uses the same artificial intelligence as NASA's Mars Rover."
>>> Robots, Business, Medicine, Space Exploration, Autonomous Vehicles, Applications
-> back to headlines

July 20, 2005: High-tech show and tell. By Graeme McRanor. 24 hours Vancouver. "It was a high-tech show-and-tell at UBC [University of British Columbia] yesterday as some of Canada's sharpest minds powered up their wares for the official opening of the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems/ Computer Science (ICICS/CS) addition. On display within the $40 million, state-of-the-art building was some of UBC's leading research into animation, artificial intelligence and autonomous robotics technology."
>>> AI Academic Departments (@ Resources for Students)
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July 19, 2005: Bots now battle humans for poker supremacy. By Shawn P. Roarke. FOXSports.com. "That threat is the poker bot, a computer program designed to play nearly statistically flawless poker. 'There are a lot of people out there that have seen the opportunity to make money out there and have built online poker bots and are being deceitful,' says Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer, a professor of computer science at the University of Alberta. And, Schaeffer should know. He has worked extensively in the past 14 years to develop just such a poker bot. However, unlike the opportunists out there, Schaeffer's work has been above-board and out in the open. As the leader of The University of Alberta's Computer Poker Research Group, Schaeffer has helped develop two poker bots, dubbed 'Vex Bot' and 'Spar Bot.' Capable of playing poker at a very high level, but only in head-to-head scenarios, the bots are used by researchers to test the limits of artificial intelligence. ... The rapid evolution of these poker bots was on display last week at Binion's Casino in Las Vegas, where the first organized public competition between poker programs was held. Referred to as the World Poker Robot Championships, this competition pitted six poker programs against each other, playing limit hold 'em for a $100,000 prize -- put up by Golden Palace. In the end, 'Poker ProBot,' engineered by 37-year-old Hilton Givens of Lafayette Ind., emerged as the victor after five rounds and nearly my 5,000 hands. ... Not only did Givens earn a cool $100,000, he got the opportunity to have his program match wits with Laak, one of the game's most accomplished professionals. ... Laak won the showdown in 399 hands. Laak also defeated the University of Alberta's Poki X...."
>>> Poker, Sports, Games & Puzzles, Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
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July 19, 2005: Unorthodox Chess From an Odd Mind. By Kevin Poulsen. Wired News. "Two dozen programmers from around the world have signed up to compete in Germany next month in the first computer chess tournament devoted to Chess960, a game variant invented by fugitive chess genius Bobby Fischer that's slowly gaining rank among grandmasters. The rules of Chess960 are mostly the same as orthodox chess -- but the setup incorporates something once considered anathema to the game: chance. ... Conventional chess-playing programs, which can calculate moves deep into the future, still rely on a digital version of an opening book -- basically a lookup table dictating the right move for two million or more positions. The random aspect of Chess960, on the other hand, requires original analysis for each move."

>>> Chess, Games & Puzzles, Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
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July 19, 2005: Germany wins the RoboCup championship in several categories. By Hans-Arthur Marsiske & Craig Morris. heise online. "The finals in the league of four-legged robots was probably one of the most exciting of the tournament. ... But this year's RoboCup is not yet over with the end of this tournament. After all, the purpose of the entire event is to step up research on robotics and artificial intelligence. The participants will thus be meeting at a symposium on the following two days. Here, the Germans also lead the pack with 25 lectures, 17 of which are from the German Research Foundation's program 'cooperating teams of mobile robots in dynamic environments.' All in all, the event was a smashing success. The excellent work that the Japanese organizers did set the standards high for next year's RoboCup championship in Bremen from 14-20 June 2006."

>>> Sports, Hazards & Disasters, Robots, Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
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July 19, 2005: The Robots are Coming! Finally Fulfilling Our Childhood Fantasies, Robot Servants and Companions Begin Arriving. By Jonathan Silverstein. ABC News. "[I]n a move that will certainly redeem the scientific community, leaps and bounds are being made in the world of domestic robots. ... Whether you realize it or not, robots are everywhere. They build the cars that we drive and the computers we work on, they fight terrorists overseas and dispose of bombs, placing their own metal frames at risk while humans watch safely from a distance. Though robots have long had a place in manufacturing and the military, they've only just begun creeping into our homes to play maid, gardener and pool boy. ... In a world where robots have long been more fantasy than fact, it's not hard to understand why researchers and engineers sometimes reach deep into their childhood for inspiration. ... Though their help and companionship may be welcomed by some, at least one question remains: with researchers developing robots to do our mundane, time-consuming tasks and chores, what are we going to do with all that extra time?"
>>> Robots, Household Appliances, Assisitive Technologies, Manufacturing, Military, Hazards & Disasters, Robotic Pets, Science Fiction, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications
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July 19, 2005: Who are the new computer whizzes? Not the guy with a pocket protector, but a middle-aged minority woman. By Sandra Lilley. NBC News & MSNBC.com. "Pop quiz: Which schools produced the most degrees in computer science in 2001? MIT? Carnegie Mellon? Georgia Tech? If you guessed any of these, you’re wrong: try Strayer University and DeVry Institute of Technology. And what kind of student is most likely to take up computer science at Strayer or DeVry? If you guessed a young geeky guy with a pocket saver, guess again: try a 35-year-old African American or Hispanic woman who already has a full-time job at a company where information technology (IT) skills are a key to advancement. ... 'We were so blown away by this,' remarked Dr. Shirley Malcom, director of Education and Human Resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and one of the authors of the report, 'Preparing Women and Minorities for the IT Workforce: The Role of Nontraditional Educational Pathways.' The researchers came up with an interesting -- yet disturbing -- conclusion. While adults, many of them women and minorities, are realizing they have to go out and obtain degrees in computer science to advance or just keep up at the workplace, the 'traditional' young students in four-year colleges are increasingly deciding not to major in computer science. ... At Strayer, over half the student body is comprised of women and minorities, and according to McCoy, the number of Latino students has been rising significantly."
>>> Computer Science, Diversity (@ Resources for Students), Resources for Educators
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July 19, 2005: Gates laments decreasing interest in programming. By Todd Bishop. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Microsoft isn't able to hire enough computer scientists in the United States to fill its available positions, Bill Gates said yesterday, citing decreasing interest in the field and fierce competition for qualified talent. Gates, speaking to an international audience of computer science faculty members on the company's Redmond campus, said Microsoft's inability to meet its employment needs is affecting 'the speed at which we do things.' The Microsoft chairman said he was perplexed by the declining enrollment in computer science programs at the nation's universities. Citing all the advances made possible by computer science, he questioned why so many people would opt for careers in something such as physical education instead. 'I mean, are they making breakthroughs like speech recognition or artificial intelligence?' Gates asked, grinning. 'I'm dying to see these new games they're inventing.' ... A recent study by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute found a 60 percent decline between 2000 and 2004 in the number of college freshmen who planned to major in computer science. But some question whether the scarcity of qualified employees is as dire as Gates made it sound during yesterday's event."
>>> Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students), Computer Science, AI Overview, Applications, Resources for Educators
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July 18, 2005: Electronic Brain Helps Cut Credit Card Fraud. By Wendy Kaufman. Radio broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition. Audio excerpt: "[Renee Montagne, host] On Mondays, our business report focuses on technology. Today, how an electronic brain is helping to cut credit card fraud. We have been hearing a lot about identity theft lately, so it's a bit surprising to learn that credit card fraud is actually declining. ... [W.K.] Nearly all transactions for Visa, MasterCard, American Express and others are scrutinized electronically before they're approved. David Robertson, publisher of the credit industry's Nilson Report, explains. [D.R.] While it's going through their system for authorization, it's also being checked against information about your previous spending. [W.K.] So if you use your card in Seattle in the morning and someone tries to use the same account an hour later in New York, the security system will send up a big red flag. Credit card companies use what is essentially an electronic brain, aided by a form of artificial intelligence known as neural networks. The brain keeps track of every purchase you make and sorts them into patterns and categories and compares your spending habits to others and to credit card activity linked to fraudsters. Then it makes predictions about whether a transaction is legitimate or not."
