|
|
ONLINE FEATURES
Book Reviews
BW Video
Columnists
Interactive Gallery
Newsletters
Past Covers
Philanthropy
Podcasts
Special Reports
BLOGS
Auto Beat
Bangalore Tigers
Blogspotting
Brand New Day
Byte of the Apple
Economics Unbound
Eye on Asia
Fine On Media
Green Biz
Hot Property
Investing Insights
Management IQ
NEXT: Innovation
NussbaumOnDesign
Tech Beat
Working Parents
TECHNOLOGY
J.D. Power Ratings
Product Reviews
Tech Stats
Wildstrom: Tech Maven
AUTOS
Home Page
Auto Reviews
Classic Cars
Car Care & Safety
Hybrids
INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | |
AUGUST 25, 2003
The Ghost in Your Machine [Page 2 of 2] Q: Do you anticipate a lot of privacy concerns over this? A: Absolutely. We're O.K. with the idea that other people sitting in our office know most of what we do. But people are much less comfortable that there's a record of this on their computer. There's also the issue of security. But [monitoring of employee activities] already [goes] on. Some people would argue that our software would make the situation better. The breadth of information that's being recorded will make it harder for someone [who shouldn't be looking to find what they're looking for]. Q: How are cognitive machines better than the search engines and functions we currently use? A: The technologies available today are inadequate. There are a lot of days when I can't find a file and I just give up. The search engines today -- such as Google -- offer very generic, word-based searches. They have no understanding of the structure of your life. In contrast, our software develops a model based on what you know about your own work. It structures the knowledge on the computer in the same way you structure it in your brain. Q: What kinds of data would the program need to look at to do that? A: Your archived files. The software you use, how you use it. For instance, in e-mail, it's going to look at how you use the actual software -- do you frequently forward e-mails, do you blind-copy people? It's going to look at who you interact with. Then, it's going to look at the content, the body of the e-mail. [You can tell] a great deal [about] what a person knows in the words that they use. Q: When do you expect the product to be commercialized? A: We could see some capabilities that could go into product development within the next year -- such as the ability for the computer to sift through your e-mail application. But I think most of the capabilities I talked about are going to be commonplace 10 years from now. The technology is already there. But it will take time to put this kind of application into automobiles, for example -- simply because they have to be tested and proven. Q: Is there anything that still has to be invented or developed to make your ideas work? A: There's one very significant technological barrier: The systems we're building now require rigorous collection of data from a person to create a model. It's very labor-intensive and time-consuming. So we're investing into automating the process, so the machine could watch you and infer what you know and what you don't know. Today [this feature is] only available in a limited form. Q: This project makes me think of The Matrix -- where machines run the world and humans are slaves to the machines. Isn't this technology a move in that direction? A: Our team is very conscientious with regard to these type of issues. I also think that -- whether it will be us or someone else developing it -- the technology is going to continue to advance. And people are going to push technology in ways that will make it more and more powerful -- to the point where it could begin to intrude on people's lives and take on autonomy. There's no stopping the technological march. Still, most researchers are very conscientious about the ethical ramifications of what we are doing.
 Edited by Patricia O'Connell
BW MALL
SPONSORED LINKS
Buy a link now!Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
 Copyright 2003, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.Terms of Use | Privacy Policy |
Printer-Friendly Version
