Artificial Intelligence NV (Ai) has announced a challenge to promote original AI research. The companuy invites participants to create a computer program that can win at a game without knowing either the game’s rules or the identity of its opponent.
The creator of the winning program will win a $2000 prize and the representatives of the top three winning programs will be invited to an AI workshop at the Ai Research Center in Israel. The deadline for entries to the Learning Machine Challenge is October 30, 2001.

Ai is also “raising a child machine [called ‘Hal’] from infancy to adulthood — thus bringing Turing’s vision to fruition — and creating entirely new approaches to machine learning.” It s “acquiring language through training by a team of cognitive scientists and child development experts,” according to a statement by the company.