Cue the John Williams theme and roll the vanishing intro – Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi-training droids have arrived on the International Space Station (ISS). Or at least David Miller's versions have arrived. The free-floating spheres are set to test new concepts for "smart" satellites. Able to fly in precision formation, the robots may one day hold the key to building everything from huge space telescopes that can peer deeply into the universe to constellations of small, cheap satellites that can monitor changes on Earth. The shuttle Discovery last week brought the second of three droids that are undergoing experiments as they arrive.

For the past two decades or so, we have been involved with the design and development of numerous Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in Hong Kong. These expert systems deal with AI scheduling, optimization, or rostering. This site contains success stories of various AI systems developed for a wide variety of industries in Hong Kong, such as transportation, government, health, and food. These operations research (OR) related problems are solved using advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithms and techniques combined with robust and scalable fault-tolerant architectures. Many large corporations in Hong Kong depend on our AI technology to streamline their day-to-day operations and maximize their productivity and quality of service/product - companies like the MTR, Immigration Department, Hospital Authority, etc. Watch how MTR uses AI, developed by Dr. Chun, to schedule the precious "golden 2 hours" for the critical RailGen 2.0 project.

Do they really not have any understanding of the differences between the role of money and the role of deep analysis of problems combined with careful research and experiment to find good solutions? Insofar as many of those ministers have university degrees, I suppose that is just another manifestation of the inadequacies of the educational policies of previous governments, alongside the inadequacies of the processes of selection of ministers? There are four concepts of freewill (two of them incoherent and the other two compatible with determinism). Why Asimov's "laws of robotics" are unethical. Why Computing Education has Failed and How to Fix it Comments on the NHS IT disaster and suggestions for an alternative approach.

Any sci-fi buff knows that when computers become self-aware, they ultimately destroy their creators. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Terminator, the message is clear: The only good self-aware machine is an unplugged one. We may soon find out whether that's true. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is accepting research proposals to create the first system that actually knows what it's doing. The "cognitive system" DARPA envisions would reason in a variety of ways, learn from experience and adapt to surprises.

For example, type the question, Automated language translation is it an idea whose time has come? Now do the same with this sentence: Reboot your computer and try again. Youll wind up with this: Their computer and attempt still again load. Language translation software isnt likely to allow you to lay off your bilingual staffers at least not right away. But applied with discrimination and lots of preparation, translation tools can be fantastic productivity aids.

Jan Krikke After 50 years of research and tinkering, machine translation might be ready to compete with human translators. Several companies have announced breakthroughs or substantial progress in MT research in recent months. In January, for example, Steven Klein, CEO of New York-based Meaningful Machines, announced that his company successfully tested new translation algorithms that he says could lead to translation engines replacing human translators. "While our current prototype is already outperforming other systems on limited resources," says Klein, "we expect to see significant improvement to our quality as both the target language corpus and the dictionary continue to increase in size, with a realistic goal of reaching human quality." "Although the prototype is only partially complete," says Klein, "we recently began blind testing from Spanish to English, and our system is already performing at higher quality levels on the BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy) scale than any system we are aware of--0.6092. Systran, whose Spanish-to-English system is one of the best, scored a 0.5494 when we ran it through the same test, and the Systran system has been through many decades of development and incremental improvements." Meaningful Machines' test has not been independently verified, and the goal of reaching near-human quality translation will probably depend on some degree of pre- and post-editing for years to come. But, the growing number of global corporations (such as Philips, Samsung, and HP) and international agencies and institutions (such as the UN and the European Commission) using the technology illustrates that machine translation--the first nonnumerical application of AI--is finally delivering practical solutions. Popular perception of MT has suffered from low-quality "gisting" translation that Web-based translation engines, such as Babelfish and other online services, generate. But MT engines designed for limited domains, and tailor-made systems that use controlled language, are already delivering services. The site makes available a wealth of information previously inaccessible to non-Japanese speakers. MT has also made it to the desktop. The system is self-learning--it improves over time as its associative memory grows.

Software with increasingly complex algorithms are now writing news stories and financial reports The L.A. Times uses Quakebot to write about tremors, using data from the US Geological Survey. Chicago-based company Narrative Science markets its Quill software to media and financial houses The company's chief scientists believes a computer program could win a Pulitzer Prize within the next 5 years The L.A. Times uses Quakebot to write about tremors, using data from the US Geological Survey. The company's chief scientists believes a computer program could win a Pulitzer Prize within the next 5 years At large news agencies where speed is crucial, template-style stories have long been used for company results, allowing journalists to simply key in the relevant facts and numbers and fire off the dispatch. Often disparagingly referred to as'churnalism,' some of the larger media organisations -- including the L.A. Times and Associated Press -- have now turned to robots to take the grind out of formulaic dispatches. The L.A. Times uses the algorithms in its in-house software -- called Quakebot - to produce reports on local earthquakes, using data provided by the US Geological Survey.

Meet Spot, the 160 lbs dog robot that can run, climb stairs and has an uncanny ability to maintain its balance. Designed by robotics company Boston Dynamics, there were heated discussions online when Google bought the company in 2013, with accusations that Google had gone against its "Don't be evil" motto by purchasing a company that had worked with the U.S. military and had close ties with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Google motto 2004: Don't be evil Google motto 2010: Evil is tricky to define Google motto 2013: We make military robots But more recently, the conversation flared up again, most of it stemming from the video released this week showing Boston Dynamics employees trying to kick Spot over in order to show how robust it is. The video spread around the Internet like wildfire and raised questions about ethics, the future of robotics and Google's intentions. As robots begin to act and look more and more like living things, it's increasingly hard not to see them in that way.

Navy leaders have spoken about the push to develop more autonomous and intelligent unmanned systems The Navy's push comes despite critics expressing increasing alarm at further automating drones The Navy's push comes despite critics expressing increasing alarm at further automating drones Washington (CNN)The Navy is looking to increase its use of drones that are more and more independent of direct human control despite the concerns of alarmed scientists and inventors over increasing automation in the military. In recent days, Pentagon officials and Navy leaders have spoken about the program and the push to develop more autonomous and intelligent unmanned systems. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in a speech earlier this month confirmed that the United States was developing "self-driving boats which can network together to do all kinds of missions, from fleet defense to close-in surveillance, without putting sailors at risk." And Rear Adm. Robert P. Girrier, the Navy's director of Unmanned Warfare Systems, discussed the effort at a January event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The drive is being dubbed "human machine teaming," which uses unmanned vehicles that are more independent than those piloted or supervised by human operators.

If something can connect to a network, it can be hacked. Computers and phones are still popular targets, but increasingly so are cars, home security systems, TVs and even oil refineries. That was the message at this year's Black Hat and DefCon computer security conferences, which took place last week in Las Vegas. The annual conferences draw a mix of computer researchers and hackers who present the latest bugs and vulnerabilities they've discovered. These are some of the more popular targets covered at this year's conferences.