Look out, Hollywood screenwriters: the robots are coming for your jobs, too.
Cleverbot is an artificial intelligence robot that Internet users can converse with and, more frequently, troll until it says funny stuff. But one filmmaker, Chris Wilson, saw the creative potential in Cleverbot and decided to co-write a short film with it. It might just be the first movie written by a machine. Read More
A few days after Thanksgiving, some gangly punk tried to mug me as I stepped off the C train. My iPhone 4 flew up like a basketball toss and the screen cracked on the concrete. I managed shove him off, but short story shorter it was an excuse to upgrade and I am now the slightly lost owner of an iPhone 5 when Google Maps won’t load.
Naturally, the first thing I did after unboxing was fool around with Siri. Had Apple’s “intelligent assistant” inched any closer to artificial intelligence since it launched? Turns out, it’s still pretty easy to reach the limits of her utility, so the only thing left is to try to find questions that might serve up an Easter egg or human-ish response. Read More
Algorithms: They’re not just for Amazon recommendations and online dating anymore. The latest application, as per the New Scientist: Battling oriental fruit flies, a species that inspires the cold sweats in anyone who makes his livelihood on a fruit orchard.
These pests are a far more serious threat than the nuisances spawned by slovenly kitchen habits. They infest at least 230 different kinds of crops. The result? Rotten, maggot-infested fruit and crop losses that can add up to billions of dollars.
Luckily, scientists in Taiwan–where the bugs are a persistent problem–are working on a solution: Read More
