And with a tidbit for my knowledge newsbytes...
(Thanks for this tip goes to Rafat Ali and his PaidContent NewsWire.)
RED HERRING | The Business of Technology | The invisible secretary
SRI explores the idea of a thinking computer - for soldiers.
...SRI International is using a $22 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop new technology that could replace people with machines. In this case, the carbon-based forms in danger are secretaries.
Like any living, breathing American secretary, this digital creation has to understand English, answer the phone, schedule meetings, and reply to email. (No running out for Krispy Kremes just yet.) The assistant, much like a school child, is expected to learn over time and pass exams each year. ...
"It's the largest artificial intelligence project every funded by DARPA," says Mr. Cheyer. "We are going to bring together about 150 of the world's top artificial intelligence experts here to create a software system that will make fewer errors, be more flexible, and have the ability to learn," he says. "It's a really different way of working." SRI hopes to integrate a number of different AI programs including an email assistant, a scheduling assistant, a Web master assistant, and a space-planning assistant, into a sort of Microsoft Office-like suite of intelligent applications. ...
Language is one of the toughest pieces of the puzzle. "One reason language is difficult is the enormous amount of common sense reasoning behind a sentence," says Mr. Cheyer, "as well as social cues such as intonation. There is simply too much information." ...
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