Government
A Question of Responsibility
In 1940, a 20-year-old science fiction fan from Brooklyn found that he was growing tired of stories that endlessly repeated the myths of Frankenstein and Faust: Robots were created and destroyed their creator; robots were created and destroyed their creator; robots were created and destroyed their creator-ad nauseum. So he began writing robot stories of his own. "[They were] robot stories of a new variety," he recalls. "Never, never was one of my robots to turn stupidly on his creator for no purpose but to demonstrate, for one more weary time, the crime and punishment of Faust. My robots were machines designed by engineers, not pseudo-men created by blasphemers. My robots reacted along the rational lines that existed in their'brains' from the moment of construction. " In particular, he imagined that each robot's artificial brain would be imprinted with three engineering safeguards, three Laws of Robotics: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law. The young writer's name, of course, was Isaac Asimov (1964), and the robot stories he began writing that year have become classics of science fiction, the standards by which others are judged. Indeed, because of Asimov one almost never reads about robots turning mindlessly on their masters anymore. But the legends of Frankenstein and Faust are subtle ones, and as the world knows too well, engineering rationality is not always the same thing as wisdom. M Mitchell Waldrop is a reporter for Science Magazine, 1333 H Street N.W., Washington D C. 2COO5. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Artificial Intelligence Research in Progress at the Courant Institute, New York University
Davis, Ernest, Grishman, Ralph
Although the group at System Development Corp. (Paoli, Pennsylvania), techniques being studied should be widely applicable, we are with each group responsible for certain aspects of system specifically developing a system to understand paragraphlength design. Our groups are jointly responsible for integration of messages about equipment failures, with the aim of the next-generation text-processing system as part of the Defense summarizing each failure and assessing its impact. Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Several laboratory prototypes have been constructed for Computing Program (Grishman and Hirschman 1986). We aim to improve on these earlier a small question-answering system that answers simple systems through a combination of two techniques: the use of English queries about a student transcript database This system detailed domain knowledge to verify and complete our linguistic is used for teaching and as a preliminary test bed for analyses and the use of "forgiving" algorithms that some of our linguistic analysis techniques. Participants: Ralph Grishman (faculty); Tomasz Ksiezyk, To guide the development of our system, we selected a Ngo Thank Nhan, Michael Moore, and John Sterling corpus of messages describing the failure of one particular piece of equipment, a starting air compressor.
Artificial Intelligence Research and Applications at the NASA Johnson Space Center, Part Two
This is the second part of a two-part article describing AI work at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). In the Space Operations Directorate, these groups include (1) the Mission Planning and Analysis Division (MPAD) - Technology Development and Applications Branch, (2) the Spacecraft Software Division, and (3) the Systems Division - Systems Support Section. This second part of the article describes the AI work in the Space Operations Directorate. The first part of the article, published in the last week of AI Magazine, (7:1, Summer 1986) described the AI work in the Research and Engineering Directorate.
Artificial Intelligence Research and Applications at the NASA Johnson Space Center, Part Two
This is the second part of a two-part article describing AI work at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). Research and applications work in AI is being conducted by several groups at JSC. These are primarily independent groups that interact with each other on an informal basis. In the Research and Engineering Directorate, these groups include (1) the Artificial Intelligence and Information Sciences Office, (2) the Simulation and Avionics Integration Division, (3) the Avionics Systems Division, and (4) the Tracking and Communications Division. In the Space Operations Directorate, these groups include (1) the Mission Planning and Analysis Division (MPAD) - Technology Development and Applications Branch, (2) the Spacecraft Software Division, and (3) the Systems Division - Systems Support Section. This second part of the article describes the AI work in the Space Operations Directorate. The first part of the article, published in the last week of AI Magazine, (7:1, Summer 1986) described the AI work in the Research and Engineering Directorate.
Research in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Pennsylvania
This report describes recent and continuing research in artificial intelligence and related fields being conducted at the University of Pennsylvania. Although AI research takes place primarily in the Department of Computer and Information Science ( in School of Engineering and Applied Science), many aspects of this research are preformed in collaboration with other engineering departments as well as other schools at the University, such as the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Medicine, and Wharton School.
The Wager
The Portrait Programs Project grew out of hyperinterdisciplinarianism of the famed Gigabase Sculpture Group, in turn stimulated by recent cutbacks in government support for the arts. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation had jointly funded the Gigabase Sculpture Project to foster the literary/musical genre of composing genetic codes for novel organisms. Later, artists trained in recombinant DNA technology designed massive Brancusi-esque statues of living cytoplasmic jelly. However, Art For Art's Sake objectives of these giblet sculptors were compromised by precautions necessary after discovery of the "Gogol's-Theorem Bomb" that threatened to get loose and jam all DNA replication in the biosphere; not even viruses would have survived.
Artificial Intelligence Research and Applications at the NASA Johnson Space Center: Part One
Research and applications work in AI is being conducted by several groups at Johnson Space Center (JSC). In the Research and Engineering Directorate, these groups include (1) the Artificial Intelligence and Information Sciences Office, (2) the Simulation and Avionics Integration Division, (3) the Avionics Systems Division (ASD), and (4) the Tracking and Communications Division. In the Space Operations Directorate, these groups include (1) the Mission Planning and Analysis Division - Technology Development and Applications Branch, (2) the Spacecraft Software Division, and (3) the Systems Division-Systems Support Section. The first part of the article describes the AI work in Research and Engineering Directorate.
Research and Development Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence: Report on the U.S. and Japanese Panel, IJCAI-85
The consensus of government, academic, and industry leaders widely supports the strategic positioning of U.S. and Japanese research and development in mutually beneficial, two-way flows of innovation. This report is derived from the IJCAI panel titled U.S and Japanese Cooperation in AI and R&D Opportunities, held August 23, 1986 at the University of California at Los Angeles. This panel discussed the sensitive topic of alternatives to nationalistic competitive strategies that have contributed to an extreme trade deficit surpassing $40 billion in 1986. The ideas offered by the panelists shed light on ways our countries' respective scientific communities can blend talents to achieve the best results in reducing trade frictions. Each country has designated AI research as a key to unlock years of generations of technology and has directed billions of dollars to fund this development. The most recognized projects are the U.S. Microelectronics Technology Computer Consortium (MCC) and Japan's Fifth Generation Computer Project (ICOT). Although noting the obstacles, the panelists encouraged specific, shared efforts to ensure the development of a closer working relationship to explore AI's benefits.