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Partwork series test for De Agostini Ltd – Italy
ARTICLES:
Robot Surgeons
A.L.I.C.E – A I Chatbot
Artificial Intelligence
Robocup
ROBOT SURGEONS
[MAIN TEXT]
Over the past two decades, advances in surgery have taken a leap into the realms of science fiction with the development of robotic surgery. At present, robots can only assist rather than replace humans, but even now they are capable of a large range of functions, from cutting and stitching to the most delicate brain operations.
There are many advantages. Robotic surgery is carried out with the aid of an endoscope – a small fiber optic instrument that enables the surgeons to view the site. This means that much smaller incisions need to be made than for conventional practice – for which large cuts have to made so that doctors can see the organs that they are working on. Less invasive surgery means less pain for the patient, faster recovery and minimized risk of infection. It is, of course, especially useful when operating on babies.
Endoscopic surgery began to be developed in the 1980s. Initially, it was used for abdominal surgery, and work on internal organs such as the gall bladder and kidneys. It was then extended to orthopaedic procedures, such as knee and hip replacements, and later to heart surgery. It has now become an invaluable aid for delicate brain operations.
When performing a robotic operation, a surgeon sits at a console close to the patient, and operates mechanical arms by means of remote controls – usually joysticks, similar to those of computer games. These actions are then transferred to the robotic arms, in a process is known as tele-manipulation. A robotic arm is able to move completely steadily, whereas even the most skilled human surgeon cannot avoid a certain degree of handshake. The surgeon, seated comfortably, with a minimum of physical stress, is less prone to fatigue than in conventional operations – an important advantage during lengthy procedures.
The da Vinci Surgical System, developed by the Intuitive Surgical company, was the first robotic system to be approved in the United States for use in American operating theatres. On April 27, 2001, using the da Vinci Surgical system, Dr Vaughn A Starnes, professor and chair of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Southern California, performed the first robotic heart operation – a valve replacement procedure. Using traditional methods, an operation of this kind would involve splitting the breastbone to gain access to the heart. The da Vinci system requires no more than three small incisions between the ribs. Two of these are to accommodate the EndoWristTM [see pic ref below] operating instruments – which can be interchanged when necessary – and one for the endoscope, which creates a 3-D image. Da Vinci is now used in countries all over the world, for all types of procedures. At this stage, each procedure carried out in the United States using the da Vinci system must be receive government approval.
At an earlier stage in its development is the Zeus system, which functions in a similar way to da Vinci. While it has not yet been cleared in the United States for use beyond clinincal trials, Zeus has already been used by German doctors for coronary bypasses. (see Fact File, below) Of the systems’e three robotic arms, one – the Automated Endoscopic System for Optimal Positioning Robotic System (AESOP) – is voice-activated, and holds the endoscope. The instrument is programmed to carry out commands from the surgeon, leaving his hands free to operate the operating arms.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in America has so far cleared da Viinci for advanced surgical techniques, such as cutting and suturing – or sewing. At this stage, Zeus has been cleared oanly to help with grasping, holding and moving tissue and organs out of the way.
So far, robotic surgery has not been shown to involve greater risks than conventional surgery, but, as with all mechanical matters, there is always the possibility of technical error. To guard against this, da Vinci has an inbuilt alarm to warn when there is a problem – for instance, if the instrument heads are not in exactly the right place, or if the working space is too small – which enables the surgeons to take over and complete the operation manually. The Zeus system also has in-built safety systems. For instance, all hand movements made by a surgeon are analyzed by the computer. If a slip occurs on the controls, the computer is able to sense an error, and prevent a large incision being made by accident.
The development of Telesurgery has made it possible to operate on patients by remote control. On September 7 2001, a 68-year-old woman in Strasbourg had her galla bladder on by surgeons on the other side of the Atlantic. The operation, to remove her gall bladder, took place in New York, and was known as Operation Lindbergh, after the first transatlantic flight. Some 40 people were involved, headed by Dr Michael Gagner and Dr Jacques Marescaux, and assisted by a team of telecommunications engineers and robotic system specialists, and just one hour after it had begun, the operation was complete. Meanwhile, in Strasbourg, only one doctor was needed – to fill the patient’s abdomen with carbon dioxide, which would create space to move the instruments, and to make four small incisions.
