www.greatmindsworking.com

Researchers from IBM and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory say they have performed a computer simulation that matches the scale and complexity of a cat's brain, and project members from IBM and Stanford have developed an algorithm for mapping the human brain at new levels of detail. Eventually, scientists hope that detailed knowledge will help them build a computer that replicates the more complex working of a human brain.

Read more here.

Software that can solve any text-based CAPTCHA will be as much a milestone for artificial intelligence as it will be a problem for online security.

Promoters of artificial intelligence regularly describe the mind and brain as the software and hardware of thinking, writes Ari N. Schulman, an editor of the technology-and-ethics journal The New Atlantis. Also, they describe senses as inputs and behaviors as outputs neurons as processing units and synapses as circuitry.

In recent years the mushrooming power, functionality and ubiquity of computers and the Internet have outstripped early forecasts about technology's rate of advancement and usefulness in everyday life. Alert pundits now foresee a world saturated with powerful computer chips, which will increasingly insinuate themselves into our gadgets, dwellings, apparel and even our bodies.

In just over a day, a powerful computer program accomplished a feat that took physicists centuries to complete: extrapolating the laws of motion from a pendulum's swings. Developed by Cornell researchers, the program deduced the natural laws without a shred of knowledge about physics or geometry.

Well, its been over a year so I guess its time for a new post...

The TimesOnline brings news of this years Loebner Prize competition. Appears the machines are closing in on us.

Slashdot discussion may be found here.

Be sure to look for another new story here in 2009!

Yahoo News has posted this article entitled " Computer program can learn baby talk"

SCALE 5x, the 2007 Southern California Linux Expo will be held in Los Angeles, CA this weeken On Feb 9-11, 2007. It will include: 50+ seminars, 70+ exhibitors, BoFs, and more. Highlighted speakers will include Chris Dibona, Don Marti, Ted Haeger, Jono Bacon, and others. Exhibitors include: Dell, IBM, Verio, Redhat, GroundWork Open Source, ReactOS, Haiku OS, and PostgreSQL. One lucky attendee will win a Dual Xeon 1U Rackmount Server from Silicon Mechanics. Two other conference to be held on Friday Feb 9th include: Women In Open Source, and Open Source Health Care Summit.

SCALE 5X, the 2007 Southern California Linux Expo has opened for attendee registration. Early bird registration runs through January 24th. Join us for over 40 seminars and tutorials. Presentations from Chris Dibona, Ted Haeger, Don Marti, and more! Expo floor will include exhibits by IBM, Dell, Google, Krugle, Ingres, Trolltech, and others. SCALE 5x will be held in Los Angeles, CA on Feb 10-11, 2007.

Slashdot discussion of new DARPA Speech Translation Engine Project can be found here.