The Current: Part 1

Satire

It's Friday July 11th... and day four of President Bush's five-day African Safari. The continent where Saddam did -- no didn't -- no did -- no didn't try and buy uranium for nuclear weapons.

Currently another African mineral has caught the eye of the Texan. (Beverly Hillbillies theme) Oil that is. Black gold. Texas tea. So get ready Africa.. it's your time t'have a heapin' helpin' of American hospitality. Y'all come back now, y'hear!

This is The Current.

Africa - Security Versus Aid

When he was elected, few would have predicted that George W. Bush would one day be standing on the shores of Senegal. But this week the US President not only toured Africa, he also spoke about nation-building on the continent. And on Monday, Bush will meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to talk about America's interest in promoting stability and alleviating poverty in Africa.

African leaders have long criticized the West for ignoring the continent's poverty and political conflicts, but it seems that's changed since September 11th. The war on terror is keeping the Bush Administration focused on Africa. At least that's how it sounded when National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice discussed the political chaos in Liberia last week.

To look at whether aid should be linked to anti-terrorism, I am joined by Susan Rice. She worked in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and is now with the Brookings Institution. She is in Washington, D-C.

Security Versus Aid - MSF

Liberians have made it clear they want the United States to intervene in their country. But a lot of Africans are suspicious of the Bush Administration's motives for bringing aid and political involvement to the continent. Here's a sampling of opinion from South Africa from earlier this week:

Those were some thoughts from the streets of South Africa on George Bush's visit to the continent.

Well, some of the people involved in humanitarian assistance do not support tying aid to strategic interests. We were joined by Dr. Fiona Terry. She's the author of “Condemned to Repeat?: The Paradox of Humanitarian Action” and a research director with Doctors Without Borders. She's in Geneva.

Zimbabwe Documentary Promo

Coming up later in the show, we'll head to one country that's NOT on George Bush's African tour -- Zimbabwe, where political strife under Robert Mugabe's rule is bringing famine to much of the population.

But in a documentary by Dispatches contributor Carolyn Dempster, we'll hear how only some people -- those who support Mugabe -- are being given the food aid they desperately need.

Listen to The Current: Part 1

The Current: Part 2

Poker & Artificial Intelligence - Player

You’re probably familiar with Kenny Rogers’ quintessential poker song, “The Gambler” -- and as you just heard, it's a story about a man who made a living at the card table by reading opponent's faces …. And, of course, by knowing when to hold'em …and when to fold'em.

But the game of poker is in the midst of a revolution. And that all-important poker-face is fast becoming a thing of the past.

In May of this year, the winner-take-all, 2.5 million dollar, World Series of Poker was won by the aptly named, Chris Moneymaker. But unlike many other poker professionals, Mr. Moneymaker had never before sat down at a tournament table. In fact, Moneymaker rarely played poker in the same room as his opponents. Instead, he learned to master the game of poker online.

Gautom Rao represents this new breed of poker player: a player who gave up trips to the roadhouse for the virtual tables of the world's Internet casinos. And while he owns a publishing company in Edmonton, in his spare time he moonlights as a well-known Canadian poker player. He joined us from Edmonton.

Music

Performer: Kenny Rogers
CD: “Kenny Rogers: Twenty-Five Greatest Hits”
Cut: #11 “The Gambler”
Label: EMI America
Spine #: CDPB 7 46673 1 / 2

Poker & Artificial Intelligence – Computer Programmer

As Mr. Rao explains, Poker is game where knowing your opponents' motivation holds the key to winning.... and for many years, Hollywood capitilized on the hero's ability to glean important information by simply watching other players. In one scene from David Mamet's "House of Games" a gambler explains how he interprets his opponent's physical ticks. In poker-speak, these slight giveaways are known as "tells".

But the physical nuances of poker, as we've been talking about today, are becoming automated.

Our last guest, Gautam Rao talked about meeting his match against an on-line poker game run by computing science researchers at the University of Alberta. It's called P-S-Opti.

Darse Billings is a PhD candidate who helped design the program. He's also a former professional poker player. He joined us from Edmonton.

Artificial Intelligence Factboard

Artificial Intelligence as an idea has been around for a long time … the ancient Greek myth of Pygmalion tells the story of a sculptor who falls in love with one of his creations. Aphrodite takes pity on the love-sick sculptor and brings his creation to life … the two are married and live happily ever after.

Since then, humans have longed to animate machines - machines that could both work for them …and play with them.

One famous medieval example of A.I. was a chess-playing machine known as 'The Turk'. The automaton wowed audiences with its chess-playing abilities ... until a little man was discovered hiding inside.

The ongoing challenge for scientists has been to create an intelligence similar to our own ...empathetic, associative, and creative. We WANT a "little man inside," we just haven't managed to create one.

Most A.I. programs work using super-fast processing speeds. IBM's chess-playing "Deep Blue" calculated 200 million moves a second … enough to beat the Russian chess master Kasparov in 1997. In January of this year Kasparov managed a little better … his 6-game series against the program "Deep Junior" ended in a draw.

For many, there is only one real test of whether or not a computer can really think. It's called the 'Turing Test', named after the British mathematician Alan Turing. If the computer's text and audio responses can be repeatedly mistaken for human responses by a group of judges, then by Turing's criteria - that computer is intelligent.

The annual Loebner Prize seeks to test this. Every year it offers a grand prize of $100,000 for the first computer whose responses are indistinguishable from a human's. In 12 years the top prize has never been collected.

Some of the most exciting advances in Artificial Intelligence are happening in the world of gaming.

In the online game Ballerium, an artificial intelligence system learns the player's style of play and takes over when that player has to go to the bathroom or gets called to dinner by Mom.

In another game … called 'Black and White' … the program uses a technique called 'empathic learning' to figure out the intent behind other player's actions.

Listen to The Current: Part 2

The Current: Part 3

Zimbabwe Documentary

Although George Bush will not make a stop in Zimbabwe on his tour of Africa, the country was still very much on the US president's agenda. During a visit to Botswana yesterday, Bush said he expects to see democratic reform in Zimbabwe.

The country is spiralling toward famine under the rule of Robert Mugabe, who has been in power for 23 years.

Last year, Mugabe was re-elected in a vote the opposition said was fixed. He has also come under international scorn for taking property away from the white landowners who drove Zimbabwe's economy. Although he promised the land to the poor, he has not delivered.

Now, Zimbabwe's economy is in a freefall as farmers and investors continue to flee . . . and more and more people are left hungry.

Several months ago, "Dispatches" contributor Carolyn Dempster spent three weeks in the country. In her documentary, "Starving for Power," she says that in Zimbabwe today, you're either a Friend of Robert's . . . or you're left unfed.

We're listening to a documentary about Zimbabwe that Carolyn Dempster prepared for Dispatches last winter.

Some Zimbabweans describe these as vinegar times, when people are fed only lemons. The fact is many have less to eat than that.

Yet as the country grows weaker, Robert Mugabe grows stronger. The resolve to resist him is undermined by hunger, and by AIDS. In Zimbabwe, as many as 3,000 people a week are dying from the disease. Over a third of the population is infected. And yet hunger may kill them first

Viewed from afar, Zimbabwe cries out for massive humanitarian aid and human-rights reform.

In the second half of Carolyn Dempster's documentary, Zimbabweans tell her that Mugabe is using the crisis as a means of consolidating his own power.

Listen to The Current: Part 3