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Do Artificial Intelligence Chatbots look like their programmers?
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Andrew Orlowski
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Do pets eventually resemble their owners? Or do owners get to look like their pets? It’s heck of a conundrum – but one we might now be a little closer to solving. For the past fortnight it’s been hard to escape the animated faces of “Joan”, or “George” the graphical representations of what we’re told…
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The Emperor’s New AI
by
Andrew Orlowski
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“It looks like you’re trying to have a conversation with a computer – can I help? In the early 1970s, no science show was complete without predictions of HAL-like intelligent autonomous computers by the turn of the century. The Japanese, fearing their industrial base would collapse without a response to this omniscient technology, poured hundreds…
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Are Google’s glory days behind it? – Colly Myers
by
Andrew Orlowski
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Colly’s prognosis was sound. In December 2008, Google announced its intention to make “social search” a significant factor in its search results – the end of the hegemony of the algorithm. “It’s a well known aspect of man and machine systems. Complex systems with no control fall over. Every example of it you can think…
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Google vows to keep hoarding your porn queries
by
Andrew Orlowski
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“With so many people searching for keywords like murder, kill, suicide, etc., are we a mentally/emotionally sick nation?” writes a concerned AOLer at AOLSearchLogs.com, a forum that accompanies a searchable database of AOL user’s queries. Another AOLer moves swiftly to quell his concerns. “As a whole, no,” responds ‘Matthew’, with the confidence of a veterinary…
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AOL’s search logs: the ultimate “Database Of Intentions”
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Andrew Orlowski
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AOL Labs prompted a weekend of hyperventilation in the ‘blogosphere’ by publishing the search queries from 650,000 users. This mini-scandal may yet prove valuable, however, as it reveals an intriguing psychological study of the boundaries of what is considered acceptable privacy. In his turgid book on Google – one so obsequious and unchallenging that Google…
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Whatever happened to… the smartphone?
by
Andrew Orlowski
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At one time, the future of mobiles looked simple. The smartphone was a new kind of gadget that was subsuming the pager, the camera, the PDA, the Walkman, and almost every other iece of technology you could carry – and offering it in volume at an irresistible price. Often free. Over time, every phone would…