Robotic Nation Evidence

Computers taught to sort opinion from fact: "The scientists will use machine-learning algorithms to give computers examples of text expressing both fact and opinion and then teach them to tell the difference."

Big Brother is shouting at you

From the article:

"Big Brother is not only watching you - now he's barking orders too. Britain's first 'talking' CCTV cameras have arrived, publicly berating bad behaviour and shaming offenders into acting more responsibly.

The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts - from dropping litter to late-night brawls - to send out a verbal warning: 'We are watching you'.

Soon it will be computers rather than 'control room operators' that are sending the verbal warnings. This is the start of the "referees" from Manna.

George looks for human friends on the internet: "George is a piece of software, arguably the best of the speaking "chatbots" or talking robots, and he's recently received the Loebner prize in Britain, a scientific award recognising the machines best capable of matching the most realistic human dialogues with their own.

Seven years after being invented, George evolved a few months ago into what experts call an avatar, gaining a physical image, a voice and voice recognition software.

One can now have an oral discussion with him over the Internet -- "face to face"."

Experimental AI Powers Robot Army: "Darpa's Grand Challenge may have looked tough, but it was a piece of cake compared to the challenge facing robots currently being developed by the U.S. Air Force.

Rather than maneuver driverless through miles of rough desert terrain, these will have to find their way into underground bunkers, map unknown facilities in three dimensions and identify what's in them while avoiding detection -- all without any human control.

This is well beyond the capability of any existing system, but the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is putting its hopes on new software that lets robots learn, walk, see and interact far more intelligently than ever before."

Courts use computers to decide who should face death sentence: "Criminals in China face being sent to the firing squad by a computer after the introduction of a software programme to help decide the sentences handed out by courts.

Judges are using computers equipped with a sophisticated legal database as an aid to determining punishments for 100 different crimes including robbery and rape by tapping in details of the crime and the mitigating circumstances."

Obviously it will not be long before courtrooms can be run my computers.

How Israel's Drones Fought the War: "Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) sources say the air force's recently delivered Heron 1 UAVs (shown) performed "beyond expectation" during the war, and demonstrated the full extent of the type's endurance while flying day and night missions over enemy territory. Heron air vehicles flew hundreds of sorties and amassed thousands of flight hours carrying 250kg (550lb) payloads comprising a variety of sensors. "

Robot magazine - Robot Life: "It's a glossy, colorful zine full of humanoid robot pics, the remote-controlled creations of Tomotaka Takahashi (his Manoi is on the cover), ads by robot makers, and a manga comic strip by Tachiaoi Honda about a rather pathetic-looking robot buffalo discovered in the trash."

Revolutionizing Football: Football is a game of strategy and risk management. Each coach goes into a game with a plan, explains Dwight Smith, head football coach at MIT. Although every variable is considered beforehand, adjustments have to be made as the game progresses. ZEUS is meant to help coaches make those on-the-fly decisions. The software was created by mining historical NFL data and developing distribution curves of success rates for individual actions, such as how far a running back carries the ball.

Straight out of Manna:

RadioShack uses e-mail to fire 400 employees as part of planned job cuts