Picking our brains: Can we make a conscious machine?

April 7, 2010 | Source: New Scientist Tech

Research projects trying to create artificial consciousness include the Intelligent Distribution Agent (IDA), built in 2003 by Stan Franklin at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, which assigns sailors in the US navy to new jobs when they finish a tour of duty; and a humanoid robot developed by Owen Holland’s team at the University of Sussex, UK, based on the assumption that robot with a body that is very close to a human’s will develop more human-like cognition.