ABC has a couple of stories on this topic on its site right now....

Rise of the Robots

[highlights from the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAA) and RoboCup 2001, both recently hosted at Seattle’s Washington State Convention and Trade Center]

Thinking Outside the Box

By Paul Eng

... Instead of one clunky box, we’ll have a multitude of devices. Some of them will be as small as a pack of cards or even a wristwatch, making them easy to carry whereever we go. Eventually, they may be even small enough to be embedded in our clothes or perhaps even under our skin.

Connected to a “new” Internet, all these devices will be able to find information and share it among other devices. And instead of requiring a keyboard or even a pen for giving commands and information, these devices will respond to our voice or even a simple look, perhaps even get to know our preferences, and act before we bother to tell them what to do....

“What we’re talking about here is moving away from an interface designed to allow us to communicate with a machine,” says Intel’s Pinford, “To a machine that is more sensitive to us.” Already, some researchers say that such ”artificial intelligence” technology is only three to five years away.

Whether or not we actually see such Star Trek-like products may ultimately depend on society in general rather than just technology. Just as people are beginning to reject obtrusive cell phone use in cars and restaurants today, “People walking around and talking to their wrists, may not be socially acceptable,” says Bradley.

But, he notes that it wasn’t too long ago that it was also socially unacceptable to type on a laptop during meetings. “Society changes to adopt new technology,” he says.