1. You know, I think that we attribute so much intelligence to simple processes that -- that's a very difficult question.

I think that human intelligence is a mixture of very predictable, learned, stimulus-response with some probably thinner-than-we-imagine actual cognition and planning on top of that. The robots that we're building today are largely rule-based. Under certain circumstances, they will follow a prescribed set of actions, and yet people ascribe huge amounts of human-level intelligence to even our simplest robots, but bottom line, our robots are nowhere as sophisticated in their intelligence as a person. We're decades away from that. But from the perspective of people perceiving the robots as being intelligent, I think many people think the gap is smaller than it really is. 1. Contributor Ellen Stockstill What does it mean to be intelligent? If a robot can solve complex problems, does that mean it's intelligent? What if the robot can recognize particular patterns in large sets of data or mimic human speech and movement? Would those abilities make it intelligent? Those who study Artificial Intelligence (AI) have long struggled to establish a universal intelligence-measuring tool for robots. Researchers subscribe to various methods for measuring a machine's cognitive abilities, but most are performance based -- they measure how well a machine can perform particular tasks. One method of measurement is "The Turing Test" that focuses on a machine's ability to converse with humans. The machine is considered intelligent if it can imitate human conversation well enough to convince a judge that it is also human. Many versions of "The Turing Test" exist, but some criticize the assessment because, in a sense, it measures the intelligence of the human judge rather than the machine. Other methods of measurement attempt to evaluate how quickly a machine can respond to particular demands. Some robots are designed to be as much like humans as possible and are normally referred to as humanoid robots. For example, Honda's ASIMO humanoid robot, created as a "helper," can walk, run, grab objects and understand simple verbal directions. Humanoid robot developers seek to create machines that learn through experience to understand both verbal and non-verbal communication from humans. While robots often appear in the movies as human-like machines forming friendships with the film's main characters, the majority of the world's robots work in factories building cars, assembling circuit boards and packaging manufactured goods. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) estimates that there will be more than one million of these industrial robots working in the world by the end of 2013 [source: IFR]. More and more hospitals are also getting help from robots that can move drugs, blood samples, medical equipment and other supplies through the hospital without human assistance. As robots become more technologically and cognitively advanced, one day they may even be able to perform surgery by themselves.

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2. Contributor Chris Jordan When you think of the most intelligent humans, the name Ken Jennings might pop into your head. The "Jeopardy!" champ, who is famous for winning 74 games in a row and raking in over $2.5 million in prize money, clearly has a near-encyclopedic knowledge of trivia facts from A to Z. No doubt hes a smart fellow. Jennings may be the guy youd want to have on your Thursday night trivia team, but hes no competition for IBMs supercomputer Watson. In a three-day 'Jeopardy!' match against trivia gurus and past champions Brad Rutter and Jennings, Watson showed that artificial intelligence can be just as smart -- if not smarter -- than humans. At the end of day one, Watson was actually tied for first place with Rutter. But by day two, he was on fire, and at the end of the contest, he came out on top by a margin of $50,000. It was a decisive victory -- one that made a lot of us mere mortals just a tiny bit nervous about the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to replace us as top dog on planet Earth. We might have reason to be nervous. Not only were IBM engineers able to create a supercomputer that could recall massive amounts of data, but they were also able to give Watson the ability to figure out complicated questions that included puns and riddles like this one: "A garment worn by a child, perhaps on board an operatic ship." Watson buzzed in first on this clue, answering "Pinafore" and demonstrating that he was able to work out a somewhat obscure reference to Gilbert and Sullivans stage play "HMS Pinafore" [source: Haynes] More than just a strategic, fact-regurgitating machine, Watson can actually understand nuances in language -- which is one of the hallmarks of human intelligence. If Watsons intelligence is starting to make you reconsider that Roomba you just purchased, dont worry. Your robotic vacuum cleaner isnt going to take over the world any time soon since humans have a few other abilities that set us apart from even the smartest AI. Besides being able to interpret language, we can also use our brains to reason and create original ideas. While there are robots that can solve complex problems, learn in a limited capacity, and even interact in social situations, science has yet to create a robot that can do all of these things. At this time, theres no robot -- not even one thats

as quick-on-the-draw as Watson -- that can measure up to a human beings level of intelligence.