February 14, 2003:
Artificial worlds used to unlock secrets of real human interaction. Cornell News.

"What do flocks of birds, traffic jams, fads, drinking games, forest fires and residential segregation have in common? The answer could come from a new computational research method called agent-based modeling. Michael Macy, a sociologist at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is using this powerful new tool to look for elementary principles of self-organization that might shed new light on long-standing puzzles about how humans interact. ... He credits Craig Reynolds, a pioneer of agent modeling and three-dimensional computer animation, for the 1987 discovery that the complex choreography of a flock requires that each bird (or 'boid,' as Reynolds called them) follow just three simple rules: head toward the center of your neighbors, match their speed and trajectory and avoid collisions. ... Traditionally, sociologists have tried to understand social life as a structured system of institutions and norms that shape individual behavior from the top down, Macy notes. In contrast, agent modelers suspect that much of social life emerges from the bottom up, more like improvisational jazz than a symphony."

February 11, 2003:
Beauty in the eye of the android. BBC.

"Artificial intelligence experts in Fife have unveiled a robotic head which they say can scientifically determine how attractive women are to men. But they have warned that it does not work in reverse because masculine appeal to women is not as likely to be based on looks alone. Specialists at Kirkcaldy-based Intelligent Earth company said that the head-shaped android was capable of calculating how 'feminine' or 'masculine' a person's face is. ... Managing director David Cumming said: 'The artificial intelligence technology we've developed here learns to recognise what sex someone is by drawing on its past experiences, in much the same way that the human brain learns when we are children.' ... The artificial intelligence firm received its first prototype of the robot, nicknamed Doki, last week and is now mass producing the android."

February 4, 2003:
Kasparov, supercomputer fight to stalemate. Islamic Republic News Agency ( IRNA)

"World's chess giant Gary Kasparov played a deliberately unconventional defense with the black pieces Sunday to force a draw with the supercomputer Deep Junior and keep their series level with two matches to play. ... 'I think we still have some time before being wiped out by machines,' a beaming Kasparov said. ... Kasparov was respectful of his rival ahead of the matchup, describing the program as dangerous, unpleasant and unpredictable, with near-human qualities."