Milind Tambe and members of his research group in the Intelligent Systems Division are using themselves as guinea pigs for a new system of computer software "agents," which they whimsically call Elves.

In coming years, more and more working people may find themselves, as Tambe's team does, in a continuous dialog with similar agents, residing in palmtop computers or cellular phones. Tambe's efforts have already been widely reported on in USA Today, the Associated Press, and numerous other media.
The Elves arrange human meetings by consulting among themselves, without human...