Unbelievable (via OliverW):
Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a web services API for computers to integrate Artificial Artificial Intelligence directly into their processing by making requests of humans. Developers use the Amazon Mechanical Turk web services API to submit tasks to the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site, approve completed tasks, and incorporate the answers into their software applications. To the application, the transaction looks very much like any remote procedure call - the application sends the request, and the service returns the results. In reality, a network of humans fuels this Artificial Artificial Intelligence by coming to the web site, searching for and completing tasks, and receiving payment for their work.
This is the most sense making application scince tetris! finally, after all the years of trying to replace human interaction with computable interfaces, we come out with machines mediating between humans. I like it .. it sounds like a reinvention of the telefon :) — I like this reunion as it marks a win-win situation.