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Artificial intelligence researchers are not publishing enough failures, unlike their colleagues in mature fields such as physics or medicine. This is a shame, say Ehud Reiter and colleagues at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, because well-documented failures help researchers refine their theories. To set a good example they have confessed to their own recent failure. In the journal Artificial Intelligence (vol 144, p 41) they describe a computer program designed to encourage people to quit smoking. It exploits previous research showing that people are more likely to give up if encouragement is tailored to them personally. Reiter’s team…