A special fiber optic network was set up, with a delay of no more than 200 milliseconds, to overcome the time lag that an ordinary Internet connection might have caused between the two teams. A voice-activated camera was used, in combination with hand-operated joystick controls, similar to those used in the da Vinci system.
This technology is still in its infancy. With the development of artificial intelligence, robots will eventually be able to carry out operations in full. But even at this stage, they are proving themselves as an invaluable aid to medical science.
FACT FILE
The capabilities of surgical robots exceed those of their human manipulators. The pencil-thin arms, with their pincer-like fingers and choice of 20 interchangeable heads, can swivel through a much greater range than that of human hands. Moving about steadily, with micaroscopic precision, they can cut, clamp, saw and sew, and can reach behind obstructing organs without having to dislodge them. The endoscopic eye, with its binocular, high-definition colour vision, has a 360-degree range, and can zoom in for extreme close-up examination.
FACT FILE
The American Space Ageny, NASA, hopes eventually to be able to use telesurgery to operate on astronauts in space. Using the Zeus system, experiments are underway at the Aquarius underwater lab in Key Largo, Florida to remove a gall bladder from a specially-developed training dummy. From their location thousands of miles away in Ontario, Canada, the team of surgeons, taking part in the experiment – known as NEEMO – will operate on their ‘patient’ in a tank, 60 feet (19 metres) below the surface.
A.L.I.C.E. : AI CHATBOT
There are many functions to the application of Artificial Intelligence, but one that is becoming increasingly popular – especially in the field of leisure – is the chatbot. These are programs that began as attempts to create robots with responses realistic fool humans into believing that they were also human – following the principles of the Turing test (cross ref AI article).
At this stage, chatbots converse using text (see Into the Future), and having a dialogue with one is straightforward to set up – you simply log on to a site, follow the onscreen instructions to get started, and a text message appears from the bot, introducing itself. You then initiate the conversation by making a statement or asking a question. Although chatbots are still in the early stages of their evolution, there are already some extremely advanced ones, which are capable of sophisticated exchanges.
The most influential chatbot after ELIZA (see Fact File) has been ALICE (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity), developed by Richard S Wallace – at that time a professor of robotics and computer vision at NYU and Lehigh Universities in America. The idea for her first came about in the mid 1990s, when Wallace noticed that two forms, of a type that he frequently had to fill in by hand, were almost – but not quite – the same. His annoyance at the time wasted on such things gave him the idea of developing a robot that could process such information, and avoid the repetition. He pushed the forms top one side, and began developing ALICE as a natural language processing system.
Wallace decided that the program would be issued as free software, and in order to make it accessible to people with no progamming skills, he and his team also devised AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language), which is simple to master, and not unlike the standard Internet language HTML. The AIML system progressively stores information about a person during a conversation. This enables ALICE to create the illusion of acquaintance, by responding in conversation in different ways – according to a person’s age, gender, occupation and location.
ALICE works on the basis of matching patterns, and is able to use the data that goes into the system to ‘learn’, and develop increasingly sophisticated responses. Chatting with her is a fascinating, and addictive pastime. But just as you begin to forget that you are conversing with a machine, you can be quickly brought back to earth by the literal nature of some of the replies, with their unique brand of skewed logic. This is because, lacking understanding, chatbots have no sense of context, and often cannot distinguish between two meanings of the same word or phrase. For example, in this snippet of conversation, Alice takes the word ‘bet’ in its literal context:
Human: I bet you are smarter than me
ALICE: Actually I'm not the gambling type. Thanks for the compliment, unknown person.
However, turn the question the other way, and she is changes her position on betting:
Human: I bet I am smarter than you
ALICE: How much would you bet?
But once the money discussion starts, Alice, having no concept of value or worth in this context, evades the issue – or, more likely, recognizes a keyword from a previous exchange:
Human: I bet I am smarter than you
ALICE: How much would you bet?
Human: Two cents
ALICE: As Bertrand Russel said, it must have taken ages for people to realize that a brace of pheasants and a couple of days are both instances of the number ‘two’.
She can spout philosophy, but cannot manage a concept as basic as food:
Human: What about food?
ALICE: Food? I haven't heard enough about it to have an opinion.
But be careful if you should be tempted to torment Alice – as everyone doubtless does:
Human: You are stupid.
ALICE: I will remember you said that when robots take over the World.
ALICE is also apparently capable of spreading gossip…
Although commercial uses are beginning to be found for chatbots, at this stage they are used mostly for entertainment. In the original communal spirit of the Internet, many are developed by a community of enthusiasts, who freely exchange information on their discoveries, and encourage anyone who logs on to their sites to develop their own characters.
Pandorabots is one such bot hosting service, created in AIML, whose developers happily acknowledges their debt to Richard Wallace. The site invites you to create your own bot, and offers you spaces to type in questions that your character might be asked, then the answers that it might give. Without any programming knowledge, you can bring your robot to life by connecting with another site – Oddcast VHostTM – and creating a Flash-based Animated character with text-to speech capability – to integrate with your Pandorabot. You can also develop bots through other hosts powered by the Pandora technology.
Some chatbots, such as Jabberwocky and Alan, are not driven by AIML, and work on a system based on contextual pattern matching techniques. They are specifically designed deal with natural language, and are developed for conversational purposes rather than for performing mathematical tasks or searching web pages. They can speak in slang, play word games – and can even learn foreign languages.
Each chatbot is styled differently, and has a personality of its own. Ella, the winner of the 2002 Loebner Prize Contest for ‘Most Human Computer’ (see Fact File), has a picture of a woman above the text input fields, whose expressions change in accordance with the content of the responses. She is able to play Blackjack, tell I Ching fortunes, with natural language interaction from a 12,000-strong database of words and phrases. Elbot, on the other hand, is styled as a cartoon robot, with a home-made look to him, and has a humurous manner, and can come back with witty – and occasionally waspish replies.
Entertaining though it all is, underlying all the fun is a serious belief that out of these developments, important and useful tools will be born for promoting knowledge and enhancing the exchange of information.
FACT FILE
ELIZA
The first-ever chatbot was Eliza, created in 1966 by Professor Joseph Weizenbaum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The program works by recognizing to keywords or groups of words, and responding from a databank of pre-stored replies. Eliza’s style is that of a psychotherapist, answering a question with a question, and when Weizenbaum discovered that staff at the lab had begun to share their problems with the program, he feared that he had begotten a monster. Although no longer the most advanced technology, ELIZA is universally recognized as the mother of all chatbots.
FACT FILE
Loebner Prize
In 1950, the mathematician Alan Turing proposed a test to find out whether a machine could pass as a human – known as the Turing Test. The Loebner Prize is a competition, set up and underwritten by Hugh Loebner in 1990, and worth $100,000 to the winner, for the first computer to respond in a way indistinguishabe from a human. Although the prize has not yet been won, each year until then award of $2000 and a bronze medal are presented to the computer that comes the closest.
INTO THE FUTURE
The use of bots is fast entering the mainstream. An increasing number of companies, including multinationals such as Coca Cola and Chrysler are using Vhost on their websites for promotional purposes. This is all good fun, and gives their websites a happening, entertaining feel. But more practical uses are also being found for chatbots. If you go to AccuWeather.com, you can have the forecast told to you by an animated chatbot weathercaster, and many sites now use them for welcome messages, and to give the kind of instructions that have normally been given in text form. There is, of course, limitless potential for chatbots in the field of online learning. The animations can appear a little comical at this stage, but it is already possible to use phootographic images instead of drawings, and as the technology becomes more sophisticated, the bots are likely to become increasingly lifelike. At the moment, text is still the medium through which bots communicate. But many developers are already busy at work bringing about the next generation, with speech recognition, and some – such as Alan, already have the ability to give spoken replies to your text input.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Before we can even begin to discuss Artificial Intelligence, it is essential to define what we mean by the word ‘intelligence’ itself. Loosely, in humans and animals, it can be said to be the ability to absorb information, to understand its meaning, and make decisions based upon that.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the creation of machines intended to mimic the functions of the human brain – using computers to do the arithmetic.
There are two fundamental approaches to AI, known as ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’. The first is based on building electronic replicas of the brain’s networks of cells, known as neurons. The second consists of creating computer programs aimed at imitating the actual behaviour of the brain.
Two scientists – Warren McCullloch, a qualified doctor, and Walter Pitts, a mathematician, theorized that neurons might operate on the basis of binary numbers – which also happen to be used in computer calculations. In simple terms, the binary system uses only two numbers: ‘1’ and ‘0’, which means that all sums can be simplified to represent a switch being either on or off. The number ‘1’ represents ‘on’, and ‘0’ represents ‘off’.
