CALO (“cognitive assistant that learns and organizes”), a massive, four-year-old AI project to help computers understand the intentions of their human users, tries to assist users in three ways: by helping them manage information about key people and projects, by understanding and organizing information from meetings, and by learning and automating routine tasks.

The goal is to build an artificial intelligence that can serve as a personal assistant for someone–learn about a user’s environment and needs, and adapt to them, without having to be programmed anew by engineers.

SRI has made a version, called CALO Express, that integrates with Microsoft products such as Outlook and PowerPoint.