A related article asserted that "this is not an AI project." This sounds suspiciously close to many of the arguments that AI enthusiasts have propounded to assert that AI is at least possible. In the worst case, the agurment goes, one could simply simulate a human brain to provide a platform for AI.

An effort to create the first computer simulation of the entire human brain, right down to the molecular level, was launched on Monday.

The "Blue Brain" project, a collaboration between IBM and a Swiss university team, will involve building a custom-made supercomputer based on IBM's Blue Gene design.

The hope is that the virtual brain will help shed light on some aspects of human cognition, such as perception, memory and perhaps even consciousness.

It will be the first time humans will be able to observe the electrical code our brains use to represent the world, and to do so in real time, says Henry Markram, director of Brain and Mind Institute at the Ecole Polytecnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.

New Scientist Breaking News - Mission to build a simulated brain begins

Information Week provides four examples of the use of AI techniquest to moderate human-computer interaction.

Now a new generation of researchers hopes to rekindle interest in AI. Faster and cheaper computer processing power, memory, and storage, and the rise of statistical techniques for analyzing speech, handwriting, and the structure of written texts, are helping spur new developments, as is the willingness of today's practitioners to trade perfection for practical solutions to everyday problems. Researchers are building AI-inspired user interfaces, systems that can perform calculations or suggest passages of text in anticipation of what users will need, and software that tries to mirror people's memories to help them find information amid digital clutter. Much of the research employs Bayesian statistics, a branch of mathematics that tries to factor in common beliefs and discount surprising results in the face of contrary historical knowledge. Some of the new AI research also falls into an emerging niche of computer science: the intersection of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction.

InformationWeek : The Future Of Software : AI's Next Brain Wave : April 25, 2005

Sony Corp. has succeeded in giving selected Aibo pet robots curiosity, researchers at Sony Computer Science Laboratory (SCSL) in Paris said last week. Their research won't lead to conscious robots soon, if ever, but it could help other fields such as child developmental psychology, they said during an open day in Tokyo.

...what if a robot could be made inherently "curious?" And what if its curiosity was backed by awareness of the value of its learning?

...To achieve this, the researchers equipped the Aibos with what they call an adaptive curiosity system or a "metabrain," an algorithm that is able to assess the robots' more conventional learning algorithms, they said.

In the experiments, the metabrain algorithm continually forced the learning algorithm to look for new and more challenging tasks and to give up on tasks that didn't seem to lead anywhere. The metabrains, in effect, gave the Aibos a sense of boredom as well as curiosity, helping them make choices to keep on learning, they said.

One probably doesn't want to develop software agents that give up performing tasks that are boring and insufficiently challenging.

ITworld.com - Sony researchers create 'curious' Aibos

] In the next few months, after being patiently nurtured
] for 22 years, an artificial brain called Cyc (pronounced
] "psych") will be put online for the world to interact
] with. And it's only going to get cleverer. Opening Cyc up
] to the masses is expected to accelerate the rate at which
] it learns, giving it access to the combined knowledge of
] millions of people around the globe as it hoovers up new
] facts from web pages, webcams and data entered manually
] by anyone who wants to contribute.
]
]
] Crucially, Cyc's creator says it has developed a human
] trait no other AI system has managed to imitate: common
] sense. "I believe we are heading towards a singularity
] and we will see it in less than 10 years," says Doug
] Lenat of Cycorp, the system's creator.

It's about time. Cyc has been perported to be on the verge of taking off for five years now. It would be really exciting if Lenat's decades-long effort were to be successful.

New Scientist Whatever happened to machines that think? - Features

] Computer scientists at the Palo Alto Research Center also
] are trying to bring user interfaces to life by replacing
] raw information with material that selects itself based
] on what the computer thinks the user wants to know.

This article is about the current trend in AI research to construct statiscs-based approaches to assisting human/machine interation. It's not so much about making machines smart as making them flexible, adaptable and useful

InformationWeek - The Future Of Software - AI's Next Brain Wave - April 25, 2005

] NEW YORK, NY and PORTLAND, OR -- (MARKET WIRE) --
] 03/01/2005 -- As more technologies make their way into
] children's schools, homes, and public places, the
] challenge is to design technologies that can keep up with
] the energy of children. Today's children are mobile,
] active beings who take for granted IM, iPods, and the
] Internet. "The educational community has embraced the use
] of computers as teaching tools, yet many institutions
] will simply install 'what everyone else is using' without
] questioning how technology can best be used to enhance
] education," says Dr. Allison Druin, (University of
] Maryland) panelist at CHI 2005.

This looks like an interesting conference

PRESS RELEASE Connecting With Kids: A View Into the Future of Computer-Human Interaction and Education at CHI 2005: 2-7 April, Portland, Oregon

] In the not-so-distant future, your wristwatch could stop
] you if you try to run out the door without the
] necessities you need for the day, like your keys, wallet
] or cell phone.
]
] At work, it could prompt you for important items needed
] for a meeting or a business lunch. In an academic
] setting, it could remind students which books to take as
] they hurry out the door for class.
]
] Think of it as a technological string around the finger
] -- one that's smart enough to take the initiative to save
] you from the inconvenience and embarrassment of forgotten
] essentials.

This is so cool! Your wristwatch serves as an interface. You've got a server in your pocket. An RFID reader compares RFID tags in to critical events in your personal schedule.

PhysOrg: Smart watch system could help busy, forgetful people keep track of necessities

Laughing Boy wrote:
] fractal wrote:
] ] CALGARY (CP) -- Researchers at the University of Calgary
] have
] ] found that nerve cells grown on a microchip can learn and
] ] memorize information which can be communicated to the brain.
]
]
] Unfreaking real! the implications of this go well beyond
] "controlling artificial limbs or restoring sight for the
] visually impaired" and "thinking computers". This is going to
] be huge.

It puts a whole new perspective on "human-computer interface".

RE: Cdn. researcher: Cells can grow on silicon

] Five quadriplegic patients might be months away from
] testing a brain-computer interface created by
] Cyberkinetics, a privately held company in Foxboro,
] Massachusetts. The company's system, called BrainGate,
] could help patients with no mobility to control a
] computer, a robot or eventually their own rewired
] muscles, using only their thoughts. If the trials go
] well, a product could be on the market by 2007.
]
] "It looks a lot like the Matrix," Surgenor said, referring
] to the sockets in the backs of the movie characters' heads
] that allowed them to log into the Matrix grid.

One step closer to the CyberPunk future envisioned by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling in the '80's.

Wired News: Transforming Thoughts Into Deeds

] Researchers in Dublin, Ireland, have developed a way to
] help people who are far away from their loved ones feel a
] little closer, using a pair of kitchen tables equipped
] with radio tag readers, projectors and computers running
] on Linux and Macintosh operating systems.
] ...
]
] The two-way system, part of Media Lab's Habitat project,
] sends images of those tagged objects back and forth
] between the tables through the Internet, providing
] participants with a pictorial record of their partners'
] activities.

It must be like living with ghosts. The images of stuff move, but the other person isn't displayed.

Wired News: Gizmo Puts Cards on the Table