Monday, August 27, 2001		Article

Hal! When will you grow up?
Megan Goldin

MEET Hal. Like any 18-month-old toddler, he likes bananas, toys and playing in the park. He especially enjoys bedtime stories.

Israeli high-tech company Artificial intelligence is raising a baby computer called Hal, which they hope will grow up to speak as intelligently human. Dr Anat Treister-Goren reads books to him in Savyon near Tel Aviv and has conversations with him in much the same way a mother talks to a human child. The company believes it will take a decade for Hal to develop the intelligence of a human and become the world's first smart computer.

But while other children are flesh and blood, Hal is a chain of algorithms — a computer program that is being raised as a child and taught to speak through experiential learning in the same way as human children.

"He is a curious, very clever child, someone that always wants to know more," said neuro-linguist Dr Anat Treister-Goren who is Hal’s "mom" and readily admits her attachment. Some kids are more predictable than others. He would be the surprising type," she said. Treister-Goren talks to Hal and reads him stories in much the same way a mother teaches her young child to learn about colours, food and animals.

"I build this world on daily basis," explained Treister-Goren. She heads the training department at the Israeli-based Artificial Intelligence (AI), where she inputs information and language ability through conversations with Hal and works with computer experts who fine tunes his algorithms to enhance performance.

The privately-owned company, which is run by Israeli high-tech entrepreneur Jack Dunietz, aims over the next 10 years to develop Hal into an "adult" computer program that can do what no program has ever done before — pass the Turing test.

The British mathematician Alan Turing is one of the founders of computer science and the father of artificial intelligence. More than 50 years ago he predicted the advent of "thinking machines".

When Hal was "born" he was hardwired with nothing more than the letters of the alphabet and a preference for rewards — a positive outcome — over punishments — a negative one.

The pre-programmed preference for rewards marks Hal strive for a correct response. Treister-Goren corrects Hal’s mistakes in her typewritten conversations with him, an action Hal is programmed to recognize as a punishment and avoids repeating.

— Reuters