>>> Fraud Detection & Prevention, Banking, Neural Networks, Machine Learning, Applications
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July 18, 2005: Robots challenge teens on break - NASA gives summer class big boost. By Larry Slonaker. The Mercury News (registration req'd.). "Laura Williams, 16, has an educational background from early childhood that prepared her well for a summertime class in robotics she's taking at Homestead High School. ... Summer robotics was the inspiration of parent Kumar Thiagarajan, whose son is involved in robotics at Lynbrook High. ... [H]e enlisted the help of folks at NASA, which agreed to provide guest lecturers and 12 robotics kits for the class. ... In addition to the 35 area students who signed up for the class, 170 more -- in other parts of the United States, as well as Australia, India and other countries -- are taking it online. The only cost of the class is about $300 for a kit, which NASA covered for the teams of students at Homestead. The space agency also provided free kits for another 30 online students, based on need. ... [Steve] Headley wants the course to supplement the students' mastery of math and science, but Joseph Hering of NASA has a more specific goal: 'seeding.' Seeding, as in growing students who will go on to get doctorates in robotics. 'We're not shy about it,' Hering said."
>>> Summer Programs, Robots, Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students), Resources for Educators
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July 16, 2005: RoboCoach can help football owners. Kevin Iole's fantasy sports column. Las Vegas Review-Journal. "When Tom McDonald began playing fantasy football about 10 years ago, he started searching for help to confirm his opinions about certain players. ... He created a program to advise owners on which football players to draft, when to draft them, who to start, whether or not to accept a trade and what trades to offer. His Web site, fantasyfootballdraft.com, isn't heavily advertised or well-known. But the software that powers the site -- 'artificial intelligence,' as McDonald calls it -- might appeal to players seeking a knowledgeable second opinion. ... 'We use the artificial intelligence to basically allow you have someone to manage your team for you,' McDonald said of RoboCoach, the site feature that actually makes the recommendations."
>>> Sports, Expert Systems
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July 16, 2005 : Roaches get a robot buddy. From New Scientist (Issue 2508: page 27). "A group of cockroaches have found a friend in a matchbox-sized robot called Insbot. Developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Insbot has learned how to mimic cockroaches' behaviour and interact with a colony of the insects. The device was developed to show how artificial systems could interact with animals in future mixed societies...."
>>> Robots, Social Science, Applications
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July 15, 2005: "Stealth" plane will enjoy movie spotlight. By Tim McLaughlin. St. Louis Post-Dispatch & STLtoday.com. "A full-scale model of Boeing's X-45C - a robotic plane being produced in St. Louis - is going Hollywood on Sunday at the world premiere of 'Stealth,' a movie about a rogue drone that threatens to touch off a war after being struck by lightning. ... The trailer to 'Stealth' suggests that a fighter jet piloted by an onboard artificial intelligence computer is ready to wreak havoc after the lightning strike. ... 'It makes the (unmanned combat air vehicle) look like a bad guy,' [Bill] Barksdale said. But Barksdale has been told by the movie's executives that a surprise ending is in store."
>>> Science Fiction, Autonomous Vehicles, Robots
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July 15, 2005: Efficient longwalls are just two years away. Ferret.com.au. "Artificial intelligence is being used to give early warning of machine faults responsible for millions of dollars of lost profits annually in the underground mining industry. ... [N]ew software will predict when a machine is likely to breakdown, and machinery operators and their supervisors can take preventative measures. 'We can accurately detect faults up to five minutes before they cause the longwall to shutdown,' [Dr Daniel] Bongers says. ... The fault detection system took four years to develop to its current form. It is a sophisticated computer program based upon neural network technology. The software analyses data gathered by existing machine sensors, including those that monitor temperature, voltage and position."
>>> Business & Manufacturing, Neural Networks, Machine Learning, Applications
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July 14, 2005: I, Roommate - The Robot Housekeeper Arrives. By Mark Allen. The New York Times (registration req'd.). "The fantasy of a home robot capable of performing household chores is as old as science fiction itself, but the reality has been slow to arrive. For all the dazzling robotic feats showcased last month at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan, an event that included robots that drew portraits and hit fastballs, a humanoid device that can walk on two legs, or even maintain balance, is still very much a work in progress. Never mind one capable of doing household chores. A breakthrough of sorts came in April, when ZMP Inc., a company based in Tokyo, released Nuvo, a robot designed to be a helpmate and home companion. (Nuvo sells for about $6,000.) ... I arranged to live with Nuvo for four days to gauge whether it is, in fact, the forerunner of a new technology that will change our lives, as the home computer did, or a passing novelty. Once the entertainment factor wears thin, do we even want another person around the house? ..."
>>> Robots, Household Appliances, Assisitive Technologies, Applications
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July 14, 2005: Simulated society may generate virtual culture. By Will Knight. NewScientist.com news. "Virtual computer characters more accustomed to battling deranged alien monsters are about to take part in a unique social experiment. A society of virtual 'agents' - each with a remarkably realistic personality and the ability to learn and communicate - is being crafted by scientists from five European research institutes who hope to gain insights into the way human societies evolve. The project, known as New and Emergent World models Through Individual, Evolutionary and Social Learning -- or NEW-TIES -- brings together experts in artificial intelligence, linguistics, computer science and sociology. It is backed by a consortium consisting of the University of Surrey and Napier University in the UK, Tilberg and Vrije Universities in the Netherlands and Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary. The experiment will see about 1000 agents live together in a simulated world hosted on a network of 50 computers based at the various institutions involved. Each agent will be capable of various simple tasks, like.... Though simple interaction, the researchers hope to watch these characters create their very own society from scratch."
>>> Agents, Social Science, Machine Learning, Applications, Artificial Life
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July 13, 2005: Video games not necessarily turning kids' brains to mush. Kevin Maney's Wednesday Technology column. USA Today. "Video games might be about the best thing your kids can do to ensure their future success. Better, even, than reading. At least that's what two books (ironically enough) and a growing chunk of conventional wisdom are saying. Yes. Right. If you want your offspring to pay your Florida condo bills when you retire, better start telling them to put down that stupid Faulkner novel and get back to Halo 2. Which feels a lot like the moment in Sleeper when Woody Allen finds out that in 2173, cream pies and hot fudge are health foods. ... 'With most video games, at every point you have to make decisions,' [author Steven] Johnson says. 'You have to think about patterns and long-term goals and resources, and then you make decisions and get feedback from the game, and use that to adjust your decisions.' Which is exactly what a Silicon Valley entrepreneur does every day on his or her way to becoming a multibillionaire. ... Isn't the violence bad in video games? ... [T]he authors are challenging the belief that books are automatically better than video games. Johnson writes a funny bit about what critics would say if video games had been around for 300 years and books were just invented. The send-up calls books 'tragically isolating' and says libraries 'are a frightening sight: dozens of young children, normally so vivacious and socially interactive, sitting alone in cubicles, reading silently, oblivious to their peers.'"
>>> Video Games, Education, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications, Libraries
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July 13, 2005: CCTV footage shows London suicide bombers. By Will Knight. NewScientist.com news. "Surveillance cameras provided a vital breakthrough in the hunt for those responsible for the four bomb blasts that killed at least 52 people in London, UK, on 7 July. ... The breakthrough came as police scoured thousands of hours of CCTV footage. ... 'They must have been very lucky,' says Graeme Jones, an expert in video surveillance at Kingston University, UK. 'We thought it would take them a very long time.' Image recognition software can sometimes help identify a person in a video clip, but Jones says this only works when the footage is good quality, and would not work with CCTV imagery."
>>> for "related pages" see these related articles: Big brother really is watching us all (June 3, 2005); and Smart statistics keep eye on CCTV (November 13, 2003)
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July 13, 2005: Zippy agents going for brokers. By Stephen Pritchard. FT.com / FT-IT review. "Researchers at HP’s European labs in Bristol, England have found that international financial institutions are increasingly showing interest in their work on automated trading agents - despite the fact that the agents were not originally developed for financial markets. HP Labs’ complex adaptive systems group first started working on trading algorithms in the mid-1990s. But they were originally developed to help large companies allocate computing resources in data centres. ... The Zip algorithm works by calculating the best trading strategy for continuous double auctions (CDAs), the trading basis of most financial markets. ... Zip traders have the ability to 'learn' from their actions, using simple machine learning rules. This function allows the trading algorithms to improve their own behaviour. As a result, Zip algorithms succeed in trading where zero intelligence algorithms fail."
>>> Finance & Investing, Machine Learning, Applications
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July 13, 2005: Algorithms take a back seat as the machine learns to thrive in the age of uncertainty. By John Kavanagh. ComputerWeekly.com. "New approaches to machine learning have moved away from trying to program complex tasks that humans take for granted, opening up the field to a huge range of applications, according to Christopher Bishop, assistant director of Microsoft Research Cambridge. Presenting the 2005 BCS Lovelace Lecture, Bishop said, 'Computers are great at doing many big calculations a second, but getting them to read handwriting, for example, is a big challenge. It is impossible to write an algorithm for recognising handwriting; many have tried but all have failed. There are too many differences even in the writing of one person to be able to write a set of rules or algorithm. This is one of a whole range of problems in pattern recognition, which people are very good at, but which has been very difficult to get computers to solve. This is one aim of machine learning.' ... 'A key issue in machine learning is uncertainty. We are dealing with situations which are very variable or where there is a lot of noise in the signal. We are used to dealing with uncertainty in everyday life and we have to deal with it in computing too.' Recent approaches to machine learning focused on three key developments, Bishop said. The first is the development of work of an 18th century clergyman and mathematician, Thomas Bayes...."
>>> Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition, Uncertainty, Bayes (@ Namesakes), Applications
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July 13, 2005: Can "pokerbots" beat humans? By Caroline Hsu. USNews.com. "[Brian] Edwards, 29, is one of a handful of engineers and programmers around the world who have responded to the online poker craze by creating robots. These bots log onto virtual poker tables masquerading as human players and play hand after hand, winning real money for their creators. ... [T]his week, at the same time that the human World Series of Poker escalates to its well-publicized finale, the world's top programmers will come out of the closet, unleashing their poker-playing robots on one another in a 72-hour robot poker series called the Man Versus Machine Poker Championship. ... [P]okerbots are a threat to average human players because they can master a perfect mathematical approach to the game. And the artificial intelligence of these nascent poker robots may herald a big change in the way poker is played. Already, for example, backgammon-playing programs have developed strategies that permanently changed the way humans played the game."
>>> Poker, Backgammon (@ More Games & Puzzles), Games & Puzzles, Competitions (@ Resources for Students), Applications
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July 13, 2005: Artificial intelligence has invaded the medical world, serving in roles from scrub nurse to doctor stand-in. By Delthia Ricks. SunSentinel.com. "Meet Penelope, the new scrub nurse at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan: a robot with a job that in many hospitals is held by humans with college degrees. Penelope is not just any old robot, but one blessed with artificial intelligence, an ability to 'see' and the capacity to 'hear.' Her human colleagues call her a star employee. 'She's not here to replace a nurse. She's here to free up a nurse, to let nurses spend more time with the patients,' said registered nurse Doreen Taliaferro, who herself has worked in the scrub role at New York Presbyterian. Taliaferro said she is not the least bit threatened by Penelope's presence. 'There is far more important work for human nurses to perform,' she said. ... The robot's artificial intelligence enables it to be smarter than the average computer. ... Through highly sophisticated programming, Penelope is capable of reasoning and making choices. ... [Penelope's inventor, Dr. Michael] Treat confesses to a lifelong fascination with robots, dating back to the late 1950s when, as a child, he thought the small, battery-powered Robby the Robot was the coolest - although a tad unsophisticated and a bit clumsy. ... 'There are scads of innovative things going on in this field now. I can see robots that help kids learn in school. Robots as personal companions. More robots in hospitals. We're at the very beginning, and the future looks very bright.'"
>>> Medicine, Robots, Vision, Natural Language Processing, Speech, Reasoning, Neural Networks, Assisitive Technologies, Ethical & Social Implications, Science Fiction, Applications
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July 13, 2005: Computer scientists focus on developing programs that can learn game rules. By Kendall Madden. Stanford Report. "From mahjong to Monopoly, bridge to Bingo, Sorry to Scrabble -- games are serious fun. And with their diverse rules, they're also the perfect tools for exploring concepts in artificial intelligence (AI) and new approaches to programming, say Stanford computer scientists. 'Programs that think better should be able to win more games,' wrote Michael Genesereth, computer science professor with the Stanford Logic Group, and Nathaniel Love, a computer science doctoral student, in an article on general game playing (GGP) to be published in the summer 2005 issue of AI Magazine. The concept of general game playing is 'drastically different,' Genesereth said, from the computer programming done in the past to create programs like IBM's Deep Blue, which beat world chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997. ... General game playing requires that the computer be able to learn and understand rules, something that Deep Blue cannot do. ... Programs designed for general game playing exemplify a malleable and comprehensive type of system that harkens back to the early days of computer science theory, said Genesereth. When the idea of computers was first being developed in the 1950s, early programmers envisioned machines capable of synthesizing an array of different inputs to reach an independent decision, said Genesereth. The idea was for computers to be much more 'autonomous' than they currently are. It soon became clear that a system capable of synthesis would be much more complicated to design than one dependent on individual programs with specific functions, Genesereth said. ... One of Genesereth's favorite games to illustrate the differences between human intelligence and computer intelligence is called 'Hodge-podge.' The game is really three separate games all running at the same time: chess, checkers and tic-tac-toe. ... To encourage more work on GGP in the AI community, the Stanford group hosted a GGP competition at this year's American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference in Pittsburgh, Pa., July 9-13."
>>> Games & Puzzles, Conferences & Competitions (@ Resources for Students), AI Overview, History
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July 13, 2005: Professor gives humanoids even odds to beat human squad in 2050 match. The Asahi Shimbun. "Computers can now beat grand masters at chess, but could they beat Brazil at soccer? Minoru Asada, president of the RoboCup Federation, puts the odds of a robot squad beating a human side by 2050 at fifty-fifty. The Osaka University professor makes his prediction based on the rapid progress entrants in the annual RoboCup event have made over its eight-year existence."
>>> Sports, Robots, Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
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July 13 / 20, 2005: TRN's Top 10 Stories. Technology Research News. "The first half of 2005 was an exciting time for science and technology. TRN's top 10 picks encompass a wide range of technologies, from robotics to tissue engineering to natural language understanding. ... Making machines to do the dirty work: Computer vision, natural language processing and humanoid robotics are all about making machines more like people with the goal of handing off tedious, dangerous and dirty jobs to machines. ... Computer Vision: Advances in computer vision and image processing enable a pair of different areas: making machines that see as well as humans do, and making machines that see in ways humans can't. ... Another advance gives computers the relatively simple ability -- for humans -- to glance at a desk top and recognize the printed documents lying on it. ... Humanoid Robotics: Humanoid robotics is one of the most ambitious fields in technology research because it involves replicating human abilities to see, hear, walk and grasp objects -- abilities that evolved over millions of years. Most of this work involves complicated science and tricky engineering. ... Self-Assembly: ..Related to the notion of self-assembly are machines that reproduce, reconfigure and repair themselves. In a significant milestone, researchers developed simple modular robots that reproduce themselves. ... Natural Language Processing: Natural language processing research encompasses the long-term goal of giving computers the ability to understand language and shorter-term projects aimed at building tools that interpret and/or generate natural language for specific tasks. One area of atoms research focuses on converting natural language to computer code in order to allow nonprogrammers to write software."
>>> Vision, Robots, Natural Language Processing, Systems, Applications, AI Overview
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July 13, 2005: Science non-fiction. By Allison M. Heinrichs. Pittsburgh Tribune - Review and PittsburghLIVE.com. "Grace was one of 19 robots participating in the conference's 14th annual Mobile Robot Competition and Exhibition. Her job was to entertain the crowd and allow her Carnegie Mellon University team of creators to test how she uses social interactions, rather than sight and sound, to achieve a task -- in this case, finding a team member in a pink hat. ... Across from Grace, an android version of the late science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick sat in a chair candidly chatting about his novels and personal habits. A true conversationalist, he made eye contact and punctuated his remarks with smiles and scowls on his realistic, three-dimensional face -- sculpted by David Hanson, founder of Texas-based Hanson Robotics Inc. ... Nearby, several robots rolled through a section of a hallway, seeking bright balls and stuffed animals as part of a scavenger hunt. The robots had to make their own decisions about how to locate and retrieve the objects using artificial intelligence: No remote controls could be involved, said Paul Rybski, a CMU post-doctoral fellow and co-chairman of the competition."
>>> Robots, Science Fiction, Conferences & Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
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July 12, 2005: Poker-Playing Robots Battle For $100,000 Pot. By Larry Greenemeier. InformationWeek. "When the first hand was dealt Tuesday at the World Series of Poker Robots, the stakes were higher than merely the $100,000 pot that goes to the winning computer programmer. The tournament could shed light on one of the most challenging aspects of artificial intelligence: getting computers to solve problems when they're given incomplete, even misleading, information. ... Unlike chess, which [Kurt] Lange calls, 'the perfect information game,' poker is a 'misinformation' game. "It's a whole new challenge and way of thinking for the computer," he says. 'You have to find your way through the woods using bad information.' Poker also introduces luck as a key factor that levels the playing field. 'The poker problem is turning out to be very vexing,' says Jonathan Schaeffer, a computer-science professor at Canada's University of Alberta and a researcher at the school's Computer Poker Research Group. 'Chess was very easy for IBM's Deep Blue in the sense that you discovered there was an alpha-beta algorithm for playing chess. If you threw enough horsepower behind it, you could beat a human. The problem with poker, or any domain where you're working with unknown information, is that there's no one way to do it.' ... The success of poker programs such as those created by Poker Academy, the Computer Poker Research Group, and the six international entrants in this week's computer-poker tournament could extend into areas with great business, political, and even military implications, Schaeffer says."
>>> Poker, Chess, Games & Puzzles, Competitions (@ Resources for Students), Applications
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July 12, 2005: Artificial intelligence experts bring gaming to a new level in Pittsburgh. By Byron Spice. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Artificial intelligence researchers from around the world have come to Pittsburgh this week to play Chinese checkers. They've also been playing -- or, actually, having computers play -- a version of the board game Othello called Nothello, where the goal is to lose, not gain, as many chips as possible. And they've had computers playing other games you've never played and, more importantly, that the computers have never played. That was the whole point of the first General Game Playing Competition -- to design a computer program smart enough to play any previously unknown game when given only the rules. The contest at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence meeting concluded yesterday, with Jim Clune of UCLA beating David Kaiser of Florida International University in a game called 'Racetrack Corridor' to win the $10,000 prize. More than 1,000 scientists are attending this week's AI meeting, which concludes tomorrow at the Westin Convention Center. Playing games, such as chess, has served as a test of a computer's ability to mimic the thinking of a human ever since the field of artificial intelligence was invented almost 50 years ago."
>>> Games & Puzzles, Conferences & Competitions (@ Resources for Students), AI Overview, History
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July 11, 2005: Five questions - Jason Kadarusman. Interview by Jonathan Sidener. The San Diego Union-Tribune & SignOnSanDiego.com. "Jason Kadarusman is a co-founder of the Intelligent Systems Society (www.IntelligentSys.org), an organization being set up to promote the study of robots and other intelligent systems. Kadarusman and co-founder Anuj Sehgal studied computer science and built robots as undergraduates at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. The two are seeking volunteers to serve on the group's board of directors as part of obtaining nonprofit status. [Q:] What is the Intelligent Systems Society? [A:] It's an organization to help students in high school, university or any level to gain experience with robotics, through workshops, training and competitions. There are national groups doing this, but we thought it would be cool to have this on a local level. We could have something for students here, so they wouldn't have to go somewhere else for workshops and competitions. ... [Q:] When did you become interested in robots? [A:] ... We were mostly working with software, not really getting our hands dirty, when we heard about a competition sponsored by The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International."
>>> Associations (@ Resources for Students), Interviews
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July 11, 2005: 'Hard fun' yields lessons on nature of intelligence. By Chappell Brown. EE Times Online. "The RoBallet project run by MIT's Future of Learning Group doesn't look or sound like hard research: Nine children, dressed in sweats fitted with flexible sensor strips, stomp on pressure sensors to trigger changes in the ambient lighting and sound. The performances are choreographed by a professional ballet dancer in collaboration with the kids. The idea is to give students the experience of controlling technology to realize the stuff of imagination. Other projects use software, robotics and sensors as tools with which children can design environmental exploration projects, such as water-quality studies. It's what Future of Learning co-director David Cavallo calls 'hard fun' -- creative yet disciplined and purposeful uses for technology. ... EE Times: What was your first encounter with computers and digital technology, and how did it influence your intellectual development? David Cavallo: The first was in the '60s, when I was in high school. I grew up in Cleveland, and our math class had a connection to Case Western Reserve. We were able to do some work, things around Fortran, to think about math and computers. I thought programming was just a blast, a different way of thinking about problems. That led to thinking about how you could use computers for learning -- first thinking about artificial intelligence and intelligent tutoring systems. A professor at Rutgers, Ken Kaplan, introduced me to Logo [a programming environment widely used as a classroom tool], and that's when my interest really took off. ... EET: The computer and AI have been compared to the mind in some ways, but they are also very different from how the mind works. Is the computer the appropriate instrument for that type of work? Cavallo: What's really been rich in AI, what's really rich in the computer and what has helped us to understand minds better was trying to build models of minds. ... EET: What would you say is a seminal idea that has come out of this that was not known before? Cavallo: ... If you go back 50 years, the view of what developed minds did was mostly limited to just planning, reasoning, logic. We now realize the richness of thought --- that there are many ways of thinking. For example, [MIT's Marvin] Minsky is doing work on common-sense reasoning. [Earlier], people put so much work into building expert systems, and then we discovered that [building an expert knowledge base] was much easier to do than thinking about how you could cross the street safely, which a 3-year-old could kind of figure out. Intelligence is really mixed; there are tons of stuff going on that work together, and we learn from it [all]. What we've tried to do on the computer has helped break the more-restricted view of what intelligence really is. ... EET: So what is the future of learning? ... "
>>> AI Overview, Cognitive Science, Education, Nature of Intelligence, Commonsense Reasoning, Expert Systems, Interviews
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July 11, 2005: Improved process of drying lumber may save millions. Penn State Live. "Watching lumber dry may be as boring as watching paint dry, but soon, the amount of time needed to dry a piece of wood might decrease dramatically, according to a Penn State forest resources expert. Charles Ray, assistant professor of forest resources, devised a process potentially to decrease the amount of time it takes to dry wood products, by combining traditional drying techniques with more modern ones. This process lowers the amount of time needed to dry lumber. 'A computer would essentially read the environment in the kiln for this to work,' said the Penn State researcher, who has published a paper on the process in the July issue of Wood and Fibers Science. Ray's proposed drying process requires the creation of an artificial intelligence program that analyzes the environment inside a wood drying kiln. The program monitors the kiln and attempts to predict future conditions of the wood and kiln environment and compensates in order to minimize deviation from optimal drying conditions. ... The AI program will decrease the amount of energy consumed in the drying process and the number of defects in the lumber. By using Ray's modified drying process, wood producers can reduce the amount of imperfections in the finished product, as well as save millions on energy costs."
>>> Manufacturing, Applications
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July 11, 2005: Google is searching for direction in today's changing industry. By Francine Brevetti. Inside Bay Area. "If Burton Group's [Mike] Neuenschwander is correct, this discussion may be moot anyway. "Reliance on Google is about to change. Google is good at locating things we already know about. But most people want to know or find things we don't know about, and this is the area of semantics. Google and many other folks are looking at this area as in artificial intelligence and the creation of bots (software robots that may completely revamp search technology)."
>>> Web-Searching Agents, Information Retrieval, Ontologies, Agents, Applications
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July 11, 2005: Sen. Clinton sounds off on Iraq, but not 2008 ambitions. By John Colson. The Aspen Times. "[New York Sen. Hillary] Clinton was speaking on the same stage that Bill Clinton had occupied two days earlier as part of the Aspen Institute's Aspen Ideas Festival. ... She noted that America has been on the crest of previous waves of progress, from the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century to the explosion of personal computers and creation of the Internet in the 20th century. But the pace of change is accelerating, she said, and there is no telling what the 'steam engine and the computer chip of this century will be.' One example of the next wave, Clinton said, is nanotechnology, the science of miniaturizing computers to the point where they are scarcely larger than a single cell. Clinton said she has been a sponsor of legislation supporting such research, but pointed out that other nations also are working along similar lines. An example of breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, she said, is ongoing research to develop silicon retinas - implants that could allow blind people to see or give the gift of sight to a robot. And, she said, the International Space Station is to soon be run by a voice activated computer named 'Clarissa,' much like 'Hal' the computer in the seminal science fiction film '2001: A Space Odyssey.'"
>>> Vision, Robots, Systems, Assisitive Technologies, Space Exploration, Science Fiction, Applications
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July 11, 2005: Research on the brain was always in the back of his head. By Janet Rae-Dupree. Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal (from the July 8, 2005 print edition). " The world may believe the PalmPilot is Jeff Hawkins' greatest achievement, but Mr. Hawkins says that won't always be the case. The work he's doing now, he promises, soon will overshadow the PalmPilot legacy. In fact, creating the PalmPilot was in some ways simply a means for funding his passion for brain research. That passion ignited in 1979 when, as a Cornell grad with an electrical engineering degree, Mr. Hawkins picked up a special issue of Scientific American focused entirely on the human brain. ... Mr. Hawkins decided to devote himself to figuring out how the brain actually works so that he could eventually build an artificial one. He didn't want to work in artificial intelligence, an endeavor intended to make existing computer architectures perform in more human ways. Instead, he says, he wanted to create 'real intelligence,' a wholly new kind of computer that does its work in the same way a human brain does. ... The basic theory is simple: The human brain, more specifically the high-functioning neocortex, detects familiar patterns that allow it to predict what will happen next in the world around it. Teach a computer to do the same thing, he believes, and we can build the first truly intelligent machines."
>>> Neural Networks, Cognitive Science, Machine Learning
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July 10, 2005: Software highlights text. Column by Paul Gilster. newsobserver.com. "Just how far do we want to go in turning daily human judgments over to computers? The subject comes up because there is a new proposal that goes beyond getting us to write better. This one would help us read better. It comes from the fabled Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), and thus has clout, since PARC is where so many early innovations in computer technology became reality. ... The new PARC technology, bearing the odd name 'ScentHighlights,' is designed to save you time while avoiding hard copy altogether. It's based on artificial intelligence and could be thought of as a yellow highlighter with smarts. ... I look askance at nothing that comes out of Xerox PARC, and do think that for research purposes such software may be useful. But assume something like this built into future computers for daily reading and you are looking at a problem. We are training people to stop exercising their own skills of discernment and judgment and to turn these over to a digital surrogate that cannot perform as well."
>>> Education, Ethical & Social Implications, Information Retrieval, Applications
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July 10, 2005: It's Man vs. Machine Again, and Man Comes Out Limping. By Robert Byrne. The New York Times (registration req'd.). "Hydra, an extraordinarily powerful chess computer that resides in Abu Dhabi but was assembled by an international crew, mostly from Western Europe, lived up to its advance billing by slaughtering Michael Adams 5½ to ½ in their six-game match at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, held from June 21 to 27. The $150,000 prize went to Hydra."
>>> Chess, Games & Puzzles; also see this related NewsToon
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July 10, 2005: High-schoolers match wits and robots. Jupiter students on winning team in competition. By Nicole T. Lesson. South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com. "It took six weeks, hundreds of parts and more than 250 hours to design and build a robot, and just minutes to take the top metallic honor Saturday at an off-season robotic competition for high-schoolers. Bragging rights went to the red team made up of three schools, Atlantic Technical Center and Magnet High School in Coconut Creek, Jupiter High School and St. Cloud High School, which annihilated the blue team in two out of three final rounds outside the Museum of Discovery and Science. ... The two-day competition was sponsored by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology or FIRST Robotics, a multinational, nonprofit organization that promotes science and technology."
>>> Robots, Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
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July 9, 2005: Webcrawling program completes crossword puzzles. New Scientist (Issue 2507; page 23). "Called WebCrow, the program rephrases clues to make them Google-friendly, runs a search and then mines the results pages for possible solutions. ... WebCrow will be unveiled at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference on 9 July."
>>> Crossword Puzzles, Web-Searching Agents, Games & Puzzles, Conferences (@ Resources for Students)
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July 9, 2005: AI marks 25 years of growth. By Jennifer Bails. Pittsburgh Tribune - Review & PittsburghLive.com. "Machines still aren't smart enough to do just about anything a person can, but artificial intelligence -- or AI -- researchers have made tremendous progress in the past few decades. More than 1,000 researchers, technologists and analysts are gathering here starting today for the 20th National Artificial Intelligence Conference to learn about the latest trends in AI science and technology. The five-day national conference ... is sponsored by the California-based American Association for Artificial Intelligence, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. 'It's very important to have the AAAI conference in Pittsburgh on this occasion because two of the founders of AI worked at (Carnegie Mellon University),' said conference program co-chair Manuela Veloso, a professor of computer science at CMU. Veloso was referring to Allen Newell and Herbert Simon, who invented the first 'thinking machine' and launched the field that would become known as artificial intelligence at Carnegie Tech in the mid-1950s. ... Robots aren't serving us breakfast in our homes yet, but artificial intelligence has emerged as a quiet, but significant force in our lives, said Tom Mitchell, artificial intelligence expert and director of the Center for Automated Learning at Discovery at Carnegie Mellon University. 'We still aren't at the point of having systems that can behave as intelligently as you and me,' Mitchell said. 'But we're a lot further along in terms of building computers to do useful tasks in perception, natural language processing, and planning and scheduling.'"
>>> AI Overview, Conferences & Competitions (@ Resources for Students), History, Robots, Games & Puzzles, Machine Learning, Reasoning, Natural Language Processing, Cognitive Science, Applications
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July 8, 2005: Robots paint, do origami in Venice. ANSA.it. "Robots paint and do origami in the world's latest showcase on robotic advances here in Venice. ... 'Robots are a really good symbol of the shifting line between science and science fiction,' said Tuttimedia chief Giovanni Giovannini . 'Science is continually throwing up scenarios that previously seemed to belong to the realm of science fiction.' Roundtables here will examine relations between robots and society, their potential fields of application, the multi-billion-dollar business they are generating, the attractions of artificial intelligence and the ethics of robots...."
>>> Events (@ Resources for Students), Robots, Applications, Ethical & Social Implications, Science Fiction
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July 7, 2005: Home Application Robots to Debut in 2008. By Kim Tae-gyu. The Korea Times. "Smart home robots will be a part of our lives in a couple of years, according to Chonnam National University professor Park Jong-oh. ... Up until now, home robots have been used to clean homes or entertain people. But Park’s team plans to add various robotic capabilities, such as movement and intelligence, to conventional home appliances."
>>> Robots, Household Appliances, Applications
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July 7, 2005: The leader of the robot pack. By Michael Kanellos. CNET News.com. "Call it the summer job of fate. While a student at MIT, Colin Angle passed by a lab managed by professor Rodney Brooks. Brooks picked Angle to help him on a summer robotics project. The end result, unfurled in 1990, was a crab-like walking robot called Genghis. The project helped Brooks get tenure and Angle into grad school. But rather than go to grad school, Angle started a company with Brooks. They later linked up with Helen Grenier, and their efforts became iRobot, one of the early standouts in what appears to be a growing market for autonomous robots. The company has shipped 1.2 million Roombas, a robotic vacuum cleaner that sells for around $300. iRobot has also created a military robot called the PackBot and is crafting a reconnaissance vehicle with mower king John Deere. Later this year, Scooba, a robotic mopper, will hit the market. Angle, the company's CEO, met recently with News.com to demonstrate the next version of the Roomba and talk about the future of the robotics market. Q. When you talked (to News.com) a year ago, robotics were still something of an oddity. Now there seems to be a lot more enthusiasm. Is the market taking off? Angle: I think it's still young as an industry...."
>>> Robots, Household Appliances, Military, Multi-Agent Systems, Industry Statistics, Applications, Interviews
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July 7, 2005: Comparing Baduk and Chess. By Nam Chi-hyung. The Korea Times. "For more than 2,500 years, Baduk has meant so much more than just a game to many people; it is regarded as an art, science and even a pedagogy in Korea, China and Japan, and has spread to the western world. Now, it offers not only entertainment and the thrill of competition, but it also provides a useful tool for studying human mental faculties and artificial intelligence. Baduk is often compared with Chess, which is also a popular ancient game. ... [I]n Baduk, the ultimate goal of securing the world as one’s own is achieved through competition, rather than by the destruction of the opponent."
>>> Chess, More Games & Puzzles, Games & Puzzles
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July 6, 2005: Video robots redefine 'TV doctor' - Machines let physicians make rounds from a distance. The Washington Post / available from MSNBC.com. " ... Robots are turning up in more medical roles. Some help surgeons perform procedures, especially those requiring extreme precision. Others ferry supplies and equipment around hospitals and even dispense medication. Pittsburgh researchers are testing the Nursebot to lead nursing home residents to physical therapy sessions and remind them to take their medicine. GeckoSystems Inc. of Conyers, Ga., plans to soon begin marketing its CareBot to help nurses, doctors and relatives monitor and care for the elderly at home. ... Many experts speculate that, in time, robots will diagnose cases, and patients will consult with doctors via futuristic versions of the BlackBerry that will automatically transmit medical records and real-time data, such as blood pressure readings. 'I think we'll get to the point in the future where the use of robots and robotics and computer-aided diagnosis and treatment will transform the delivery of medical care,' [Jonathan D.] Linkous said. 'We're not there yet, but we're going down that path very rapidly.'"
>>> Medicine, Assisitive Technologies, Robots, Expert Systems, Applications
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July 6, 2005: Poker playing robots? Surely not. Beware! There's a new player in town - and he's got a mean poker face. By Terry Kirby. The Independent Online Edition. "They don't wear eyeshades or smoke cigars, and their capacity to bluff is somewhat limited. But a new breed of robotic poker player is sending a shiver of fear through the world of the green baize table. ... Welcome to the strange world of the poker 'bot' - bot being short for robot. But what we are talking about here are not supercomputers like Deep Blue, the IBM creation that trounced chess genius Garry Kasparov in 1997, but pirate computer programs, created in secret by players determined to challenge the new hegemony of the online gaming houses, where bots are outlawed.... [Brian 'Catfish' Edwards and Roger Gabriel] are among six bot operators who have been invited to compete in the first World Series of Poker Robots (WSOPR), which takes place in Las Vegas, starting on 12 July, an event that will be entirely machine vs machine. All software designers or artificial intelligence experts, they have been tempted away from their computer screens by the lure of a $100,000 (£54,0000) first prize and the chance for the winner to challenge, Deep Blue style, the winner of the World Poker Series, which is taking place at the same time.''
>>> Poker, Chess, Games & Puzzles, Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
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July 5, 2005: Dancing and driving hard in software. By Stuart Kennedy and Clive Mathieson. Australian IT section in The Australian. "In a wide-ranging interview in Sydney last week, [Microsoft CEO, Steve] Ballmer calmly but enthusiastically navigated his way through all things Microsoft. ... [Q]: What do you see as the main disruptive technologies coming on to the radar screen in the next 10 years? [A]: ... Secondly, I think a natural language user interface will be a big change. Today, you can't say to a PC: 'send my wife an email that says go get milk' and then it goes and opens the right programs and writes the right stuff. A layer of software intelligence with natural language understanding stands in the way. Natural language is hard. It's an artificial intelligence problem."
>>> Natural Language Processing, Interfaces
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July 5, 2005: Robert Milne (July 13, 1956 - June 5, 2005): Mountain-climbing entrepreneur who set new limits in artificial intelligence and summit-bagging. Times Online. "Rob Milne earned international respect for his innovative work in adapting artificial intelligence (AI) as a practical aid to industry and in bridging the gap between the research laboratory and the factory floor. The company he founded at Livingston near Edinburgh, at the heart of the 'Silicon Glen', reversed the initials AI to create Intelligent Applications. The projects and software it produced won many awards for innovation and excellence. Milne’s devotion to computer technology was matched by a love of mountains and the physical achievement of reaching the highest summits. He was within 1,200ft of the top of Everest, and of joining an elite group of mountaineers who have climbed the highest summits on seven continents, when he died from a heart attack. ... The expedition he joined at Everest was delayed by severe weather on the mountain where Milne, with typical enthusiasm, was carrying out field trials of an AI system providing monitoring support to climbers and explorers in an extreme environment."

  • Also see; Milne, 49, died scaling Everest. By Clayton Woullard, Rocky Mountain News (July 5, 2005). "'He liked to solve problems, so artificial intelligence gave him the tools to solve problems that people hadn't really thought about,' [his sister] Diana Milne said."

>>> Tributes; also see these related articles
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July 4, 2005: Virtual conference to eye IT's role in manufacturing. By Chappell Brown. EETimes.com. "Artificial intelligence and other 'soft' technologies will be a central theme of the conference, hosted by the European Union-financed Network of Excellence for Innovative Production Machines and Systems. ... An example of how artificial intelligence can transform design comes from a project at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics at the University of Patras (Greece). Two researchers there will present an innovative approach to parametric design that employs both genetic algorithms and fuzzy neural networks to help engineers find optimal solutions to design problems. ... AI is set to transform other important aspects of manufacturing as well, from decision support systems to scheduling to building more nimble manufacturing setups that can quickly swap out one project and take on another. Innovative Web-based control systems for remote robotic arms or for guiding autonomous robots also are in the works."
>>> Business & Manufacturing, Engineering, Genetic Algorithm, Fuzzy Logic, Reasoning, Applications, Conferences (@ Resources for Students)
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July 4, 2005: Gaming companies discover degrees of learning. New crop of hopeful game programmers now learn skill at college. By Victor Godinez. Dallas Morning News / available from Ohio.com. "The industry that once relied on self-taught tinkerers is growing up, and SMU is among the universities rushing to prepare the next generation of gaming professionals. [Brian]Harris is a student in SMU's Guildhall, which offers an 18-month certificate program in the art and science of video game development. ... [B]udgets for blockbuster titles are now $10 million to $20 million, and development teams of programmers, designers, artists, animators, musicians and artificial intelligence experts often number 100 or more. 'Because games are getting much more complex and teams are growing, it's becoming more of a structured discipline,' said Tim Willits, co-owner of id Software and lead designer at the company."
>>> Video Games, Academic Departments and Careers in AI (@ Resources for Students), Software Development
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July 3, 2005: Hurtling toward a brave new world. Book review by Lynn Yarris. The Mercury News. "Distinguishing fact from fantasy when it comes to the augmentation of human abilities is becoming increasingly difficult. What was science fiction at the end of the last century is making headlines in this one. A preview of what's in store is now available in one of the most provocative, entertaining and, yes, frightening science books in years. 'We are at an inflection point in history,' writes Joel Garreau. 'Four interrelated, intertwining technologies are cranking up to modify human nature. Call them the GRIN technologies -- the genetic, robotic, information and nano processes. These four advances are intermingling and feeding on one another, and they are collectively creating a curve of change unlike anything we humans have ever seen.' Garreau, a reporter and editor at the Washington Post, is a solid researcher with a fine sense of storytelling. In 'Radical Evolution,' he relies heavily on interviews with an engaging array of experts in the various GRIN technologies. ... Garreau lays out three scenarios for what might unfold over the next 25 years."
>>> Systems, Robots, Assisitive Technologies, Ethical & Social Implications, The Future
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July 3, 2005: Harvard project to scan millions of medical files. By Gareth Cook. The Boston Globe and Boston.com. "Harvard scientists are building a powerful computer system that will use artificial intelligence to scan the private medical files of 2.5 million people at local hospitals, as part of a government-funded effort to find the genetic roots of asthma and other diseases. The $20 million project -- which would probe more deeply and more quickly into medical records than human researchers are capable of -- is designed to find links between patients' DNA and illnesses. Although the effort could raise concerns about privacy, researchers say the new program, called 'I2B2' (for 'Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside') would respect the strict guidelines set out in federal and state laws, and could be a powerful tool for many kinds of research. ... For example, the computer will use a technique called 'natural language processing' to determine whether a patient is a smoker, according to Dr. Shawn Murphy, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. The computer, he said, is being programmed to seek out many phrases -- such as 'smoker' or 'no bad habits' -- and then weigh them, in their context, to come to a conclusion. ... [A]n early test of one of the artificial intelligence techniques found that the computer was able to deduce the main reason for a hospitalization almost as accurately as a doctor, missing only a few times out of 200 case files, [Dr. Scott] Weiss said.
>>> Medicine, Public Health & Welfare, Bioinformatics, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Ethical & Social Implications, Applications
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July 2, 2005: Benilde-St. Margaret's eyes RoboCup title. By Patrice Relerford. Star Tribune. "Decades from now, when fire departments around the world use robots to locate victims trapped in collapsed buildings, 15 high school students from Benilde-St. Margaret's in St. Louis Park can remember the part they played. They helped develop early versions of the life-saving machines. But they won't have to wait that long to make their mark. Next week they will head to Osaka, Japan, where they will be the only high school team competing in the RoboCup world championship. They'll put the four robots they've developed up against those from 25 teams from 10 countries."
>>> Robots, Hazards & Disasters, Competitions (@ Resources for Students)
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July 2, 2005: Robert D. Leighty, 75; Pioneer in Aerial Mapping. By Joe Holley. Washington Post (page B07). "Robert D. Leighty, 75, a research scientist who helped pioneer numerous aerial photo interpretation techniques that the military still uses, died June 10 of melanoma at his home in Vienna. ... [H]is expertise in mapping terrain and extracting information from maps -- first manually and then with computers -- led to his involvement in the Army's pioneering efforts in artificial intelligence. The application that most intrigued him involved developing an autonomous vehicle, a robot that drove itself. ... After becoming chief of the Center for Artificial Intelligence at the [Engineer Topographic Laboratory's Research Institute], he directed research in image understanding, computer-assisted image analysis and terrain databases. In 1983, he was named director of the Research Institute. One of the institute's primary projects during his tenure involved developing a vehicle that uses machine vision to plan its route, avoid obstacles and maneuver to a goal."
>>> Tributes, Autonomous Vehicles, Image Understanding, Pattern Recognition, Vision
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July 2, 2005: Entering a dark age of innovation. By Robert Adler. NewScientist.com news. "[F]ar from being in technological nirvana, we are fast approaching a new dark age. That, at least, is the conclusion of Jonathan Huebner, a physicist working at the Pentagon's Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California. He says the rate of technological innovation reached a peak a century ago and has been declining ever since. ... It's an unfashionable view. Most futurologists say technology is developing at exponential rates. ... Huebner draws some stark lessons from his analysis. The global rate of innovation today, which is running at seven 'important technological developments' per billion people per year, matches the rate in 1600. Despite far higher standards of education and massive R&D funding 'it is more difficult now for people to develop new technology', Huebner says. ... At the Acceleration Studies Foundation, a non-profit think tank in San Pedro, California, John Smart examines why technological change is progressing so fast. Looking at the growth of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, Smart agrees with [Ray] Kurzweil that we are rocketing toward a technological 'singularity' - a point sometime between 2040 and 2080 where change is so blindingly fast that we just can't predict where it will go. Smart also accepts Huebner's findings, but with a reservation. Innovation may seem to be slowing even as its real pace accelerates, he says, because it's slipping from human hands and so fading from human view. More and more, he says, progress takes place 'under the hood' in the form of abstract computing processes. Huebner's analysis misses this entirely. ... A middle path between Huebner's warning of an imminent end to tech progress, and Kurzweil and Smart's equally. ... "
>>> The Future, Systems, The AI Effect
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July 2, 2005: Robot cleans pool without poles, hoses. By Barbara Turnbull. Toronto Star and Star.com. "Plug and play takes on a whole new meaning when a robot starts cleaning your pool. But that's exactly what's possible with the Aquabot, a machine that will vacuum-clean your swimming pool in an hour. ... 'This is artificial intelligence being applied to your pool system,' [Roger] Dametto says."
>>> Robots, Household Appliances, Applications
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July 1, 2005: 125 Big Questions. Science (Vol 309, Issue 5731, 79). "In a special collection of articles published beginning 1 July 2005, Science Magazine and its online companion sites celebrate the journal's 125th anniversary with a look forward -- at the most compelling puzzles and questions facing scientists today. A special, free news feature in Science explores 125 big questions that face scientific inquiry over the next quarter-century; accompanying the feature are several online extras including a reader's forum on the big questions." Start with the editorial, 125, by Donald Kennedy, Editor-in-Chief, and then explore questions such as:

  • What Is the Biological Basis of Consciousness? By Greg Miller. "For centuries, debating the nature of consciousness was the exclusive purview of philosophers. But if the recent torrent of books on the topic is any indication, a shift has taken place: Scientists are getting into the game. Has the nature of consciousness finally shifted from a philosophical question to a scientific one that can be solved by doing experiments? ... The discourse on consciousness has been hugely influenced by René Descartes, the French philosopher who in the mid-17th century declared that body and mind are made of different stuff entirely. It must be so, Descartes concluded, because the body exists in both time and space, whereas the mind has no spatial dimension. Recent scientifically oriented accounts of consciousness generally reject Descartes's solution; most prefer to treat body and mind as different aspects of the same thing. In this view, consciousness emerges from the properties and organization of neurons in the brain."
  • What Are the Limits of Conventional Computing? By Charles Seife. "In the 1940s, Bell Labs scientist Claude Shannon showed that bits are not just for computers; they are the fundamental units of describing the information that flows from one object to another. There are physical laws that govern how fast a bit can move from place to place, how much information can be transferred back and forth over a given communications channel, and how much energy it takes to erase a bit from memory. All classical information-processing machines are subject to these laws--and because information seems to be rattling back and forth in our brains, do the laws of information mean that our thoughts are reducible to bits and bytes? Are we merely computers? It's an unsettling thought. But there is a realm beyond the classical computer: the quantum. The probabilistic nature of quantum theory allows atoms and other quantum objects to store information that's not restricted to only the binary 0 or 1 of information theory, but can also be 0 and 1 at the same time."
  • What are the limits of learning by machines? Computers can already beat the world's best chess players, and they have a wealth of information on the Web to draw on. But abstract reasoning is still beyond any machine."

>>> The Future, Systems, Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Reasoning, Grand Challenges
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July 1, 2005: Gates Says Technology Will One Day Allow Computer Implants -- But Hardwiring's Not For Him. By Rohan Sullivan. Associated Press / available from Technology Review.com. "Technological advances will one day allow computers to be implanted in the human body -- and could help the blind see and the deaf hear -- Bill Gates said Friday. But the Microsoft chairman says he's not ready to be hardwired. 'One of the guys that works at Microsoft ... always says to me 'I'm ready, plug me in,' ' Gates said at a Microsoft seminar in Singapore. 'I don't feel quite the same way. I'm happy to have the computer over there and I'm over here.' ... He cited author Ray Kurzweil, whom he called the best at predicting the future of artificial intelligence, as believing that such computer-human links would become mainstream -- though probably not for several generations."
>>> The Future, Assisitve Technologies, Speech, Image Understanding, Applications
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July 2005: The Science of Stealth - Some of the technology featured in the new sci-fi flick is based on real Air Force research, but most appears out of thin air. Our aviation editor explains. By Eric Adams. Popular Science. "Although Stealth -- a hypersonically paced Top Gun update about an unmanned air combat vehicle (UCAV) gone amok -- gets correct some of the futuristic air-combat technology it depicts, much of it is dead wrong.... While its basic premise -- a future Air Force equipped abundantly with autonomous aircraft -- is absolutely true, the various deviations from valid military air-combat future trajectories are rampant. ... Some elements in Stealth are pretty much on target. ... And there is also substantial truth to the 'neural network' used in EDI’s artificial-intelligence system. Designers of autonomous systems are striving to make them replicate human thinking and reasoning processes as much as possible."
