Baby X is a virtual artificial creation of Mark Sagar and his company Soul Machines Ltd, which looks, makes sounds and behaves like a child, and communicating with him creates a real sensation of communicating with a real child. This is the whole point: Baby X makes communication with artificial intelligence (AI) attractive, and in the course of such communication, the AI learns what it means to be human.
Sagar advocates the humanization of AI - he believes it is important for establishing a symbiotic relationship between AI and humans. Many AI experts believe that robots and artificial intelligence systems can reach their full potential if they become more human, and their behavior and decisions are influenced by emotions and memories, which motivate us to acquire new experiences.
Sagar's methods in this area are completely innovative - they are based on detailed images of faces, hiding biological simulation models of extreme complexity. For example, every time Baby X smiles, it means that he felt something that made his virtual brain release virtual endorphins, dopamine and serotonin. Visualizations of his personality show a glow in areas of the brain associated with speech and pleasure when he sees words and receives encouragement.
“Researchers have created many computer models of cognition, but no one has tied such a model and visualization together,” says Sagar. “This is what we are trying to do: assemble an animated entity. We want to create a computable human central nervous system. The team took this challenge in earnest, and created the most detailed brain map in the world - as part of a broader challenge to reverse-engineer human intellectual activity.
More human
Soul Machines first unveiled an AI face model - named Nadia - in February. Nadia speaks in the voice of Cate Blanchett and will work for the Australian National Disability Insurance Agency, communicating with clients through the website, starting next year. The robot's task is to be more convenient and attractive than regular text bots. Soul Machines has 10 more implementation projects under development - for airlines, financial services and healthcare companies.
As the technology advances, it will have applications in areas less dependent on the user's proximity to the computer screen. Such personalized AI will find application in self-driving cars. The Alphabet, Amazon, Apple companies will probably want to give their virtual assistants a face. Advances in technology will lead to more and more believable virtual assistants, and this raises questions about free will, and about the subordination of an intelligent being - regardless of its nature.
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What if the AI in customer service gets tired of its responsibilities? Could an AI infant be traumatized by human fear caused by the extreme similarity of AI responses to human emotions? Do virtual babies dream of electric cradles?
As Baby X learns to play the piano, laugh at jokes and communicate with people, it is easy to begin to endow him with human qualities, and to think - does he have self-awareness?
Vadim Tarabarko