"Whatever it takes to do the job," he replied after a moment's hesitation. "I suppose there's never enough money, is there?"
"Ken, why the rush? This sudden drive?"
"It depends on whom you ask." He leaned back and looked at the ceiling. "Some call it survival, Tamara. Maybe it is that simple. Japan is at a crossroads; we're rapidly losing our edge in the cost of labor. The only possible way to counter that is to step up our use of smart machines."
"Well, it looks as if I came to the right place. I'd like to add your name to my interview list."
His look darkened a moment. "Strictly off the record." Then he smiled. "And only if we can do it over dinner."
"That sounds like a bribe."
"Call it an offering from an old admirer." He smiled, attempting to ease the tension. "The most I can do, for now at least, is just give you a small peek at a few of our experimental gadgets. Details are strictly proprietary. At the moment we're concentrating on computer vision and voice access. And on that last, by the way, I think we've just about reached AI's Holy Grail, natural language comprehension."
"Good luck." That was one of the mythical dreams of AI research, a computer that could understand the speech of anybody who happened along. Even though millions had been invested in the U.S. nobody was anywhere close yet.
"I think we're getting there. Enough so in fact that we're starting to look at applications. Expect commercialization in, oh, say a year, two at most."
Look out IBM, she found herself thinking.