A fascinating (and very long, but worth it) post by Steve Steinberg, [on artificial intelligence](http://blog.steinberg.org/?p=11).
>If we were trying to build a true, general AI, we would first need to create a way for it to get around and interact with the larger world. And we would need a system for rapid knowledge acquisition, so that we wouldn't have to manually explain every detail of how the world works.
>
>Which, of course, is precisely what we're building.
>
>-- Steve G. Steinberg, [new developments in AI](http://blog.steinberg.org/?p=11)
I've always had the nagging feeling that Google isn't **really** about search or advertising, and that it's quietly building the infrastructure to feed a growing AI critter.