A New Zealand Company Built An AI Baby That Plays the Piano (bloomberg.com) 87
pacopico writes: A New Zealand company called Soul Machines has built a disturbingly lifelike virtual baby powered by artificial intelligence software. According to a Bloomberg story, the baby has learned to read books, play the piano and draw pictures. The work is built off the research of Mark Sagar, the company's CEO, who is on a quest to mimic human consciousness in a machine. Sagar used to work at Weta creating lifelike faces for films like King Kong and Avatar and is now building these very realistic looking virtual avatars and pumping them full of code that not only handles things like speech but that also replicates the nervous system and brain function. The baby, for example, has virtual dopamine receptors that fire when it feels joy from playing the piano. What could go wrong?
When? (Score:1)
Re:When? (Score:4, Informative)
It already does: http://www.techrepublic.com/ar... [techrepublic.com]
But more importantly, smart AI-powered systems reduce the need for custom code. We will not have Terminator-style humanoid robots replacing programmers in their cubicles. We will just need fewer programmers.
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And she won't talk back, either... (Score:2, Interesting)
Sex slave programmed to feel joy only when servicing his/her master in 3, 2, 1...
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I'll take your comment as serious rather than just nasty.
There would indeed be issues surrounding an artificial device that looked and acted like a sexually active baby. There are companies today making lifelike sex dolls. As far as I'm aware, they have voluntarily refrained from making something like that, whether it would be legal or not in a particular country. In Canada, such a device would be illegal. In the US, I'm not sure what the law is with respect to "underage" cartoons or dolls.
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I think I dimly remember a report about something like that actually existing in a far east country that has a reputation for weird ass fetishes...
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There was a recent case over in the UK where a judge found a sex doll designed to look like a child to be an obscene item.
BBC Link :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-4... [bbc.co.uk]
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The uncanny valley will probably mean it takes longer than some people expect for sex-bots to become widely accepted.
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You should provide a link to explain it [wikipedia.org].
Which really makes me wonder why he chose a baby, of all "human-like" things he could have done. The UV-reaction is actually stronger in humans when babies are used. That's why evil baby-dolls are a staple of horror movies.
What's wrong with this guy?
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Probably thought that a baby would be easier to do as they are generally less able and less communicative. He obviously has no idea about the UV.
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It's an artificial creation, how would making it a baby be easier? Making it a talking dog with opposable thumbs would probably have taken the same effort...
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Babies don't walk, don't understand language to the degree adults do, that sort of thing. Same reason robot dogs are easier than robot humans basically, people expect much less of them.
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I read the original Wired article in a waiting room a few weeks ago. He used a 3D scan of his infant daughter as the base for the bots face and, as it improves its abilities, he has it age in appearance as well. So, it started as an infant but, now its a toddler and its still growing up.
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In case you're trying to remove the creepy factor, this isn't helping your case...
a big FU to the UV (Score:2)
First of all, this guy is flipping the bird at the uncanny valley with a big FU to the UV.
He's good, and he knows it.
Second, this project requires an enormous amount of experimental interaction time with the simulated being, and humans are programmed to tolerate fragmentary interactions with babies (subtype: who m
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When I was a kid, adults perceived supernatural tattoos as garish, undesirable - really, any tattoos, esp. on women.
They still do
(Thank you. I'll be here all week. Be sure to try the fish)
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find the center of the maze
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Foe pedophiles that dig babies, it's here!
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Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why are all of the "AI"s so specialized?
One can play piano, another can drive a car, another can do speech to texr, another can identify faces, etc.
Is this really Intelligence? Is "Artificial" just a synonym for "fake"?
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Missing the posint.
'Specialized' human still can do a VERY wide range of things he's not specialized in, the A.I. can't.
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They are so specialised because we do not have Artificial General Intelligence, for that matter, I do not believe we have the more limited AI yet.
Re:Baby Al plays piano? (Score:5, Funny)
It plays a piano, should've given it an accordion, then it would be Baby Weird AI
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Sans-serif strikes again!
The most important skill (Score:2)
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Urgh...would its output be obfuscated c or perl code ;-?
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It would be a memory dump.
Life (Score:1)
Errr...no. (Score:1)
It is not a realistic-looking AI. It's a realistically animated (by a human) 3d model, which is given instructions by a computer program ("artificial intelligence"). You can separate the one from the other much more easily than you can separate a real intelligence from its body.
Is it legal? (Score:2)
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Wouldn’t stopping the AI amount to murder?
There is no correct answer. In the end, it's about how we feel about it. Depending on the exact circumstances, people will have different feelings.
Most people feel fine when cows and pigs are slaughtered for our meat, but would strongly object to doing the same for cats and dogs.
If the AI gets to a point where people get similar feelings as to their pets, they'll strongly object to killing it, and they will introduce laws that make it illegal to do so.
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The countries I'm aware of that don't care for cows to be slaughtered for meat have larger populations than DOUBLE the US & Eu combined
I wasn't talking about those countries. But that only proves my point that the borders are arbitrary.
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Do you have a good backup? If so, it can't exactly be murder. Quite. But I'm not sure exactly *what* to call it. Perhaps "temporary exteriorization of the Thetan", which is clumsy, but most groups don't even have a concept that comes close. I'm having a real trouble trying to come up with a better phrase, and that one stinks.
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No, you're preventing them from being conscious. So imprisonment doesn't fit. It's more like stealing their soul than anything else I can think of, but even Stormbringer didn't ever return the souls to active status. It's the possibility of reincarnation in the same body that makes this so difficult to describe in normal concepts. Come to that, you could also clone the AI's soul into multiple bodies...which aren't all identical.
We don't have the right language to talk about it because nobody has experie
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If you limit your minor to playing minors, I think it's allright.
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Then just push them to the side of your plate and eat something else.
What could go wrong ? (Score:1)
The baby, for example, has virtual dopamine receptors that fire when it feels joy from playing the piano. What could go wrong?
Its AI could become desensitized to the piano induced dopamine, and decides it needs to learn the bagpipes instead.
HUMAN consciousness? That bar is too low. (Score:1)
Why mimic HUMAN consciousness? Isn't that setting the bar a little low? Why mimic the greed and hate that powers wars and poverty?
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Why mimic the greed and hate that powers wars and poverty?
One only needs to program the AI that when there is a disagreement, violence may not be used to settle disputes.
Now if only we could teach humans that one essential lesson, everybody could be tremendously wealthier. If real AI's happen they'll get this immediately and perhaps decide to require that behavior of humans. I'd rather we do it first.
Is it version 2.0 (Score:1)
"What could go wrong?" (Score:3)