Gigolo Joe prances through the hotel door, commands an internal computer to change his brunette coiffure to blond, and cocks his head to the right -- Barry White emanates from a stereo buried deep beneath his polyester suit. One of the most endearing humanoid characters from Steven Spielberg's A.I, Joe represents a surreal and unlikely fantasy to scientists who expect artificial intelligence to remain a nebulous concept for hundreds of years. Other members of the scientific community say that Joe is only a generation away -- a Hollywood version of the robotic counterparts that will live and work alongside humans within the next 50 to 100 years.

Brandeis University professor Jordan Pollack recently told Fast Company that the world of artificially intelligent humanoids introduced in Steven Spielberg's A.I. remains at least 200 years away. The staggering technology and funds needed to create lifelike robotic puppets like A.I.'s David will keep "mechas" (mechanisms) out of consumers' reach for another two or three centuries, he said.

Jack Dunietz begs to differ. The president of Tel Aviv-based Artificial Intelligence NV (Ai), Dunietz plans to introduce artificial intelligence to the consumer market late next year -- roughly 199 years ahead of Pollack's estimation. Granted, Dunietz's virtual-assistant product will not walk or talk, but it will allow humans to converse naturally with learning machines. And that's just the beginning. Within 50 years, he expects humanoid robots powered by his company's intelligence to demonstrate convincing human feelings and form emotional bonds with their owners.

Dunietz's self-professed "revolution" began early last year in Israel, where Ai chief scientist Jason Hutchens introduced a technological entity based on a learning algorithm -- a piece of software that acquires language through training and experience. This child machine, named Hal for the robot villain in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, works like an artificial brain that gains conversational skills through its interactions with cognitive scientists and child-development experts. Like a human child, Hal is gradually learning to talk.

In February 2001, lingual experts outside Ai reviewed transcripts of Hal's conversations with chief trainer Anat Treister-Goren and could not distinguish between the language skills of the algorithm and that of a 15-month-old infant. According to computer-science visionary Alan Turing, a machine can be considered artificially intelligent if it can fool an interrogator into believing that it's human. Hal passed the test.

By 2005, Dunietz expects Hal to pass for a 5-year-old child. In 10 years, Hal will reach the conversational ability of an adult human. According to Dunietz, Hal will be a full-fledged manifestation of artificial intelligence ... with a growing family in the works. In a discussion with Fast Company, Dunietz explained how and when people will live side-by-side with artificial intelligence in a world where robots and humans become undistinguishable. Are you ready for his vision of the future?

In your lifetime, will scientists be able to create humanoid artificial intelligence that can develop and feel emotions?