Japanese rocket engineers hope to outfit their launchers with an artificial intelligence capable of controlling its own body and launch. Current modern rockets are automated, but don't feature many decision-making algorithms.

Modern rockets have some degree of automation, as well as onboard sensors that inform engineers on the ground about trajectory, malfunctions and so on. But the setup is rather like a "check engine" light in a car that alerts the driver to an unspecified problem and neither offers nor implements a solution.

While the recent earthquake and tsunami might delay implementation, the new AI rockets, dubbed Epsilon, are slated for a 2013 maiden launch.

An AI-controlled rocket contains many obvious benefits, notably efficiency and cost. Once launched, modern rockets are usually controlled by a Mission Control Room staffed by dozens of people. If anything unusual happens, there's often a delay in the decision making process, and then ...

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Before the New York Times pay wall goes up on March 28th, check out this quirky little game they have on their website. Basically, you're playing Rock-Paper-Scissors against a computer, and as you play the AI tries to statistically "learn" your patterns. So theoretically, the more you play, the worse you'll do...right?

The NY Times offers two levels, Novice and Veteran.  In Novice, the computer will only learn from your actions. In Veteran, it uses the knowledge of all players against you.

Check it out and see for yourself. I played several games and it totally kicked my butt.

A company called Wonga.com in Great Britain uses a software algorithm to accept or reject loan applications. The program scours the internet for any information on loan applicants in order to make a decision. Like most AI, Wonga's proprietary software benefits from being cold, clean and unbiased.

This is an interesting story on two counts...first, as an example of the increasing power of software to make intelligence decisions...and second, an illustration to the vast amounts of personal information we probably all have online. 

The company is one of the first to actually use the countless streams of data available to financial institutions in real time. Potential loan applicants basically visit the Wonga site and then choose the amount they wish to borrow and for how long. The maximum borrowing period is 31 days, making these loans analogous somewhat to a credit card loan.

Wonga's loan ...

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The 2010 A.M. Turing Award has been announced and the recipient is Harvard professor Leslie Valiant. The Turing Award is basically considered equivalent to a Nobel Prize in computing. The prize is named after the famed British mathematician Alan M. Turing.

Geeky readers will recognize Turing's name, of course. He was a brilliant homosexual scientist responsible for breaking Nazi codes in World War II. He was also instrumental in building one of the world's first stored-program computers. Turing was later prosecuted by Britain for his homosexuality and forced to take female enzymes in an attempt to cure him. He later died of cyanide poisoning. The British government only recently formally apologized in 2009 for Turing’s treatment.

Turing is most famous for developing the Turing Test for Artificial Intelligence. In essence, the Turing Test is a language test. A human engages in a natural conversation with an ...

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The New York Times has a great article summarizing current trends in AI spreading throughout the economy. Computer AI has become so advanced that it's now starting to replace and automate higher-level jobs. Case in point, back in 1978 a lawsuit against CBS forced the company to spend $2.2 million to hire a team of lawyers and paralegals to sift through 6 million documents for several months.

Fast-forward to today.  In January 2011, a company called Blackstone Discovery in Palo Alto, helped analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000 and, of course, taking FAR less time.

Some law bloggers have noted the difficulty for recent law graduates to find jobs, noting that perhaps the trend is due to the bursting of a higher education bubble combined with the current economy. That probably is also the case, but this truly cost-cutting technology probably foreshadows that those ...

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As many techno-philes are aware, the TED conference is currently underway this week in Long Beach, California. While we're awaiting the latest batch of inspiring TED videos, Google has given attendees a treat...the opportunity to ride in a self-driving Prius.  

Google declared back in the October 2010 that their stated goal was to free up human productivity by eliminating their need to drive. In addition, they hope to take crucial steps towards a fully-implemented automated driving system that would increase safety by leaps and bounds. Obviously, being a drunk matters not at all if your car does the driving all by itself.

One of the unique aspects of Google's automated car project is that it isn't funded or incentivized by DARPA or any other agency.  This is Google acting on its own. 

Here are some of the latest videos released.  In the video, Google emphasizes that ...

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University of Arizona researchers are working with the Department of Homeland Security on an Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real-Time...which is their torturous way to use the acronym AVATAR to describe their system.  

