Now what was once was a fun computer-science experiment in natural language processing is becoming a real business for IBM and Wellpoint, which is the exclusive reseller of the technology for now.

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There was an experiment several years ago where business folks were put against junior military officers in computer based wargames.

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The experiment's subjects were 166 UCL students who played at being shoppers in a computer game.

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To prove the experiment would work in an isolated environment, he set up another "hole in the wall" computer in a village 300 miles away.

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In a large-scale experiment overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration , UPS is installing a computer navigation system on all 107 of its Boeing 757s and 767s that allows pilots to "see" other jets without radar.

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"Any firm that wants to expand at low cost will have to experiment with some form of e-commerce, " says Liu Yuhong, vice director for the computer center in Beijing's Xidan department store.

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