Robotic Nation Evidence

Description: "Douglas Lenat Dr. Douglas Lenat is the President and CEO of Cycorp. Since 1984, he and his team have ... been constructing, experimenting with, and applying a broad real world knowledge base and reasoning engine, collectively "Cyc".

Dr. Lenat was a professor of computer science at Carnegie-Mellon University and at Stanford University. His interest and experience in national security has led him to regularly consult for several U.S. agencies and the White House.

ABSTRACT It's way past 2001 now, where the heck is HAL? For several decades now we've had high hopes for computers amplifying our mental abilities not just giving us access to relevant stored information, but answering our complex, contextual questions.

Even applications like human-level unrestricted speech understanding continue to dangle close but just out of reach. What's been holding AI up? The short answer is that while computers make fine idiot savants, they lack common sense: the millions of pieces of general knowledge we all share, and fall back on as needed, to cope with the rough edges of the real world. I will talk about how that situation is changing, finally, and what the timetable -- and the path -- realistically are on achieving Artificial Intelligence."

Growing a Brain in Switzerland

From the article:

A network of artificial nerves is growing in a Swiss supercomputer -- meant to simulate a natural brain, cell-for-cell. The researchers at work on "Blue Brain" promise new insights into the sources of human consciousness.

The machine is beautiful as it wakes up -- nerve cells flicker on the screen in soft pastel tones, electrical charges flash through a maze of synapses. The brain, just after being switched on, seems a little sleepy, but gentle bursts of current bring it fully to life.

This unprecedented piece of hardware consists of about 10,000 computer chips that act like real nerve cells. To simulate a natural brain, part of the cerebral cortex of young rats was painstakingly replicated in the computer, cell by cell, together with the branched tree-like structure of the synapses.

The simulation was created at the Technical University in Lausanne, Switzerland, where 35 researchers participate in maintaining this artificial brain. It runs on one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, but soon even that computer will be too small. The goal is to build a much bigger electronic thinking machine -- one that would ultimately replicate the human brain.

In 30 to 40 years, all of this hardware will fit on a single chip that you can buy for $100. And we will all have a human brain on our desks. See Robotic nation for details.

Robotic management has arrived:

For fast-food help, call in the robots

From the article:

Pittsburgh's Hyperactive Technologies has come up with a system, based on the computer vision and artificial intelligence systems employed by robots, to manage the kitchens at so-called quick-service restaurants.

The vision system in Hyperactive Bob essentially scans the parking lot for incoming cars. It then cross-references traffic patterns against data about the restaurant--the bell curve of orders, the time of day, cooking times, the current amount of food in the restaurant's warming bins--and issues cooking orders to the employees manning the grill or the deep fat fryer. There isn't a mechanical humanoid assembling chicken sandwiches behind the counter. Instead, Hyperactive Bob combines machine intelligence with human activity.

By more tightly correlating the cooking line with incoming traffic, food gets cooked when it's needed, which makes customer satisfaction go up, according to Hyperactive CEO Joe Porfeli.

See the book Manna for details on where this technology takes us.

AI software to tighten up production lines

From the article:

Artificial intelligence software that provides expert advice on improving the efficiency of a complex production line has been created by researchers in the UK.

The software analyses the relationship between an end product and the many variables in the production process. Other software-based attempts to address this problem have struggled with the sheer complexity of the task.

Companies that cast metal parts, including Rolls Royce, have already begun using the software to reduce waste. Called X1 Recall, the program can learn what affects the quality of a final piece of metal and suggest ways to improve production.

Robot Salamander May Give Evolution Clues

From the article:

The robot doesn't look much like a salamander _ it's nearly a yard long and made of nine bright yellow plastic segments each containing a battery and microcontroller _ but it does seem to move like one.

The point was to understand how a spinal cord developed to direct a swimming motion that could handle the different coordination needed between a body and its limbs for walking, according to the team led by Auke Jan Ijspeert of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland.