Machine Thinks, Therefore It Is
A new type of thinking machine that could completely change how people interact with computers is being developed at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories.
Over the past five years, a team led by Sandia cognitive psychologist Chris Forsythe has been working on creating intelligent machines: computers that can accurately infer intent, remember prior experiences with users, and allow users to call upon simulated experts to help them analyze problems and make decisions.
Forsythe's team was originally trying to create a "synthetic human" -- software capable of thinking like a person -- for use in national defense.
The thinking software was to create profiles of specific political leaders or entire populations. Once programmed, the synthetic human(s) could, along with analytic tools, predict potential responses to various hypothetical situations.
But along the way, the experiment took a different turn.
Forsythe needed help with the software, and asked some of the programmers in Sandia's robot lab for assistance. The robotics researchers immediately saw that the technology could be used to develop intelligent machines, and the research's focus quickly morphed from creating computerized people to creating computers that can help people by acting more like them.
Synthetic humans are still a big part of the Sandia cognitive machines project, but researchers have now extended their idea of what the technology can and will ultimately be used for.
"We would like to advance the field of simulation, and particularly simulations involving synthetic humans, to the point that it becomes a practical tool that can be used by anyone to answer a wide range of everyday questions," said Forsythe.
But fear not -- this is not a new incarnation of Clippy the paperclip, Microsoft's much maligned "helper application."
