The non-profit X Prize Foundation has announced an initiative to enable robots deliver their own TED speech in front of brilliant scientists so good to deserve a standing ovation.

The non-profit, non-partisan organization TED made the announcement to encourage scientists to make quick breakthroughs in science and technology by offering piles of cash to anyone who does the incredible work. The makers of SpaceShipOne are a good example as they were awarded in 2004 with $10 million for being the first private organization to fly a spacecraft to the edge of space twice within a two-week period.

Detailed discussions are still going on to discuss the rules of the contest, and the foundation is seeking online crowd's help to come up with a brilliant design for the same. However, the organization currently has a tentative plan to give robot contenders 30 minutes to deliver a short talk on a subject chosen by the audience. Delivering a speech is not the only task as the contenders would have to answer the questions shot at them by the host and a panel of experts.

However, computer scientist Ryan Adams at Harvard University said that such a task would reveal little about artificial intelligence. "Intelligence involves adapting, learning about the structure of the world, making decisions under uncertainty and achieving objectives over time. Giving a talk and then 'answering questions' doesn't tell us anything about any of these issues", he said.

Researchers said there are many tasks that may appear simpler to humans than TED talks, but robots don't find them easy at all. Climbing a ladder is a good example as it takes the sense of balancing and vision. Sensorimotor control has not been able so far to enable robots effectively perform climbing tasks in the Robotics Challenge set up by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.