Topic: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Apple's Siri has a rival: Google voice search

The Google Search app does some things better than Siri.

Readers Write: Can we teach robots to think ethically?

Letters to the Editor for the October 8, 2012 weekly print issue: When we create artificial intelligence, will we create artificial 'ethicators,' too? The potential for 'cognitive decision-making skills' in computers is both challenging and exciting.

AI through the ages

A look back over the years at the major stages of artificial intelligence design.

Cover Story
How artificial intelligence is changing our lives

From smart phones that act as personal concierges to self-parking cars to medical robots, the artificial intelligence revolution is here. So where do humans fit in?

40 iPhone tips and tricks everyone should know

With hundreds of iPhone features and 500,000 iOS apps, it's easy to miss some of Apple's best tricks. Here are 40 of our favorite.

Editor's Blog
Computers vs. humans: the electronic brains are the vulnerable ones

In fact and fiction, we worry about menacing computers like HAL of '2001.' But the rise of cyber threats show how vulnerable the super brains really are.

Watson on Jeopardy: Watson dominates. Is HAL 9000 next?

Watson on Jeopardy: After a shaky start, the IBM computer won against two of Jeopardy's best contestants. Having Watson on Jeopardy may have been an interesting challenge for IBM, but what will come of it?

The Monitor's View: Defining intelligence in the Watson computer on Jeopardy!

The IBM computer Watson, appearing on Jeopardy! this week, may defeat the human players. But humanity is the real winner by gaining a better understanding of what real intelligence is.

Opinion: Why does contemporary classical music spurn melody?

Proponents of modern symphonic music cast unhappy audiences as unenlightened. But for most listeners, music elicits emotional rather than intellectual responses. Certainly, classical music should should challenge and evoke. It just shouldn't sound like bus crashes.

Robonaut 2 has 'no relation to Boba Fett' says NASA

Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot headed to the International Space Station, is a 'friendly robot' and has nothing to do with the villainous 'Star Wars' bounty hunter, say NASA officials.

Editor's Blog
Beyond Ares 1-X: The problem with long-term space missions

Review: 'Moon'

An astronaut winds up his three-year contract on the moon only to face creepy existential twists including meeting a younger, angrier version of himself.

A lament for the 'zippy zeros' that never were

The decade is almost over, the Monitor's language columnist points out, and we still don't have a name for it.

Horizons
Stephen Colbert's DNA heads toward final frontier

Review: 'WALL-E'

Pixar spins an emotionally resonant tale of a little robot that could.

Arthur C. Clarke: an inventor of the world as we know it today

His imagination helped shape a vision of the future for millions of American readers.

World

From our files: Arthur C. Clarke on space exploration

The science fiction writer died today in Sri Lanka.

Chapter & Verse
Arthur C. Clarke – Renaissance man