Here's a cool artificial intelligence project idea: life on auto-pilot:
How far will this go? It's hard to say. As computers become more sophisticated, we will see more and more, and increasingly complex, tasks handed off to them either temporarily or permanently. Will we one day reach a point where it seems only natural to hand control over to a trusted digital friend when our careers or personal relationships start to get sticky? Just like a really difficult level in a computer game, right? Give the computer temporary control and then you can step back in later when things have calmed down a bit. ...What if a computer program came along that was as good at living your life -- as measured by achieving the outcomes that you most desire -- as a calculator is at figuring out square roots, or as the examples above are at playing Donkey Kong Country or parallel parking? Maybe you wouldn't just relinquish control to it, but I bet you would at least want to know what is has to say.
Actually, I think this would be a pretty simple piece of software to write. The hardest part would be writing the input and output mechanisms.
