Speech Heads, it seems like even researchers and technologists from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) have also been struck with this summer’s creepy talking robot fever.

According to a New York Times article today, a group of a-list scientists that included Eric Horvitz, researcher from Microsoft, and William Joy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, convened at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California to do nothing but talk about robots. At the center of their conversation: whether or not robotics was advancing to a point at which they might encroach on human liberty and build smarter-than-man selves to exterminate the scattered fleshbags that populate Earth in twisted Karel Capek-like scenarios. Among such scenarios “What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being?”

They pondered heavily over everything from predator drones to robots which can find plugs to recharge themselves, trying to outline recommendations that could prevent a terminator-like post-apocalyptic existence.

Click here for full details.

This week’s New York Times robot piece follows a brilliant expose the paper did last week about Japanese men who are in love with body pillows.

Incidentally, my brother Adam B.’s first love was actually an old futon mattress, which raised my suspicions. A robot story? A man loves pillow story? Was he secretly moonlighting for the Times, pushing his agenda on its readership? Alas, no, Speech Heads. Turns out his subscription to the  paper is going to be up at the end of the month and the paper is just making a desperate bid to get him to renew by targeting articles at him. The newspaper industry must be in a real bad way…