Artificial intelligence enters world of avatars
| May 19, 2008 |  View for printing |
Edd Hifeng barely merits a second glance in ''Second Life.'' A steel-gray robot with lanky limbs and linebacker shoulders, he looks like a typical avatar in the popular virtual world.
But Edd is different.
His actions are animated not by a person at a keyboard but by a computer. Edd is a creation of artificial intelligence, or A.I., researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who endowed him with a limited ability to converse and reason. It turns out ''Second Life'' is more than a place where pixelated avatars chat, interact and fly about. It's also a frontier in A.I. research because it's a controllable environment where testing intelligent creations is easier.
By Michael Hill The Associated Press
Full Story: http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_9306286
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