AI

This winter's Jeopardy match between Rutter, Jennings, and Watson is more evidence we are at the threshold of a new world where computers will take an even larger role. We've come a long way from the Eliza bot. I suspect this trend will continue, with the Jeopardy victory spurring along the next phase of development. I see the next phase moving AI entities, like Watson, onto the internet. The entities will be "powered" using spare compute cycles that are provided by overcapacity at data centers. These spare cycles will become cheaper and cheaper as more massive data centers come online and as Moore's Law continues to deliver more and more performance per watt. This overcapacity will allow the "bots" to "live off the fat-of-the-land."

I think the next phase of development will exist as internal computer structures first. This avoids solving problems in a different solution space (i.e. navigating physical reality.) For sure, there is demand for marrying the two (AI + robotics). Our collective imagination has already been primed by characters like Frankenstein (in literature), and from the first scifi film from 1927. "False Maria" from the film (Metropolis)
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set the stage for derivative characters like Jude Law's Gigilo Joe in AI. The Jeopardy match would have been more satisfying if Watson could've appeared on the set as a self-contained entity, instead of as a screen connected to a room full of computers. The requirement to read and interpret the physical world means that type of character is a bit farther off, but the pure artificially intelligent character, such as the HAL 9000 is on the doorstep now. We'll have to wait just a bit longer for Moore's Law to catch up with our expectations for the full simulation.

I was thinking about this because I rewatched Catfish this week. That movie makes you start to question what is real and what really constitutes a relationship. It's only one step further along if the human element is removed entirely. In the future you may not know if your "friends" on Facebook are just super-enhanced "Eliza" bots. Be on your toes out there!
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Here are some more notable AI characters off the top of my head:

• CDS-101 in The Terminator


• Anna Kalmann in Johnny Mnemonic


• Minuet in Star Trek, TNG. Obviously, Data, too.

p.s. I just remembered that this week is a red-letter date in scifi history. Skynet became self aware on April 21, 2011. Something happened a "microsecond" later.