University receives $7 million to develop virtual secretary

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have been awarded $7 million from federal defense officials to develop a virtual secretary, a helpful program that would do mundane tasks.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded the Pittsburgh university a five-year contract for the project.
Carnegie Mellon researchers say they envision the program -- nicknamed RADAR, for Reflective Agents with Distributed Adaptive Reasoning -- acting as a virtual secretary, scheduling meetings, writing reports and even answering e-mail.
"Like any good assistant, RADAR must understand its human master's activities and preferences and how they change over time," said Scott Fahlman, the school's principal computer science researcher. "RADAR must respond to specific instructions -- 'Notify me as soon as the new budget numbers arrive by e-mail' -- without the need for reprogramming."