This video demonstrates how a virtual dog controlled by an autonomous artificial intelligence programme learns by imitation. There are few limits to what a pet can be taught in the virtual world, even things that their programmers never imagined, as long as it has someone to copy.  

The developers aim even higher: The virtual pets could learn to speak. The learning gestures could form the basis for the pets to learn language just as with babies (from newscientist.com).

Now rodents have joined the illustrious group of intelligent creatures. 

Rats can learn rules and apply them to new situations, an ability which is thought to be a keystone of human thought (from cbc.ca).

Furthermore, even degus can learn how to use tools (PLoS ONE, 3, e1860).

The article “Got a live one” in SemanticReport points out two interesting facts: 

1. Each domain requires its own specialised ontology.
2. Someone has to write these ontologies.

Which begs for the following questions:

Inherent to any data sets are concepts, connections, patterns and even rules. If there are already intrinsic patterns and concepts in the data, why layer an extrinsic ontology on top of the data? Is it not easier and faster, if we got a system, that automatically recognises these inherent concepts and patterns?

Mills Davis made it clear, in his report; (www.project10x.com) the semantic evolution is big. We talk about a multibillion dollar business. The whole industry around semantic WEB, WEB 2.0/3.0 is focusing on the upcoming conference in San Jose. We all hope to get more clearance and understanding, how to get there.

If you have any questions in this matter we kindly invite you to start the discussion right here in our blog. Also we would like to welcome you at our stand at the conference.

For a long time many scientist believed animals to be just living automatons. Of course pet owners disagree, seeing how our dog understands us when we talk to him. However, pet ownsers’ claims are not science.

But, what is intelligence? If certain skills are considered essential for intelligence, such as good memory, imitating others, understanding others’ motives.. then intelligence is not limited to humans alone.

Now researchers have proven that animals have a mind of their own (from nationalgeographic.com).

We will have representatives at the 2008 Semantic Technology Conference in San Jose, California, USA between May 18 and May 22.

For more information please see 2008 Semantic Technology Conference (www.semantic-conference.com).

semantic system has joined Project10X. Project10X is about themes like semantic web, Web 2.0 / Web 3.0. In other words: The next stage of internet evolution. 

For more information please see Project10X.

Researchers have developed “Eddie,” a 4-year-old child in Second Life who can reason about his own beliefs to draw conclusions in a manner that matches human children his age.

With the following experiment researchers can test the reasoning abilities of Eddie :

Person A hides an a teddy bear) in a closet in front of a child and an adult (person B). Person A then leaves the room, and person B moves the teddy bear to a new location (such as the refrigerator) while the child is still watching. The child is then asked to predict where Person A will look for the teddy bear when he gets back.

The right answer is the closet, but children age 4 and under will generally say the refrigerator because they haven’t yet formed a theory of the mind of others.

First time round Eddie’s response is consistent with that of a 4-year old child (as demonstrated in the video). But then Eddie passes the test. Which shows a software for artificial intelligence (AI) can have second-order beliefs. Eddie thus can have beliefs about the beliefs of others, enabling them to understand that other people can have beliefs different from their own. Or does it?

Video: False Belief in Second Life (cogsci.rpi.edu)

The semantic blog has gone live. Here you will find issues which are related to our field of interest. Furthermore, you will find insights in semantic system technology.

Thanks and regards,
Walter Diggelmann, CEO