NewScientistTech has an article about new artificial intelligence software called “News at Seven” which can dynamically create a video news presentation based on real news it finds on the internet. (Watch A Sample Video Here). It can read over news stories, collect video clips and still images related to the story or topics in general and can then use those while an animated news agent presents the news…. anything from celebrity gossip to current world news headlines. The user is allowed to punch in their keywords of interest, the AI looks over websites to gather news related text, edits for length and content to allow for better verbal presentation, search sites like YouTube, Google Video, etc for related video and photo sites for still images, then finally puts it all together, with animated character and text-to-speech synthesis displays as totally customized news video for each viewer. This could easily become a feature of the next generation of TV, and the personalization that is given to focus on news each viewer is most interested in will be the key.

It seems like only yesterday when I wrote a post about “George”, the artificial intelligence software which (who?) has won the Loebner Prize two years in a row now, for being able to hold he most human-like conversations. This new article reports that now George has been set up with voice recognition and speech synthesis so he can carry on a voice-to-voice conversation as well, and is currently chatting with over 200 people on the internet simultaneously. As posted earlier, there are projects in the works to use this technology in support call centers, toys, virtual pets, celebrity impersonations, historical characters used as tutors, and any number of other “interactive” applications. FINALLY, a pet who will not only be able to understand English much better, but also be able to reply back to me in English! Maybe my search for the perfect woman is coming to an end, as well??

Also, in the realm of virtual worlds is a recent story in the New York Times which talks about how just in the last year more than 30 big companies have started getting more involved in virtual worlds. Sun Microsystems, Nissan, Adidas, Sony, Toyota, and MTV to name only a few have all started setting up “shop” in Second Life. A spokesperson at Nissan said, “We’re just trying to follow our consumer, that’s where they’re spending their time.” Second Life tracks the amount of currency changing hands (in US dollar amounts) and says “It recently reached as much as $500,000 a day and is growing as much as 15 percent a month.” Last year I made a prediction about the growing use of virtual worlds for both work and play and this is certainly an obvious step in that direction.

November 8th, 2006
Categories: RobotsAndAI, VirtualReality . Author: rock808

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