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A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

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21–30 of 69 posts

Re: A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

#21
post #13

I enjoyed reading this. Not so far from the endless project management meetings I attend.

Instead of playing b*bingo during online meetings, we (cynical engineers) should contruct meeting-replacement-bots. Bots that join meetings, show some randomized webcam-shots to the other attendees, note down all the agreed-upon dates in our calendar, and so on. That leaves time for real-work. :)

Re: A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

#22
post #15

Why does this show up in the middle? you ==> You know any polish word?

Perhaps the author was bored enough to go through and transcribe the whole chat log manually? I don't see any other way the double-capitalization of "WHat" would slip into a chatbot's output.

chatbots are full of these simple little tricks to make people say "oh wow, lol, it even has typos". To distract people from the fact that the sentence grammar is often bad, let alone the conversation flow.

Re: A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

#23
This just remembered me about the MIT system created by Terry Winograd in 1970 called SHRDLU.

I have always considered that you need an environment to create an artifical intelligence. The basics for a real progress are to be able to learn and if you cannot 'feel' the environment that becomes really hard. There are some basic concepts needed for a 'natural talk' you cannot learn if you cannot perceive things (lets say for example dimensions, temperature, contour).

To overcome those problems SHRDLU created kind of a virtual environment and results from my point of view are really awesome (keep in mind this was done in 1970).

Site with information is currently at Stanford server's: http://hci.stanford.edu/~winograd/shrdlu/

Re: A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

#25
Tl;dr the bot doesn't actually find out the other is an AI, but happens to randomly comment 'You are a robot'. It's all Eliza-style non-sequiturs and canned responses. These bots don't even have internal state that would qualify as 'having found out something'. It's mildly amusing in a funny-coincidence sort of way and nothing more.

Re: A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

#27
post #12

I'm about halfway through The Emporer's New Mind. For those not familiar with the book, (other than wikipedia'n it), Robert Penrose attempts to show why what happens in our brains is not algorithmic at all (and, therefore, strong AI is a dumb idea). It's beautifully written, however, when I see examples such as this log, or the fact that we have an entire industry devoted to the idea that the brain is algorithmic (ps…

Yeah, just wait for something that passes Touring test with 100%.

Touring? Robert Penrose? You must both be human! (only the messenger, not the downvoter)

Re: A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

#28
RFC439, posted by the co-creator of TCP/IP, Vint Cerf, actually has a similar exchange between "PARRY" and the "Doctor" from 1972(!): http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc439

It somehow got no attention though, when I posted it to HN a long time back. The title matters a bit too much, I remember keeping the original title for my post.

Re: A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

#29
post #12

I'm about halfway through The Emporer's New Mind. For those not familiar with the book, (other than wikipedia'n it), Robert Penrose attempts to show why what happens in our brains is not algorithmic at all (and, therefore, strong AI is a dumb idea). It's beautifully written, however, when I see examples such as this log, or the fact that we have an entire industry devoted to the idea that the brain is algorithmic (ps…

It would seem that exchanges like these indicate the opposite. These chat bots have no understanding and anything that seems like it is just some cheap trick or other. It can't be called intelligence, in the same way we speak of human intelligence. Neither would pass the turing test.

However, I am aware that the meaning of AI is always pushed to "whatever we can't yet do". Yet, in this case it's hardly justified to think that these chatbots even slightly challenge Penrose's thesis.

I read the book too BTW, loved it. I'm not sure if he's right, but it's nevertheless a wonderful book and heartily recommend it to all.

Re: A conversation between two chatbots and how one found out the other is an AI.

#30

Back in the day, I used to think that what happens inside our brains is fundamentally different from what happens inside a computer. I no longer hold that opinion, partly because of my finding out that the same thing that makes chat bots appear "bot-like" -- namely, inability to hold deep meaningful conversations beyond cheesy, trite retorts filled with non-specific trivia -- is also what annoys me most when trying t…

We need to turing-test people like that! But seriously, I've never encountered people who can really go that far off-topic. I'm sure it was an exaggeration, but if it was enough to change your mind about how our brains work...
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