A.I. to the… operating room (Aug 27, 2010)
http://motherboard.tv/2010/8/27/a-i-to-the-operating-room
Researchers have developed an AI-controlled robot arm that is capable of performing biopsies autonomously. The article includes a short video.

The article mentions that this has the potential to lower surgery costs. While this might become commonplace in a decade or two, there is a lot of testing and refinement that will have to be completed until people will be comfortable submitting to these new ‘robosurgeons’.

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Computer’s appearance on Jeopardy! More than just a numbers game (Jan 13, 2011)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/computers-appearance-on-jeopardy-more-than-just-a-numbers-game/article1869475/

An A.I. computer program faced-off against two of Jeopardy’s top human competitors (including champion Ken Jennings) in a preview round, in advance of appearing on the show. The A.I. narrowly beat its two human competitors. Beyond the obvious task of being able to search through massive stores of information quickly to find appropriate answers, those who created Watson (the A.I. program) had to include sophisticated natural language processing: the ability for the agent to understand English statements.

I’ve read a number of articles about this match recently, but I found this one to be the most concise and widely encompassing of the various AI issues involved.

More information can be found on IBM’s website: http://www.research.ibm.com/deepqa/index.shtml

Here is a clip from the preview round:

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Computer Beats Human at Japanese Chess For First Time (Oct 12, 2010)

http://gizmodo.com/5661796/computer-beats-human-at-japanese-chess-for-first-time
A program called Akara 2010 has beaten a top Shogi (Japanese Chess) champion in Japan.

Some people who are not that familiar with AI might still have heard of Deep Blue’s chess victory over chess world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Although computers know the outcome of every checkers game before a move has been made, and can beat chess champions, other games, such as shogi, and more obviously Go, still pose a challenge to non-human competitors. I will explain why this is soon…

I’ve read and bookmarked a number of online articles related to A.I. over the past couple of years, and thought I would link to some of them periodically as a way to show some of the real-world applications and developments that are going on. Not all are recent, but I will include the publication dates where possible. Most of the articles relate to A.I. directly, while others describe associated and related fields such as robotics, automation, transhumanism, and philosophy.

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Computer Program Self-Discovers Laws of Physics (April 2, 2009)

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/newtonai/

A program was able to come up with the laws of physics (as mathematical equations) when given a simple list of mathematical operators (probably just +,-,*,/, maybe sin & cos, but the article doesn’t say) and the raw data related to the motion of a number of objects. It accomplished this using a genetic algorithm and performing mathematical regression on the data.

I will discuss genetic algorithms and evolutionary computation more generally in a blog post soon. For now, rest assured that they are fascinating

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Mars Rover Receives AI, Thinks for Itself (March 24, 2010)

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/JPL-NASA-Mars-Rover,news-6243.html

Mars Rover “Opportunity” was transmitted a firmware update (programming update to it’s hardware) that allows it to identify and photograph objects on it’s own based on criteria chosen by scientists.

We now have intelligent machines on other worlds. It’s only a matter of time before rovers will be able to adjust the criteria for choice themselves as well.

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Alien hunters ‘should look for artificial intelligence’ (August 22, 2010)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11041449

S.E.T.I. (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is a project that has long combed the sky for signs of alien life, usually listening for radio or other signals. This article makes the very interesting claim that looking for signs of biological life might not be the most fruitful approach. Given how long it took us to evolve as a species (millions of years), versus how long it is taking us to move from the ability to broadcast into the sky (50 years ago) and then develop intelligent machines, it is far more likely that we would be able to make contact with the artificial successors of alien races.

One of the most interesting articles I’ve ever read. This idea has crossed my mind before, but I think watching Star Trek will do that do anyone. I highly recommend reading the original article.

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Computer program deciphers a dead language that mystified linguists (June 30, 2010)

http://io9.com/5576734/computer-program-deciphers-a-dead-language-that-mystified-linguists

A computer program deciphered an ancient language in a matter of hours with a relatively high degree of accuracy. Previously, the same language was translated by researchers over a period of years (decades? – article is a bit vague).