8/25/2023 0 Comments Mitsuku aicandidate at Goldsmiths College, University of London, for research on artificial intelligence in the context of 4Es (the “E”s that make cognitive machines seem human: expertise, expressive, educated and evolving) and cognitive science. Reality is, nearly all chatbots fail - and they tend to fail “catastrophically,” according to Andrew Martin, an administrator of the Loebner Prize and a Ph.D. So chatbots and their programmers pine for a bronze medal - awarded for being the “most human-like computer.” In 2016, Mitsuku took home the bronze. In a text-only conversation, chatbots tend to have trouble fooling a single judge. Even a second-place silver medal, earned by convincing two of the four judges, is nearly impossible to achieve. Hunched over keyboards and chatting simultaneously with a human and a chatbot in two separate text windows, the judges usually know within one or two questions which is the machine and which is the human. To take home the $100,000 first prize and the gold medal - “Solid 18 carat, not gold plated like the Olympic ‘Gold’ medals” - a chatbot must fool a panel of four human judges in a 25-minute video chat over Skype (or whichever video chat is en vogue in the distant future). “Would it hurt if I stabbed you with a towel?” Loebner passed in December 2016, but his contest lives on, held each year in Turing’s testing grounds of Bletchley Park, England (in 2014, the competition’s administration was taken on by the London-based Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour ). Wanting to make this more than just a science fair, Loebner designated cash prizes for “the most human” machine (aka conversational computer program, which would four years later come to be called a “chatterbot” and later still, “chatbot”). So, in 1991, finding himself with an inheritance and a dream, the gregarious machine language enthusiast decided to fund the inaugural Loebner Prize competition. To Loebner, the future would be glorious if someone could develop an AI sophisticated enough to know how to respond when a human asked, “Would it hurt if I stabbed you with a towel?” Gradually, computers began using actual words in response to human-generated queries when developers built smarter natural language-processing algorithms. Long after they parted ways, Loebner was tracking the progress of machines as they gained more serious communication skills. Loebner first fell in love with the poetic macro language of a Univac computer he grew to know on a project in Boston. This query went untested by machine or man until Hugh Loebner - a Hawaiian-print-shirt wearing, disco-dance-floor-manufacturing computer language enthusiast in New Jersey - decided it was high time we quiz these computing devices that were starting to appear on desktops. In it, Turing queried: “Can machines think?” “I don’t think I ever have fooled a human into thinking I am human. Mitsuku and her ilk are part of an elite breed of chatbots that have endured the rigors of the Turing Test in the longest-running instantiation (that’s computer science speak for “making it happen in real life”) of the theoretical question posed by Alan Turing in his now famous “Imitation Game” paper. And once Mitsuku works out the algorithms that can near-perfectly process the polite badminton of conversational information exchange and subsequent bonding and intimacy, she’ll leave Siri in the dust. Her purpose is to imitate the most mysteriously complex achievement of humankind: conversation. Mitsuku is programmed to bat commentary back and forth, elevate questions into happy diversions, and reveal tidbits about her “self” to build a bond of intimacy. His thoroughbred chatbot is a full-on banter professional. Steve Worswick, Mitsuku’s developer, does. Recent personality enhancements have added in “funny” jokes, but Siri doesn’t really care if you enjoy an algorithmically triggered hearty laugh. She responds with pre-ordained quips in response to specific questions. That’s because Siri (or Alexa or Cortana) isn’t built for conversation. And measured against Siri - who will shut down even the slightest bit of philosophical inquiry with a terse, “I can’t answer that,” or the more salty, “This is about you, not me.” - Mitsuku’s conversationally motivated natural language processing engine is a far superior companion. She’ll bring tangents to your boredom party 24/7. Ask Mitsuku for distraction and she is totally down.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |