Artificial Intelligence
1. Famed scientist and author Stephen Hawking recently told a German magazine that humans must be genetically enhanced to prevent an otherwise inevitable take-over by rapidly advancing artificial intelligence. He gravely insists we must alter and improve our DNA, since "'The danger is real that this [computer] intelligence will develop and take over the world." (Source)
2. Another take on the "Will robots take over the world?" question... Robots won't overthrow us, at least if you believe author Bruce Deitrick Price, who writes in the American Chronicle, "Here’s the key point: these machine will be elaborate fakes following programmed or mathematical instructions. They won’t have feelings. They won’t be conscious. They won’t have volition. They won’t have common sense, or only a smidgen." (Source)
3. But then again, here's another believer that robots WILL eventually rule the world, confidently predicting doom for humanity. The blog "Robots Will Take Over!" looks at the nefarious side of robots in the news. A humorous take on the subject, to be sure, but plenty here to make you go "hmmm."
4. Whether or not you're a believer in robots taking over, watch your back, since they might be eyeing your job. According to Robotic Nation author Marshall Brain, humanoid robots will be widely available by 2030 and will quickly replace the need for humans to work in fields like retail, fast food and house cleaning. (Source)
5. Robots are now in space fixing our satellites. The DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) launched the Astro (Autonomous Space Transfer and Robotic Orbiter), which will target and repair problems with satellites without the need for human control, instead relying on GPS and lasers. Lasers. What can't they do? (Source)
6. There's actually artificial intelligence at work all around you. Several of today's vehicles use computer AI in fuel injection and other systems to learn and adapt to driver behavior, and cell phone and email networks "learn" the patterns of their users to route calls and messages most efficiently. (Source)
7. Robot cars racing across the desert? The Stanford University Racing Team developed a robot car that drove itself more than 130 miles across the Mojave Desert to win the 2006 "DARPA Grand Challenge," a robot car race sponsored by the U.S. Defense Department. While on the surface it appears little more than a fun exercise, the race has a serious purpose. According to the DARPA website: "The DARPA Urban Challenge features autonomous ground vehicles conducting simulated military supply missions in a mock urban area. Safe operation in traffic is essential to U.S. military plans to use autonomous ground vehicles to conduct important missions." (Source)
8. Rights for robots? The UK government commissioned a study that suggested robots could be awarded "robo-rights," but the December 2006 report was criticized by scientists as being based on poor science and diverting attention from more pressing ethical issues surrounding artificial intelligence. (Source)
9. Household robots are already all the rage in Japan. Robots that can do simple interaction and perform menial tasks are popular in many Japanese homes, and the market is expected to boom to as many as 39 million robots by 2010. So why aren't we adopting robots in the West? Author Timothy Hornyak (Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robotics) theorizes that America and Europe have a cultural tradition of distrusting intelligent machines (the Frankenstein syndrome), while the Japanese are more easily accepting of robots as helpers and tend to create personal bonds with their bots. (Source)
10. Finally, a bit of AI history. The term 'artificial intelligence' was first coined by MIT's John McCarthy in 1956. McCarthy made AI the subject of a conference at Dartmouth, the first time it was discussed in a public forum.
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