The Real HAL: Artificial Intelligence in Space

When we first meet HAL in "2001," it seems as if there's nothing this computer can't do. HAL steers the Discovery spacecraft toward Jupiter, maintains the life support systems, plays a wicked game of chess, has opinions about sketches drawn by one of the astronauts, and deftly handles questions from a BBC interviewer. Later, we'll discover that HAL can even read lips.

Soon we wonder whether HAL is more like a human than a machine. Is its artificial intelligence really artificial? Even one of the astronauts admits he's not sure whether HAL's emotional responses to the interview questions are genuine or just part of the programming.

1. Artificial Intelligence - Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals and humans.