The Navy's next big research program wants to make the sea service's software algorithms much, much smarter -- so much so that they can automatically detect concealed threats based on incomplete data.

The algorithm would be able to augment its own ability by also looking at potential combinations of code for how a problem could be solved.

The algorithm can learn from a single small scrap of handwriting, though the more text used, the better. When Haines met with the researchers, they had the program “learn” his handwriting and ...