(Photo: Cleverbot)

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.

Mr. Wilson chatted back and forth with Cleverbot in order to tease out the dialogue for the script. Some of the character names also came from Cleverbot--the lead is called "Stomach," for instance, 'cuz Cleverbot is sassy like that. The title of the short, "Do You Love Me?", also came from the surprisingly emo mind of Cleverbot.

As smart as Cleverbot is, though, it's gleefully unaware that it co-wrote a movie. "Your movie is great!" we told it. "Get your hand off my mouth?" it responded. Okay then.

(h/t Laughing Squid)

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.  

Judging by a recent job listing, Apple seems to be wise to that mode of interaction. 9to5 Mac found an add for a creative writer who could, "help the Siri team evolve Siri as a distinct, recognizable character."

"We’re looking for a uniquely creative individual to help us evolve and enrich Siri, our virtual personal assistant. Siri’s known for ‘her’ wit, cultural knowledge, and zeal to explain things in engaging, funny, and practical ways. The ideal candidate is someone who combines a love for language, wordplay, and conversation with demonstrated experience in bringing creative content to life within an intense technical environment."

If you really want to amuse users, we might know one writer's room Cupertino should pillage.

Best without bugs. (Photo: flickr.com/violetmonde)

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:

In Taiwan, fruit fly populations are normally monitored using traps that are manually checked every 10 days. Cheng-Long Chuang and colleagues at the National Taiwan University in Taipei wanted to automate the counting process, so they placed infrared beams in the traps. Each trap records when the beam is broken, indicating that an oriental fruit fly has entered, attracted by a chemical designed to lure the insect. The results collected are sent via radio to a local station every 30 minutes, allowing real-time measurements of the population.

Cool, right? However, the next step sounds just a tiny bit like a Skynet for insects:

Part-funded by the Taiwanese government, the team have so far set up 240 traps on fruit farms around the country. Machine learning algorithms pool the continuous data arriving from each of these traps and predict when the local fruit fly population is about to explode.

When conditions go critical, government officials get a heads up via text message, allowing them to deploy insecticide.

We can't help but be a little concerned at the thought of an unfriendly artificial intelligence targeting creatures that a) spread rapidly and b) wreak havoc on the environment around them. Somebody better give the Singularitarians the bad news.