Computer program learns language in artificial childhood

An Anonymous Coward points out this item from the Reuters news agency on CNN, which deals with an AI langugage-learning research project in Israel, aimed at teaching a computer to use language the same way a human child does. Appropriately for this year of 2001, the program is name HAL. Read about it at:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/08/20/comput er.hal.reut/index.html