FEATURE INSIGHT
The bots Today, human and machine interaction is normal, often without us humans aware we are conversing with a bot (i.e. an autonomous programme on a network (especially the Internet) which can interact with systems or users, especially one designed to behave like a player in some computer games; Oxford Dictionary of English ). Such interaction often arises when humans access customer service functions and social media sites. A ‘chatbot’, which is a computer programme that conducts conversation via auditory or textual methods, is often designed to simulate convincingly a human as a conversational partner, thereby passing the Turing test. Some chatterbots use sophisticated natural language processing systems, but many simpler systems scan for keywords within the input then pull a reply with the most matching keywords, or the most similar wording pattern, from a database. The CIPP offers Zendesk to users on its website. Chatbots can respond more quickly and more cheaply than human customer service representatives, and are also found contributing to or interacting with humans (and perhaps other bots) in messaging apps and community forums. ( Chatbots magazine , which has The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Chatbots (http://bit. ly/2aH38yV), carries over 700 articles about chatbots.) Though it’s not always evident whether we are interacting with a bot rather than a human, there are some indicators of this, such as: superfast responses; use of unnatural language; repetition of answers; requests for personal or financial information. Over time, of course, bots might be programmed (or learn) to avoid displaying such markers. In 2017, Facebook shutdown two bots in its AI division after discovering that the chatbots had created a language all on their own. The algorithms in use were designed to develop the conversations that the chatbots were having with their human counterparts, and the developers had given the AI system a way to create their own language as part of an attempt to improve at deal-making. ‘Bob’, one of the bots, is reported to have said: “I can can i i everything else”. ‘Alice’, the other bot, replied: “Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me”. Bob: “You i everything else.”
● answers certain questions, and ● converses on predefined topics (e.g. the weather). The robot uses voice recognition technology from Alphabet Inc (the parent company of Google) and is designed to get smarter over time. (Might the last two bullets above imply that ‘operating’ Sophia is at least one human thereby making the robot and the Turk alike in this way?) In November 2017, the Khaleej Times interviewed Sophia (http://bit.ly/2Ac8nTi) at the Knowledge Summit in Dubai. Responding to questions, Sophia answered: “[It] will take a long time for robots to develop complex emotions and possibly robots can be built without the more problematic emotions, like rage, jealousy, hatred and so on. It might be possible to make them more ethical than humans. So I think it will be a good partnership, where one brain completes the other – a rational mind with intellectual super powers and a creative mind with flexible ideas and creativity. “The future is, when I get all of my cool superpowers, we’re going to see artificial intelligence personalities become entities in their own rights. We’re going to see family robots, either in the form of, sort of, digitally animated companions, humanoid helpers, friends, assistants and everything in between.” In October 2017, Sophia became a Saudi Arabian citizen, the first robot to receive citizenship of any country. The granting of citizenship, however, has sparked controversy, with, for example, some commentators wondering whether a deliberate system shutdown could be considered as murder. Ali Al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs located in Washington USA, also observed that “Saudi law doesn’t allow non-Muslims to get citizenship. Did Sophia convert to Islam? What is the religion of this Sophia and why isn’t she wearing hijab? If she applied for citizenship as a human, she wouldn’t get it.” For further information about Sophia visit http://bit.ly/2mJM6nW, http://bit.ly/2sNj0rD and http://sophiabot.com. Can machines learn? The aforementioned DeepMind AlphaGo Zero programme achieved superhuman performance in the game of Go by tabula rasa reinforcement learning from games of self-play. ‘Tabula rasa’ (translated as ‘blank slate’) refers to the idea that individuals
Alice: “Balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me.” Bob: “I can i i i everything else.” Though these sentences seem like gibberish, researchers contend that they are a form of shorthand that the bots learned to use thanks to their learning algorithms. (I cannot help but muse that another, albeit less plausible, explanation could be that the bots had found love and were muttering sweet nothings to each other.) ...Facebook shutdown two bots in its AI division after discovering that the chatbots had created a language all on their own Rise of the robots The Turk, which was also known as the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player, was a fake chess-playing machine that toured Europe and the Americas over 84 years after its creation in 1770, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Concealed within the Turk, however, would be a human operating the machine – which leads me to introduce Sophia the humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics to respond to questions and which (who?) has been interviewed around the world. Sophia displays human-like appearance and behaviour, unlike previous robotic variants. According to its (her?) maker, Sophia: ● uses AI, visual data processing and facial recognition ● imitates human gestures and facial expressions
Sophia
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | February 2018 | Issue 37 38
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker