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Is the world ready for the self-aware robot?

John Skillings CNET News.com

Published: 12 Apr 2005 19:25 BST

For early researchers in artificial intelligence who were out to play God, it turned out the devil was in the details.

Their efforts to re-create human intelligence in hardware and software have led to some very smart machines — just think of IBM's Deep Blue beating chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, whose genius for the game couldn't match the computer's high-speed calculations. But aside from that rarified skill, the machine would be no match for the average 3-year-old in figuring out how to get the best of a grown-up human.

The newer generation of AI researchers is taking a more humble approach to the cognitive conundrum, according to Anne Foerst, who's a rare combination of computer scientist and theologian — two types that don't always see eye to eye. They recognise, she says, that it is impossible to rebuild human intelligence in machine form even as they labour to build robots and other devices that mimic real-world skills.

In her new book, "God in the Machine: What Robots Teach Us About God and Humanity," Foerst draws on her experience at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to paint a picture of how people and robots can and should interact — and whether, at some point down the road from today's Aibo and Asimo contraptions, the human community might confer "personhood" on robots.

Foerst spent six years at MIT, where she broke ground with her class, "God and Computers", and now teaches at St. Bonaventure University in Oleans, New York. She spoke recently with ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com about changes in the field of AI, social learning for robots and the need for embodied intelligence — that is, the ability for thinking creatures, and machines, to interact with and survive in the real world.

Q: How does a theologian end up at the MIT AI Labs?
A: Even as a small child I was always fascinated with machines and building stuff, but then I got hooked on theology because I just think this is the most interesting field when you want to learn about human ambiguity and human frailty — the fun stuff to being human.

So I studied theology, but I had space to do something else and so I thought well, why not do a little bit of computer science? I went to MIT basically just to do research because that is where AI was founded. I met Rod Brooks (head of MIT's AI Lab) and a lot of other people — they really liked my research and they were surprised that I was not critical — I didn't attack them. But I could offer a very unique perspective because I was really studying why people are interested in AI, what they get out of that for themselves.