What's New @ IEEE in Computing, August 2006

8. THE TRAP OF ROBOT MORALITY
Before humans design robots with a moral capacity, we should decide exactly what that capacity should be, and to whom it should apply, according to Christopher Grau, assistant professor of philosophy at Florida International University. Writing in his article "There Is No 'I' in 'Robot': Robots and Utilitarianism," published in "IEEE Intelligent Systems" magazine, Grau uses the 2004 film "I, Robot" as a philosophical springboard to discuss the implications of utilitarianism, an ethical theory that requires moral agents to pursue actions that will maximize overall happiness. When faced with various possible actions, a utilitarian does what will produce the greatest net happiness, considering the happiness and suffering of all those affected by the action. Grau believes it is possible that sentient robots will be able to make utilitarian calculations, but that those calculations can sometimes be reduced to an "ends justifies the means" philosophy that is morally repugnant to humans. He says, however, that utilitarian moral theory might provide the best ethical theory for artificial agents that lack the boundaries of self that normally make utilitarian calculation inappropriate. Read more (PDF): the link

2. TOPIC MODELING SPEEDS UP THE SEARCH
A new technology developed by researchers at the University of California, Irvine (USA), called Topic Modeling allows people to locate topic-specific information from computerized newspaper text. The process involves looking for patterns of words that tend to occur together in documents, then automatically categorizing those words into topics. Before this, people searching for information had to enter the topic itself (or something closely related). For example, the researchers entered the words "Lance Armstrong," "Bike," "Race," and "Rider," and the program categorized it all under "Tour de France." Previously, looking for information this way was referred to as supervised learning, and involved many man hours. The researchers presented their finding recently at the IEEE Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference, and speculate that it will make retrieving information easier and quicker. Read more:
http://www.primidi.com/2006/07/27.html