Alan Turing's prediction of true A.I. closer then I thought

"Welcome to the Next Generation of Robots"
Guardian Unlimited (UK) (01/04/05); Arnot, Chris

"European robotics researchers plan to create machines that replicate human functions, including hearing, seeing, learning, answering questions, and manipulating objects. The technology to build robots with human-like capabilities has been advancing rapidly in isolation from each other. By combining new voice recognition and machine-learning technology, researchers will be able to take robotics development to a higher level, says Birmingham University computer scientist Aaron Sloman. Speech recognition is one field that has improved rapidly in recent years, allowing people to interact with computer systems via telephone. Computers ability to generate inflections while talking has improved as well, making their speech sound more natural. Sloman and colleagues are working on a project to build Explorer, a walking conversational robot that can guide visitors through an office. The project is led by a robotics researcher in Stockholm and funded by the European Union. Explorer can differentiate between permanent obstacles like walls and temporary barriers, such as a pile of books, says Birmingham University researcher Jeremy Wyatt. While computer speech and speech recognition technology allows machines to converse, teaching computers the meaning of what is being said is much more difficult. Another European Union robotics project is Playmate, which pairs a robot head and arm, and could help elderly people to live independently longer. Sloman says such technology could take away jobs currently done by humans, but that it also has the power to enrich people's lives. Sloman also says robotics research poses little threat to humanity, because robots are unlikely to treat people as badly as people treat each other today."

Full Article: http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1382653,00.html