Clippy´s Return: It Looks Like You´re Firing a Rocket

Just when you thought Clippy was dead and buried, DARPA are going to use similar technology for learning and automatically handling decisions in military applications. It is intended to take away some of the mundane tasks and decision like scheduling meetings and provide assistance in case of unexpected situations. Engadget reports that a spin-off application for the iPhone will be released for civilians, which sounds not unlike the internet agents that were going to be the next big thing 15 or so years ago. Is the time now ripe, will they provide an additional stimulus for the already successful mobile applications market and more importantly will the general public have more chance this time round of accepting an automaton romping around the net under their own ID?