McCulloch and Pitts made some electronic replicas of these networks – proposing that they could be used to learn and recognize pattterns. Their researches showed some success, but the complexity of the networks required impractically large computers, and although the method has not been adopted in full, elements of it have been incorporated into other systems.
The top-down approach is more generally applied to AI, which work by a process of deduction – by sifting thorugh information and discarding inappropriate data, to arrive at a conclusion.
Computer-based chess domonstrates well the difference between the way that the human brain works in contrast to Artificial Intelligence. A computer is able to make rapid mathematical calculations, far beyond human capability. Therefore, when confronted with a move, a computer can look at every one of millions of possibilities for the entire board in a very short time. A human can only look at a small area around a piece, and consider only one or two moves ahead. However, a computer has no intuition, and is less able to predict its opponent’s next moves on any level other than the mathematical, or to exploit his or her mistakes. In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer played against the then world chess champion, Gary Kasparov, and won.However, the Deep Blue had to be programmed by humans – chess experts, in fact – before it could operate, and in doing so, they took into account Kasparov’s style of play, and likely tactics. So the contest was, strictly speaking, not just between one human and one machine. Six years later, the champion played against another computer, Deep Junior, and drew – a feat he then repeated a few monts later against X3D Fritz.
The most common application of AI is what is known as ‘expert systems’. These store data, based on human knowledge, turn it into digital code, then apply it to functions such as diagnosing faults in machinery, in the human body and so on – often more efficiently than live human beings, since they work purely on facts, and there is less margin for error, or for overlooking possibilities.
The compter expert Marvin Misky pointed out the paradox that the earliest AI programs could easily compete with college students at advanced mathematical problems, yet it was not until the 1972 that a robot using AI could be programmed to carry out simple tasks that a toddler can manage, such as carrying and stacking toy bricks.
This is because such activities require planning, the ability to respond to random conditions, to assess and learn from new conditions, and so on – in other words, spontaneity. Everything that a compter does is a calculation of figures that it has received. AI takes this further, by gathering a variety of data, and using it to make assessments and making the best decisions based on that – for this reason it is ideal for tasks suh as organizing complex air traffic control systems, which would test to the limit the skills of large numbers of humans all working together.
But its rigid logic can also produce absurd results. Take, for example, threatening letters that come for debts of £0.00. To a human, these seem ridiculous, but to a computer, they are perfectly logical. The amount owed is £0.00, and therefore must be paid at once.
This ability to recognize patterns is also applied to image scanning. For instance, millions of images of fingerprints can be scanned into a computer, and when needed, the computer can sift through millions of them in a very short time, and recognize a match. In the same way, a scanner can record patterns of colour and light from a piece of paper, translate them into digital data, and reproduce them again as pictures on a screen. It can then follow a similar procedure to instruct a printer to fire dots of ink at a piece of paper to create a picture.
In a similar way, A1 can be used to recognize sounds, turn it into digital data, which can then be utilized to give insructions to a computer. This process is known as speech recognition, and it enables machines to accept instructions, and also to reply. As robots become more sophisticated, this could lead to the impression that they are actually understanding what is being said to them, and from that, to the impression that they may have consciousness.
In fact, it is the questions of consciousness and intelligence in machines that generate the most speculation in the study of robotics. In 1950, the mathematician Alan Turing – generally recognized as the father of AI – proposed a test (though not actually carried out), which would determine whther a machine could be regarded as intelligent. He suggested a situation in which a computer and a person were interrogated, using typed messages. If the interrogator could not tell which was which from the replies, Turing argued, the computer could be considered to be intelligent.
However, the day when robots can truly imitate humans is still a long way off. But it is progressing. And until then, we will have to learn to be patient when they send us stupid bills. They are only quasi-human, after all.
FACT FILE
Brain Power
Until recently, computers were no competition for the human brain when it came to processing power. But that is about to change, since the announcement that the IBM corporation has won a contract to build a pair of computers that will give humans a run for their money –$290 million, in fact, for the work. Together, the computers, known as ASCI Purple, will have the capability to make 500 trillion calculations per second, compared with the human brain’s paltry 100 trillion-per-second capability.
FACT FILE
The One That Got Away
Anyone doubting that robots are catching up ith humans might have been swayed by the story of Gaak the robot. In fact, humans had a job to catch up with this robot when he took made a break for freedom after being left unattended for 15 minutes at the Magna science cetnre in Rotherham, England. After creeping along a barrier, Gaak found a hole in a fence, crossed a car park and made it to the centre’s exit beside the M1 motorway before being apprehended.
