The Obama administration is planning a multiyear research effort to produce an "activity map" that would show in unprecedented detail the workings of the human,...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | February 26, 2013
Meeting Simon for the first time was one of the most sublime experiences I've had. With every coy head nod, casual hand wave and deep eye gaze, I felt he already...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | January 29, 2013
NASA's newest marvel, a one-ton rover named Curiosity, has been set down with all the delicacy of a carton of eggs on the surface of Mars.The New York Times From ACM Opinion | August 14, 2012
Late last summer, I was introduced to a new special someone. I wasn’t looking to meet this new muse; it all just kind of happened.The New York Times From ACM Opinion | July 16, 2012
The assignment was one of the biggest challenges in the field of artificial intelligence: build a computer smart enough to beat grand champions at the game of...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | January 9, 2012
A robot walks into a bar and says, "I’ll have a screwdriver." A bad joke, indeed. But even less funny if the robot says "Give me what’s in your cash register."...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | December 28, 2011
Jaron Lanier, a partner architect at Microsoft Research, has had a long and varied career in technology. Mr. Lanier popularized the term "virtual reality" in...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | May 23, 2011
It's been a banner year or so for artificial intelligence, from the recent triumph of I.B.M.'s Jeopardy-winning supercomputer to a wave of news coverage of the...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | March 10, 2011
To humans, computer intelligence is a puzzle, as if the machines have split personalities. They can be so remarkably smart at times, yet so bafflingly dumb at...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | March 7, 2011
In the category "What Do You Know?," for $1 million: This four-year-old upstart the size of a small R.V. has digested 200 million pages of data about everything...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | February 7, 2011
"I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions," said the search giant's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, in a recent and controversial...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | September 2, 2010
This constant stream of stories about artificial intelligence suggests that machines are becoming smart and autonomous, a new form of life, and that we should...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | August 9, 2010
On Wednesday I attended a Silicon Valley press conference dressed as a robot. Actually I was physically in New York City and virtually in Menlo Park, Calif. For...The New York Times From ACM Opinion | May 27, 2010