>>> Science Fiction, Autonomous Vehicles, Neural Networks, Military, Machine Learning, Applications
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July 2005: Software Patents Don't Compute - No clear boundary between math and software exists. By Ben Klemens. IEEE Spectrum. [First of two articles on software patents.]. "What is relevant is that these patents are for purely mathematical algorithms, and for centuries prior to the 1990s, mathematics was not patentable. So how did these patents come to be granted? By U.S. law, scientific principles may not be patented. ... What has changed is that mathematics has become increasingly reliant on machines. Abstract algorithms that involve inverting large matrices or calculating hundreds of coefficients in a sequence are routine today and of only limited use without physical computers to execute them. Conversely, devices such as video drivers, network interface cards, and robot arms depend on algorithms for their operation. Because of the machine-intensiveness of modern mathematics and the math-intensiveness of modern machines, the line between mathematical algorithms and machinery is increasingly blurred. This blurring is a problem, because without a clear line delimiting what is patentable and what is not, creative entrepreneurs will eventually be able to claim sole ownership of abstract mathematical discoveries. But how do we draw a line that would ensure that mathematical algorithms are not patentable while innovative machines are? ... So where is the line drawn between software and mathematical expression? Based on Church's and Turing's work, there is none. Any legal attempt to force a wedge between pure math and software will fail because the two are one and the same. A patent on a program is a patent on a mathematical expression, regardless of whether it is expressed in C, Lisp, or lambda calculus. But while demolishing the distinction between software and math, Turing and Church's work offers a natural division between patentable machinery and unpatentable mathematics -- exactly what we have been looking for."
>>> Software & Hardware, Systems, Alan Turing (@ Namesakes)
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July 2005: Game On! Video games are a multibillion-dollar industry where few African Americans manage to get at the controls. Some industries are taking aim at this sector's invisible hurdle. By Wendy Harris. Black Enterprise (subscription req'd.). "There are lucrative careers in designing, programming, and marketing these games, but sadly, it's yet another booming sector overlooked by African Americans. In fact, there are so few African Americans working in the video game industry that there is no official statistic that records their placement in this field. ... Over the next few pages, we'll introduce you to a few individuals who've already entered the West Coast-based industry with great success. They are ambitious, interesting, and without question, on top of their game. ... Rob Gatson, Senior Artificial Intelligence Software Engineer, Visual Concepts Inc. - While most 9-year-old boys spend their afternoons playing video games, as a boy growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Rob Gatson spent his free time learning how to make them. ... Today, Gatson, 34, is a software engineer for Visual Concepts Inc., the major development and production arm of 2K Sports video games brand and video game franchise. ... Gatson is one of only two African American programmers at Visual Concepts. He says the number of blacks working in the industry, particularly as engineers, is small because the idea of making video games a career path is simply not encouraged. 'Computer science isn't cultivated enough within our community,' says Gatson, who talks with many kids about the industry."
>>> Careers in AI and Equality & Diversity (@ Resources for Students), Video Games, Software Development
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July 2005: AI In Control - Artificial intelligence, expert systems, fuzzy logic, neural nets, and rules-based algorithms for factory control. Although the buzz is quieted, all of it is still around. You just don't notice it. Automotive Manufacturing & Production. "'Real-time rule engines' and 'adaptive control' are two of today's monikers for artificial intelligence (AI), fuzzy logic, and similar information technologies that were so widely touted in the 1980s. ... Toyota Motor Corp. uses Gensym G2 to plan its final assembly line. ... Volkswagen (VW) Group (Madrid, Spain) uses the inference engine from ILOG Inc. for new-car sequencing and production planning at the group's SEAT Martorell and the VW Navarra plants. ... In reality, rules-based technology 'gets embedded in solutions so that the end user doesn't even know there's AI inside,' says [David] Siegel. 'I don't know of many total standalone AI/expert system-type applications. They're almost always a part of the larger picture.' ... The IMS [Intelligent Maintenance Systems] Center has developed a toolbox of algorithms. Of particular interest is the Watchdog Agent. This agent, explains Lee, 'can assess and predict the process or equipment performance based on the inputs from the sensors mounted on it. ... A second IMS project is the Device-to-Business (D2B) platform, basically an autonomous intelligent agent that links factory floor devices directly to a business system, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), thereby circumventing traditional factory supervisory control systems, such as programmable controllers."
>>> Business & Manufacturing, Applications, Fuzzy Logic, Real-Time Reasoning, Expert Systems, Agents, Neural Networks, Reasoning, Machine Learning
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July 2005: The Other Turing Test. By Clive Thompson. Wired (Issue 13.07). "Everyone has heard of the Turing test, where you chat with a human and a computer and try to figure out which is which. But few know that this is not the only scenario Alan Turing proposed in his famous 1950 paper 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence.' In it, he suggested an 'imitation game,' which plays like 20 Questions for transsexuals: first a man and then a computer pose as female, and the interrogator tries to distinguish them from a real woman. Scientists studying artificial intelligence have long argued over the meaning of this gender-bending experiment...."
>>> Turing Test, Turing (@ Namesakes)
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July 2005: Is this the future of air combat? A revolution is under way in aerial combat. Tomorrow’s fighter pilots may be ceding the skies to robots. By Bill Sweetman. Popular Science. "[T]he adversary that the mighty Raptor is staring down today takes the form of a tiny airplane, with no cockpit, that stands barely higher than the F/A-22’s belly. Stingray 1 and 2, the Boeing X-45A prototypes, are slow, not particularly maneuverable, and pack just one small bomb apiece. But they’re first drafts, primitive unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs), future versions of which could ignite sweeping changes in air combat tactics. ... Robotic fighters still have a long way to go. After all, designers have only a few years’ experience with their more basic predecessors, unmanned aerial vehicles such as the remotely controlled Predator and the fully autonomous Global Hawk, which focus on the far simpler tasks of surveillance and reconnaissance. Still, autonomous robots such as the Stingrays are beginning to proliferate worldwide.... But it may not be long before UCAVs overcome their limitations. In early February, the Boeing pair took off from Edwards, circled over the Mojave Desert, automatically attacked a simulated missile site, and returned to their orbits. Minutes later a second missile site, unknown to the UCAVs’ computers, advertised its presence by sending simulated radar signals, and the UCAVs attacked it, too. The ground-based operator’s only job was to OK the release of weapons. ... But if the UCAV is going to unleash deadly force, will it do so automatically? That’s an idea that makes people uneasy, especially when civilians are at risk."
>>> Autonomous Vehicles, Military, Applications, Robots, Ethical & Social Implications
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July / August 2005: Early Computing's Long, Strange Trip. Jaron Lanier's review of What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, by John Markoff. American Scientist Online. "Does history matter? ... Let's focus the question more narrowly: Does the history of computers as we experience them -- the history of the user-interface design, for instance -- matter? I say yes. Like Shakespearean English, the computer is a tool that must be understood in depth to be deeply useful, and the richer the information about context, the richer the understanding. ... Markoff's book covers the years 1960 to 1975 and the area south of San Francisco around Stanford University that would later come to be known as Silicon Valley. ... The book also captures an important early conflict between two cultures of computing that seemed compatible on the surface but actually had opposing aims. On the one side was the human-centered design work of Engelbart, based initially at the Stanford Research Institute, and on the other was artificial intelligence culture, centered on the Stanford AI lab. Engelbart once told me a story that illustrates the conflict succinctly. He met Marvin Minsky -- one of the founders of the field of AI -- and Minsky told him how the AI lab would create intelligent machines. Engelbart replied, 'You're going to do all that for the machines? What are you going to do for the people?' This conflict between machine- and human-centered design continues to this day. What might all this mean to young engineering students? At the very least, this book will probably serve as a hedge against complacency."
>>> History
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