The success of IBM’s computer Watson in beating two former Jeopardy champions has resulted in more dire warnings that computers will one day take over the world. However, the search for true Artificial Intelligence is not easy, with the joke amongst people working in the field is that we are always ten years away from creating it.

But because trying to create AI is so hard, scientists have looked elsewhere for breakthroughs and have made some.

For years the project’s development was overshadowed by the more ambitious quest for Artificial Intelligence, but scientists working in Seattle accepted that A.S. was a more realisable ambition within their own lifetime. Yesterday they finally unveiled the domestic computerised robot ‘Kevin’ who is so stupid that every day its owner will experience a wonderful life-affirming sense of their own human superiority. ‘You tell it to open the door and it pulls the door into its own face.’ explained proud project leader Carl Kinear. ‘You ask it the capital of Argentina and it shrugs and says ‘Madrid?’
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For decades psychologists have reported computer-users feeling a sense of worthlessness and inadequacy as their machines asked them technical questions they didn’t quite understand. To ensure that digital technology actually improves the quality of life, scientists finally realised that the key was to make robots even dumber than humans are.

(via Machines Like Us)

By the creators of That Mitchell and Webb Look.

The budget problem in the US is caused by the fact that people want a lot of the services that the government provides but don’t want to pay for them. That great economic genius Donald Trump knows how to solve this: tax other countries!

It’s quite astonishing that no one has thought of this simple solution before.

Conservatives got together for their annual shindig and their leaders tried their hand at stand-up comedy. Jon Stewart rates the performances.

Ambam has figured out how to walk the walk. Maybe he will later talk the talk?

Watch the video of Ambam (after the commercial).

I think that as Ambam moves around, they should play this song by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Whenever I hear this song, I want to yell out, “For heaven’s sake Frankie, why don’t you sing like a man?”

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow’s take on the events Egypt and Obama’s response.

Jesus and Mo and Moses struggle with the problem of reconciling the contradictory absolutism of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, while Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell, and Jon Stewart debate the merits of the same three religions.

(via Machines Like Us)

All of us have likely had bad experiences with call centers where, after navigating through the menus, one gets transferred amongst various people, with the calls sometimes abruptly cut, and have to repeat your problem over and over again. In Belgium, exasperation with a particularly notorious outfit called Mobistar drove a group of people on a comedy show into playing a prank on them to have them experience the frustration their customers felt. (Note: The symbols that appear such as 05u22 refer to the time, in this case 5:22 am.)

(via Sadly No.)

I watched most of the Super Bowl game and of course saw the ads. My problem is that although I remember ads, I almost never remember the product that is being advertised. So when the next day people rave about or pan the ads by product name, I have no idea which ones they are talking about unless they describe it. If you are like me, you can see most of the ads here.

I do remember that some of them were weird, some awful, some incomprehensible, and a few rather nice.

Recall that Bill O’Reilly’s argument that “the tide comes in, the tide goes out, so god exists” received considerable and well-deserved derision. He then expanded on what he meant, which resulted in further hilarity all around, such as this response from Stephen Colbert.