It’s way past 2001 now, where the heck is HAL?┬á For several decades now we’ve had high hopes for computers amplifying our mental abilities — not just giving us access to relevant stored information, but answering our complex, contextual questions.┬á Applications like human-level unrestricted speech understanding continue to dangle tantalizingly close but just out of reach.┬á What’s been holding AI up? The short answer is that while computers make fine idiot savants, they lack common sense:┬á the millions of pieces of general knowledge we all share, and fall back on as needed, to cope with the rough edges of the real world.┬á I will talk about how that situation is changing, finally, and what the timetable — and the path — realistically are on achieving Artificial Intelligence.┬á I’ll also comment on the hope and the hype of the Semantic Web effort, and the recent cover story in the NY Times (A