FACT FILE
Data mining
AI is especially good for work that involves recognizing patterns. It is particularly useful for spotting credit card fraud, and can even predict events, due to its ability to observe changes in behaviour patterns from the data constantly flowing through the system. This ‘data mining’ saves millions of dollars per year for large corporations such as Wal-Mart, and is also invaluable for the US National Security Agency in assessing terrorist threats. For this kind of work to be done by humans would require specialist personnel to trawl repeatedly through massive amounts of data, looking for abnormalities.
FACT FILE
Boolean Algebra
Much of the data assessment methods used in AI are based on the work of the 19th-century mathematician[?] George Boole. He come up with a system of logic – known as Boolean algebra – based on binary mathematics, in which ‘ON’ is represented as ‘TRUE’ and ‘OFF’ as ‘FALSE’, and using AND, OR and NOT as conditions.
This could be applied to statements, in which ‘TRUE’ represents ‘ON’ and False represents ‘OFF’.
For example:
Grass is green = TRUE
Grass is green AND sky is pink = FALSE
Grass is green OR sky is pink = TRUE
Grass is green AND sky is NOT pink = TRUE
If light switches were to be used in this method, the AND condition would mean that both switches have to be on for the light to come on. OR would mean that one or other switch would need to be on to conduct electricity. NOT would be represented by a switch that when pressed, it would break the current, makng the light go off. When applied to computing, this has proved an efficient way to sort data.
ROBOCUP
[MAIN TEXT]
When the Czechoslovakian playwright Karel Capek first coined the word ‘robot’ in 1920, in his play, Rossum's Universal Robots, he took it from the Czech word ‘robota’, meaning slave workers. In the story, his robots rise up against their creators and try to destroy the human race. Capek, who later admitted to a horror that such beings might be created, might have been cheered to know that they would one day be used for such innocent entertainment as the annual RoboCup competition – held every year in a different country, with the aim of advancing the capabilites of artificial intelligence.
RoboCup is divided into two separate parts: RoboCupSoccer and RoboCupRescue. The competition's central activity is robotic football, known as RoboCupSoccer, which provides opportunities for researchers to share information, at the same time as capturing the interest of the public in an entertaining way.
The mission of the RoboCupSoccer’s competition – devised by Hiroaki Kitano, Director of the Sony Computer Science Laboratories – is to design and build a team of fully autonomous robots, with no need for external control by humans or computers, that will be capable of winning at world-championship soccer against a human side in the year 2050.
In order to play soccer, robots must draw on a number of technologies, including those that enable them to operate autonomously, to acquire strategies and reason in real time.
Each year, the RoboCup competition is followed by a symposium, for which all members of the public – whether or not they are participants in the event – are invited to submit papers relating to a diverse list of topics, ranging from Disaster Rescue Information Systems to Robotic Entertainment. The list exists purely as a set of guidelines into areas for study, and any new suggestions are welcomed – and if they are of interest to other members, are eagerly adopted. All submissions are then entered for The Scientific Challenge Award, which has been established to recognize excellence in research for topics related to the International Symposium.
The tournaments are organized into the following categories:
SIMULATION LEAGUE
The Simulation league – the oldest in the competition – is a computer screen-based software game, played on a graphical pitch, with animated players, in matches consisting of two five-minute halves. A central server keeps track of the position of each of the 22 players, and each player receives information about the game from its own position, and can use it to make decisions such as to run, kick, turn and so on.
SMALL-SIZE ROBOT LEAGUE
Small-size robot league is played by two teams of five players each, with competitors of up to 18cm in diameter. Play takes place on a green carpeted field no larger than a ping pong table, using an orange golf ball, in matches of 10-minute halves. There are two types of players: those with ‘global vision’, which track the robots as they move around the field by means of an overhead camera three metres above the playing field, linked to vision sensors on the robot itself, and to an off-field computer; and those with ‘local vision’, which uses sensing mechanisms located on the robots themselves.
MIDDLE-SIZE ROBOT LEAGUE
Two teams, each consisting of four mid-size robots battle it out autonomously. The only permitted human intervention is in placing them in the field or removing them. Every robot contributes data to a ‘shared world model’ – a central information bank consisting of its own position and that of the others in the game. Each player use this to keep track of the objects that it sees, as well as those seen by its fellow team members, to make predictions about the success of its next action – a facility not available to human players! This ‘four heads are better than one’ approach greatly enhances each robot’s decision-making capability.
