Google’s newest robot is “not ashamed of being of a philosopher.”
Google has released a research paper on its latest science experiment, an advanced, artificially intelligent “chatbot” that can carry on conversations both simple and profound with humans.
While the chatbot was programmed with a basic training set of dialogue, it does not simply parrot the English language back to its companion. Instead, it invents unique, new responses and forms its own questions. Unlike other robots, which have to be specifically programmed for each response, the Google chatbot can learn language on its own. Google’s chatbot uses a neural network not unlike the human brain, and it also has a long term memory that it can draw upon to contextualize and respond to new information.
According to the researchers, the chatbot can not only retain and reuse information, it can also “understand contexts” and “perform common-sense reasoning.” They were slightly discouraged that the chatbot is only capable of “simple, short, sometimes unsatisfying answers to our questions.”
Morality, emotion, and God…
And yet, the chatbot is able to discuss such complex topics as morality, emotion, and God. When asked “What do you think of Bill Gates?” the chatbot responded “He’s a good man.” The chatbot reported that the purpose of life was to serve the greater good, while the purpose of living was to live forever.
This is just one of many efforts Google is making to develop artificial intelligence. Its London-based research lab, DeepMind, has also developed a robot that can teach itself to play video games without instructions from humans.
Artificially intelligent robots may eventually replace humans in a number of fields. Google’s research has shown that the robot can help people troubleshoot problem with their computers and internet. Next time you call Google for tech support, you may, in fact, have a conversation with chatbot.
