Fully sentient robots like Kit are still a ways off, but computer programmers are starting to make serious progress in the horrendously complex art of artificial intelligence.

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Michitaka Hirose, a professor specializing in virtual-reality technology at Tokyo University, traces Japan's thriving artificial entertainment industry to the art of bonsai, in which medieval nobility honed the reshaping of nature into an art form.

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There are artificial tornadoes in glass tubes, a creepy video art installation, a cooperative Pac-Man game, and a place to send text messages to fish.

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But like comic book and animation aficionados who have seen their pet art forms taken over by cute, anthropomorphic animals, artificial intelligence geeks must be getting anxious.

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