By Thomas Hayden. If visionaries like Asimov may have been wrong about the timing, they were right to predict a bright robotic future. Indeed, robots of various stripes seem to be popping, whirring, buzzing, and gliding up just about everywhere. Very practical-minded bots are at work in the real world right now, exploring distant planets, assisting with precision surgery, and locating deadly land mines. The term was first used in 1956 and, after fifty years of research into AI programming techniques, the dream of smart machines is becoming reality.
Systems exist that mimic human thought, understand speech, and beat the best chess masters.
Military applications are, naturally, classified. A list the men and women whose longterm contributions to AI have placed them among this honored group. This could be a good place for you to find a speaker or interviewee in your area. Known as Remote Agent, the software operated NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft and its futuristic ion engine during two experiments that started on Monday, May 17, 1999. The tests were a step toward robotic explorers of the 21st century that are less costly, more capable and more independent from ground control.