Avatar's job will simply be to detect lies by scanning your facial features.  In particular, the machine will detect eye dilation and eye movement, two signs of lying.  A microphone will listen to what you say, but also how you say it.  The new machine currently is undergoing tests.  

We at Logic-Cool are airport security skeptics in light of the highly invasive procedures now in place. TSA has yet to announce the successful prevention of any terrorist attacks, nor have they ever arrested a single terrorist in all the years of its operation. They have reported success in finding smuggled drugs.

Ladies and gentemen, I present Avatar:

I'm a bit late noticing this development, but better late than never. The U.S. military's premiere research agency DARPA wants two new kinds of robots: one that can run faster than the fastest humans and another one agile.  Wired has a good article as well.

The winner of the contract is Boston Dynamic, a spin-off company from MIT that began building robots that can maneuver like animals.  They will base the first robot off a cheetah and the second will be humanoid.

The CHEETAH will not only be able to chase down human targets, but will be a rescue "animal" as well...able to turn sharp corners, highly uneven landscapes and even potentially running into burning buildings to rescue people caught in a fire. 

TRANSCENDENT MAN chronicles the life and revolutionary ideas of genius inventor Ray Kurzweil. Due to the overwhelming positive response to his movie, TRANSCENDENT MAN will be available on iTune and Movie on Demand starting March 1st.

Ain't it Cool News says about this movie, "not only is Transcendent Man the must-see film of 2011, it might just change your life forever." The film has already ranked in the Top 10 of iTunes sales in Canada on its first day of release.

Ray Kurzweil was the subject of the recent Times article "2045: The Year Humans Become Immortal."  Logic-Cool also loves showcasing his work, here and here.  In the latter link, you will find a schedule of TRANSCENDENT MAN's movie showings.

The Speculist, a longstanding blog dedicated to Futurism, posted an excellent article today about IBM's supercomputer Watson and what it means for employment and jobs.

IBM has already declared their intention to move Watson into helping doctors diagnose disease and then into customer service.  However, Watson's exorbitant price tag of $100 million dollars means he's isn't a very profitable investment for businesses right now.

However, the cost of computing halves every 18 months.  This means in a decade, Watson will cost only ~$780,000.  In 15 years, he'll cost less than $100,000.  

Basically in little over 10 years, if you run a business and you replace 20 workers who make $40,000 dollars/year, not only will you get their labor value, but as Speculist writer Stephen Gordon comments, Watson never sleeps, can work 24/7 (triple the shift work of each human), never ...

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Now that the mild-toned Watson has demonstrated his dominance of Jeopardy, what comes next? IBM executives have entered discussions with major corporations to answer that exact question. In the near future, when you call in for technical support, the "person" you hear might be Watson instead of a worker in India.  I bet when many readers were watching Watson pwn on Jeopardy they didn't think his story would have much relevance to them.  Think again.  You might just run into Watson in some unexpected places. 

Watson's very first assignment will be to help doctors diagnose patients. The skills displayed on Jeopardy are actually highly transferable to a medical setting.  Doctors need to collect a list of symptoms and then come up with a possible diagnosis.  Now, Watson will help them.

The A.I. will next appear at help desks in stores or on the phone at technical support ...

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Japan's space agency JAXA has announced plans to send a robot companion to the International Space Station who will provide "comfort and companionship" to lonely astronauts and use Twitter to communicate with the ground. When it's not chatting up a storm, the Japanese android will be responsible for creepily watching the astronauts while they sleep, as well as monitoring their health and anxiety levels. 

Dear Japan, as a frequent consumer of your culture (particularly Anime) I know you're capable of making the robot look like this.

Please don't make it look like this. Here in America, this is the best we can do.

Well, fellow humans, Day 3 has come and gone. IBM's Watson artificial intelligence has utterly crushed both human Jeopardy champions Kenn Jennings and Brad Rutter, and there was no John Conner to save them. The final scores read Watson $77,147, Ken Jennings $24,000 and Brad Rutter $21,600.

IBM plans to donate all of Watson's winnings to charity. We've been following Watson's journey at Logic-Cool with great interest, here, here and here. In other little known news, IBM will turn 100 this June.

IBM's Watson artificial intelligence steamrolled his mortal opponents in the 2nd round of this 3 day match. Yesterday, was a tie. However, the mellow-voiced supercomputer flabbergasted his human rivals and the host by betting cryptic dollar values, such as $6,435, to which Alex Trebek responded, "I won't ask."

