Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence once something that people thought could only come out

of science fiction novels and movies. But today that could all change because

of a robot called Cog. Cog is an artificial intelligence that it’s creators

have given a body. He is the future of AI and a new beginning for the field.

His creator , Rogney Brooks, a professor of electrical engineering and computer

science, thought of creating cog, from inspiration from an artificial

intelligence that was depicted in the movie, "2001:A Space Odyssey." In the

movie, Hal, the AI, controlled a large space craft. Instead of creating a brain

in a box like in the movie, Rodney is putting the mind of a human into the body

of a robot. Cog isn’t yet a true humanoid robot. Right now he is little more

that a head, neck , shoulders, chest and waist. He is perched on a gray steel

pedestal bolted to the floor of the Artificial intelligence lab at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Still no other machine has come closer

to the humanoid robots of science fiction. Cog foreshadows the day in which

robots will interact normally with us. Cog’s creators are trying to do just

that.

Cog is a very far cry from what HAL was thought, because he has some anatomy.

HAL was just basically a brain in a box. What they are trying to accomplish

with cog, is to equip a brain with a body, that has sensors so that it can learn

about its environment on its own, much like a infant does.

Creating a humanoid was a big leap for Brooks. His last venture in to the AI

world made a big impression on the artificial-Intelligence community. He

created small robots the scurried around like insects. It turns out though,

that these smal...

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...to adapt to unexpected barriers.

Cog is made of 16 Motorola 68332 chips, which are all together in an adjacent

room. He is also planned to receive 256 of these chips. Cog’s brain, even

thought not modeled after a human one, will be able to handle multiple functions

at once. Although it has vast amounts of computing power, cog will be

considered a great success if it reaches the intelligence level of a two-year

old child.

Cog is just the first step in humanoid-robots, and AI. It has started a new era

of computers and their uses. Some day because of the work this kind of work, we

may be able to own house hold robots that could talk to us and carry on a normal

conversation with us. This technology opens many doors that could lead

anywhere.

Bibliography:

Pope, Gregory T. "Creation of the Humanoids."

Popular Mechanics July. (1995) 39-42.