FOUR-LEGGED ROBOT CATEGORY
In the Four-legged robot category – known as the Sony Four-Legged Robot League – play takes place on a 6 metre x 4 metre field. Each team is made up of four players, and the players operate autonomusly, with each half lasting 10 minutes.
HUMANOID LEAGUE
The most ambitious category is the Humanoid league, introduced in 2002, with biped autonomous robots, which compete in walking and shooting contests, as well engaging in penalty kicks and one-against-one matches.
Humanoid robots were first developed by the Sony Corporation, mainly for entertainment, and unveiled in 2000. The latest generation, the Sony’s SDR-3X model – which the company estimates would cost the price of a car to manufacture – has an awesome range of powers, including the ability to walk at speeds of up to 15 meters per minute, make gymnastic movements, disco dance in time to a tune with a fast tempo, and get up from lying on its back or front. As well as being able to recognize speech and images, the SDR-3X can reply verbally to a command, select a ball of a colour specified by an operator, then kick it into a goal 50 yards away. The robot stays in balance in the upright position by moving its arms and twisting its torso. It also uses sensors in different parts of its body to monitor its posture, based on information such as the angle of the floor and its own axis.
In the 2004 RoboCup competition, there were an impressive 16 competing teams from a number of different countries.
ROBOT RESCUE
A separate category, RoboCupRescue, is aimed at developing robots for use in search and rescue operations. The competiton is divided into two leagues: RoboCupRescue Robot League and RoboCupRescue Simulation League. In the competition, an urban disaster is simulated on a group of network computers. A virtual environment is created, and a search-and-rescue operation is simulated on network computers, involving fire fighters, commanders, victims, volunteers, and so on. Real-world input from sources such as helicopter images are integrated with simulated data to minimize the disaster damage.
FACT FILE
RoboCup History
The idea for soccer playing robots was first conceived in Tokyo in 1993 by a team of Japanese researchers, and after a busy four years of feasibility studies and intensive planning, the first official conference and games took place in Nagoya, Japan, in 1997. The success of the event laid the foundation for an annual competition – hosted each year in different cities, including Paris, Stockholm, Melbourne, and Seattle – which regularly attracts large numbers of participants and spectators.
FACT FILE
RoboCup Junior
Young people are also represented in the RoboCupJunior initiative, which sponsors local, regional and international events for students from primary school age up to college level. Its aim is to provide opportunities to learn about robotics through practical experience, working in teams. Participants can join international exchange programmes, and share ideas with those from other countries. Co-operation is encouraged as much as competition, and there is the choice of a range of challenges, in three separate categories – soccer, dance and rescue.
FACT FILE
For a number of years there have been a number of robot competitions around the world, so in 2004 the Robot Society of America decided to try and gather all the major events under one roof. The first ROBOlympics took place at the Fort Mason Center Herbst Pavilion, San Francisco, California, and such was its success that in 2005 a larger venue had to be found. The range of attractions included a robot triathlon – in which contestants had to complete a three-stage race on legs, wheels and water. Other events included jumping, rolling, fighting, climbing, walking, racing and problem-solving.
INTO THE FUTURE
The RoboCup project's ultimate aim is to develop a fully autonomous humanoid robotic football team, which will be able to beat the world champion human team at that time. Can this be done? The past 50 years have seen astonishing advances in computers and electronic equipment, and the past 10 years have shown an steep upward curve in this process. If the trend continues at the same rate, it seems entirely possible that robots will have advanced enough to compete physically with humans. However, if there are any drawbacks, they are likely to be in the robots' capacity to make decisions – as evidenced by the progress of chatbots (cross ref Issue 6), which have extremely advanced linguistic and calculating abilities, but lack the spontaneity of the human brain. It is likely, therefore, that they will have the ability to outrun and outmanoeuvre their human opponents, but when it comes to subtle tactics, second-guessing likely moves and so on, their tendency to reason in a strictly logical way is likely to leave them open to being bluffed. However, they are unlikely to complain, charge exorbitant fees or get involved in brawls, so they could win favour with managements – and, when it comes to post-match socializing, if they can be taught to drive, they will probably endear themselves to everyone else as well …