Alas, humankind put up a good fight...now on to world domination. Watch and weep, fellow humans.

IBM's "Watson" artificial intelligence tied with human contestant Brad Rutter on the 1st day of a three-day match on Jeopardy with a score of $5,000. Trailing behind, Ken Jennings finished the 1st round with $2000. Jennings had previously won 74 consecutive Jeopardy matches, as well as beating Watson in the practice match leading up to the face-off. The two men had faced off with Watson previously back in January also.

Watson displayed in impressive knowledge of Beatles songs, but displayed some errors, sometimes repeating wrong answers from the previous players. Unfortunately, the erstwhile A.I. has no ability to hear the human players, so he isn't able to take their incorrect answers into account. I'm sure he would have "terminated" them otherwise.

Time Magazine has published an extensive article about the genius Ray Kurzweil and the Singularity. The Singularity is often referred to as "Rapture for Nerds". The definition that I use for the Singularity is that its the point at which computer intelligence becomes equal to human intelligence. After this point in history, technological progress will become so rapid that most fields of science will converge and bring about all kinds of technological goodies considered blasphemous to many in today's society...such as incredibly-long human life and AI-enhanced human intelligence, to name just two.

The idea doesn't come without controversy. Many fear the Singularity will bring something like Skynet into existence. Mr. Kurzweil has published some corrections to the Time article here.

Ray Kurzweil currently has a little movie on tour called TRANSCENDENT MAN. If interested, look in the link to see if there's a screening near you.

This is a question that new experiments and business ventures seek to answer. A group of journalists and computer scientists are using Amazon's Mechanical Turk outsourcing engine to see if, in essence, a robot can produce a human-quality piece of journalism. You can read about their efforts at My Boss is a Robot.

Meanwhile, a new startup CrowdCloud seeks to create a commercial version throug Servio which would allow companies to buy freshly-written blog posts and other creative content.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk is a crowdsourcing internet marketplace that allows computer programmers to request the performance of certain tasks by a large community of potential human workers. Participant workers can have an an address anywhere in the world and are paid through Amazon store credit which can later be transferred to a U.S. bank account.

Dubbed "Blue Devil" and costing $211 million, the envisioned super blimp will be 7 times larger than the Goodyear blimp at 350 feet in length, and will hover in the air 4 miles in altitude for a week at a time. Quite honestly, the U.S. military should know better than to name a project Blue Devil against a religiously motivated foe. Other than that, the Wired article segues nicely into our Logic-Cool discussion post here. Unable to field enough manpower to analyze all of Blue Devil's incoming data, instead the military intends to use 2,000 single core servers to help process their intelligence and transmit it to soldiers in the field in under 15 seconds. The first flight is currently scheduled for October 15. 

Okay, not really, but here's an interesting article on Pop-Sci exploring the increasing responsibilities over life and death we are giving to robots.

This topic is a continual debate that we, as a society, will be forced to have over the next few decades. Warzone robots currently have the most autonomy, but the kill-order usually must still come from a human. Expect this to change in the years to come, as the U.S. suffers increasing budgetary woes. As the article states, each Predator drone requires a team of 68 personnel, most of them to analyze the massive amounts of incoming data.  But, down the road, if the Predator itself could distinguish an enemy...and gain kill authority...you've just saved on the salaries of 68 people and opened a nice, big Pandora's box.  Or opened it wider rather.

Poorer nations desperate to gain a military advantage ...

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I feel this is a pretty big story, but more like a continuation of an inevitable trend than any kind of news scoop. Three companies from around the world are now offering robots capable of some secretarial work.  

Why buy a robot? Easy. No healthcare, no vacation, no sick days, no sexual harassment lawsuits (from the hot female robots), no goofing off on Facebook or fantasy football...oh yeah and I almost forgot...no salary.  Robots do require regular maintenance though. 

On January 28th, Tokyo-based Kawada Industries will offer to research institutions and universities their newest model HRP-4, a robot that can recognize faces, deliver mail and pour coffee. Mind-blowing, yes...and at the paltry cost of only $350,000. The amount might seem like much, but keep in mind human employees usually cost a huge portion of money over their salary to employ. Also, searching for and training new ...

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