THE spaghetti hit the fan when 51¶¯Âþ ran a story about ChatNannies – software packed with artificial intelligence that hunted for paedophiles in internet chat rooms. Jim Wightman, the creator, claimed that by conversing with chat-room participants, his “nanniebots” could identify adults masquerading as children (51¶¯Âþ, 20 March, p 23).
Criticisms flooded in. Many argued that to achieve all he had claimed, Wightman must have solved many of the problems of AI. To answer these critics, Wightman agreed that 51¶¯Âþ, together with UK-based AI researchers Nick Webb from the University of Sheffield and Andy Pryke from the…
