The ability to ``comprehend'' and react has become a key feature of computer applications today, from the lowly ``SNES'' with its ability to predict the expected reaction of a player versus the machine in many games, to a new voice specific English-Japanese translator in development in Japan. This program analyses input sound-waves and matches the sentence it reads in to the nearest resemblance in its memory then generates the appropriate audio response in the translated language. At the moment this program is limited to recognising about twenty sentences all connected to booking theatre tickets, but will in time be developed to act as a full phrase dictionary.
If, in time, machines are finally programmed with true ``intelligence'', then they might act as teachers, companions, aides to a community where no human counterpart is available. Already machines may be used to diagnose illness where no Doctor is available, by cross referencing symptoms. If the prognosis is considered serious a human will be called in to verify the results and if in agreement with them prescribe treatment.
Examples of such projects already in operation two programs researched and developed in Stanford; MYCIN, which diagnoses certain types of blood infections, and DENDRAL which can determine the structure and makeup of molecules using data obtained from a mass spectrometer.
With knowledge and intelligence a machine can be taught, or indeed teach itself, to accomplish almost anything, but without the ability to communicate, the fruits of these labours would go unnoticed and unappreciated.
By affording a machine the skill of communication we can ourselves benefit and learn. This skill is a vital stepping stone on the path to true Artificial Intelligence.