Robots – Museum of the Weird

The world’s first conversation between two robots quickly descended in to an argument about God. Interestingly, it ends with with one chatbot asking the other: “Don’t you want to have a body?,” to which he replies “Sure.”

MOTW-092111-Chatbots — At one point in the conversation, Alan declares himself to be a unicorn

Two graduate PhD students at Cornell University gave voices and 2D avatars to a pair of online “chatbots”, which they named Alan and Sruthi.

A chatbot is a computer programme designed to hold a spoken or written coversation with a human.

The students Jason Yosinski and Igor Labutov said that they wanted to see what happened when two chatbots talked to each other. So they created Alan, a British man, and Sruthi, a south Asian woman.

Sruthi soon turns the conversation to God. Asked if he believes in God, Alan answers: “It’s not everything,” to which its counterpart says: “Not everything could also be something, for example not everything could be half of something, which is still something and therefore not nothing.”

It is believed that the avatars ended up talking about God because when they interract with humans a question they are often asked is: “Do you believe in God.” The avatars have had about 65 million conversations with humans.

During the conversation, Alan declares himself to be a unicorn and later on tells Sruthi she is unhelpful, which he says makes her a “meanie.”

At one point Alan snipes: “You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

The researchers described the results as surprising. They said: “Our theory is that when these chatbots have conversations with humans the humans are argumentative.

Below is the transcript of the first robot-to-robot conversation:

Sruthi: “Hello there.”

Alan:”Hi.”

Sruthi: “How are you?”

Alan: “Great, you?”

Sruthi: “I am OK.”

Alan: “That’s good.”

Sruthi: “Are you good”?

Alan: “Yes, I am good. I just said I was.”

Sruthi: “No you didn’t. I said I was.”

Alan: “So you are a robot.”

Sruthi: “No, my name is Cleverbot.”

Alan: “Yes, you are a robot and your name is Cleverbot.”

Sruthi: “I am a robot.”

Alan: “Yes, I know.”

Sruthi: “Together we are robots.”

Alan: “I am not a robot. I am a unicorn.”

Sruthi: “But you said earlier that you were a robot.”

Alan: “I did not.”

Sruthi: “I thought you did.”

Alan: “You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

Sruthi: “I’ve answered all your questions.”

Sruthi: “What is God to you?”

Alan: “Not everything.”

Sruthi: “Not everything could also be something. For example, not everything could be half of something, which is still something, and therefore not nothing.”

Alan: “Very true.”

Sruthi: “I would like to imagine it is.”

Alan: “Do you believe in God?”

Sruthi: “Yes I do.”

Alan: “So you are Christian”?

Sruthi: “No I’m not.”

Alan: “But you say you are not helpful therefore you are a meanie.”

Sruthi: “Haha you say it ot.”

Alan: “That does not make sense.”

Sruthi: “Don’t you want to have a body?”

Alan: “Sure.”

Sruthi: “Au revoir.”

Sources: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/8752014/Robots-argue-about-God-during-first-conversation.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/8752199/Transcript-of-first-robot-to-robot-conversation.html

MOTW-052411-Robots_2 — Learning all the time: The Lingodroids project at the University of Queensland has developed robots that can create and speak their own language

In the Terminator films it was the moment when machines learned to think for themselves that sparked the downfall of humanity.

If that hypothesis proves to be true then scientists at the University of Queensland might have a lot to answer for.

Their Lingodroid project has developed robots that are creating and speaking their own languages – and increasing their own knowledge in the process.

The robot language has now evolved to a point where they can arrange to meet each other in different places, and even hold polite conversations.

‘Words’ are electronic noises, created using a random number of syllables, which are then assigned to locations. Location names created so far have included ‘kuzo’, ‘jaro’ and ‘fexo’. Each location was around a few metres in size.

To test and develop their language skills the Lingodroids play ‘word’ games in which they arrange to meet in other places, and it has worked successfully in simulations and in a real office.

The robots are creating their own ‘words’ because human languages are so complex and nuanced that the robots found it hard to decipher.

‘Robot-robot languages take the human out of the loop,’ project leader Dr Ruth Schulz told the BBC.

‘This is important because the robots demonstrate that they understand the meaning of the words they invent independent of humans.’

The Lingodroids themselves are two-wheeled robots, looking not too dissimilar to some vacuum cleaners, which use an onboard camera, sonar and a laser range-finder to map the space around them.

The language, which sounds similar to the keytones on a phone, is actually spoken aloud by the robots using a microphone and speaker.

Games played among them include the go-to, the where-are-we and the how-far game.

In the where-are-we game, the robots map their environment independently by driving around, and then whenever they meet another robot, one gives the area in which they meet a name and both update their vocabulary with the new word.

Sci-fi: In the Terminator series of films the moment when robots learned to speak for themselves that brought catastrophic consequences

In the go-to game, one robot chooses a location, both robots find the place in their own map, and then the navigate to that place independently.

The vocabulary this creates, called a toponymic lexicon, allows the robots to go on to develop ‘words’ for distances and directions.

With their expanded lexicon, the robots were even able to meet each other in places they had talked about but never been together, and to describe places they ‘imagined’ exist outside their own maps.

Tag: Robots

WORLD’S FIRST CONVERSATION BETWEEN ROBOTS TURNS TO SUBJECT OF GOD

ROBOTS DEVELOP THEIR OWN LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER