As a rule we disbelieve all facts and theories for which we have no use. - William James

Latest News Items

Robot performs in opera -- Kismet, the MIT robot, is featured in "Three Tales", a new opera by Steve Reich. "Right at the end, there is a chilling little duet for humanity and technology, as Cynthia Breazeal, of M.I.T., converses with a sweet-faced, dulcet-voiced robot named Kismet. "Maybe you'll play with your yellow toy?" she coos, as if talking to a toddler. Kismet shoots her a cool, withering look. Curtain." (1/1)

Vanderbilt robot reads human emotions via wearable sensors -- A team at Vanderbilt University is turning this notion on its head by developing a robotic assistant whose goal is not to develop emotions, but rather respond to the moods of its human master. (1/1)

Hans Moravec's 3D robotic vision system -- CMU's Hans Moravec has completed work on a three-dimensional robotic vision system he says will allow machines to make their way through offices and homes. The technology is "more than good enough to reliably navigate robots through a general environment," he said. (12/31)

Humanoid robots: companions or toys? -- Sony Corp., creator of the popular AIBO pet robot, will market a small humanoid robot this year at "the price of a luxury sedan." The 58-cm tall SDR-4X is touted as a "chat partner who can sing and dance." (12/31)

Composer harnesses AI to create music -- Sony researcher Eduardo Reck Miranda is developing "evolutionary musicology" systems to compose original music, drawing on concepts from artificial life, cellular automata, and genetic algorithms. (12/31)

Journal of game development -- JOGD will cover all aspects of game development, including artificial intelligence, mathematics, physics, networking, programming, graphics, audio and simulation. (12/28)

Making Robots, With Dreams of Henry Ford -- "...IRobot is perhaps the only company in the world that develops and sells robots to the military, researchers, large corporations, and consumers. Most robotics makers focus on just one segment, and 2002 has been a busy year for the company. ..." (NYT) (12/27)

AI pioneer Saul Amarel of Rutgers dies at 74 -- Saul Amarel, a pioneer in artificial intelligence and founder of the computer science department at Rutgers University, has died at the age of 74. (12/20)

When the web starts thinking for itself -- "This symbiotic intelligence of people plus computers plus intelligence agents that offer immediate access to humanity's collective knowledge does sound somewhat utopian. Equally it raises the spectre of a self-adaptive intelligence that quickly surpasses our ability to comprehend it." (12/20)

Latest Directory Additions

Searle on Consciousness -- "...Consciousness is entirely caused by neurobiological processes and is realized in brain structures. The essential trait of consciousness that we need to explain is unified qualitative subjectivity. Consciousness thus differs from other biological phenomena in that it has a subjective or first-person ontology, but this subjective ontology does not prevent us from having an epistemically objective science of consciousness. We need to overcome the philosophical tradition that treats the mental and the physical as two distinct metaphysical realms...." (12/31)

Open Mind Common Sense Project -- Push Singh of the MIT MediaLab describes a novel approach to achieving machine intelligence by teaching machines how to reason heuristically. (12/31)

Agentcities iD3 -- Agentcities ID3, the third Information Day organized by the EU Agentcities.NET project, will be held 6-8 February 2003 in Barcelona and will include an agent technology exhibition, the agent technology competition finals, and three days of workshops and presentation. (12/20)

Autonomous Intelligent Networks and Systems -- he Second Annual Symposium on Autonomous Intelligent Networks and Systems will be held June 30 to July 1 2003 in Bologna. (12/20)

Gambit Game Theory Analysis Software and Tools -- Gambit is a library of game theory software and tools for the construction and analysis of finite extensive and normal form games. (ACENews) (12/20)

didactic web-based game theory site -- The "didactic web-based experiments in game theory" site provides the teachers of basic game theory courses with free user-friendly didactic tools for conducting web-based thought experiments. (ACENews) (12/20)

Web Intelligence Consortium Introduction -- (12/20)

AI Agent Application -- Kaztrix offers a $29.95 product named aiagentz described as "AI Agent is an application that lets you build easy-to-use knowledge bases (Brains). These databases are presented in a variety of new and unique ways. Users will appreciate the interactive nature of our many animated agents." (12/20)

AIMA 2 -- The long awaited second edition of Russell and Norvig's popular text book, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, is rumored to be shipping this month. (12/20)

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