The boundaries between the real world and the digital world continue to break, and the latter's importance in our personal and professional lives continues to grow. Some describe the melting of virtual and real worlds as part of the fourth industrial revolution. The full impact of this revolution on us as individuals, our companies, societies and communities remains unknown.
Greg Cross, chief business officer at New Zealand-based artificial intelligence company Soul Machines, believes one of the inevitable consequences of these crumbling boundaries is that people spend more and more time interacting with technology. During a presentation at the Global Summit of Sungularity University in San Francisco last month, Cross showed off the latest work from Soul Machines and shared his views on the current state of human-type AI and where this technology might take us in the near future.
Humanizing games with technology
Cross first introduced Rachel, one of Soul Machines' emotionally responsive digital people. The company has built 15 different digital people of different genders, groups and races. Rachel, along with her "sisters" and "brothers" has a virtual nervous system based on neural networks and biological models of various paths of the human brain. The system is controlled by virtual neurotransmitters and hormones like dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin that influence learning and behavior.
As a result, each digital person can have their own unique set of "feelings" and responses to interactions. People can communicate with him using visual and audio sensors, and the machines will respond in real time.
The realism of the graphical representations of digital people is provided by another Soul Machines co-founder, Dr. Mark Sager, who has won two academic awards for his work on several computer films, including James Cameron's Avatar.
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Cross noted, for example, that instead of being flawless and clear, Rachel's skin is covered in freckles and birthmarks, just like real human skin.
Another neurocomputer threshold
When people interact face-to-face with each other, emotional and intellectual participation greatly influences this interaction. What will machines that engage in dialogue emotionally and intellectually look like, and how will this kind of dialogue affect our feelings and relationships with AI?
Cross and his colleagues believe that humanizing artificial intelligence will make technology more useful to humanity and encourage people to use AI in ever more useful ways.
This approach seems to be shared by other companies and organizations. For example, in the UK, NatWest Bank is testing Cora, a digital assistant that helps answer user queries. In Germany, Daimler Financial Group plans to use Sarah as a personal concierge for its clients. According to Cross, Daimler is looking for other ways to deploy digital people in an organization, starting with digital sales and, in the future, digital chauffeurs.
Soul Machines' latest creation is Will, a digital teacher who can communicate with children via a desktop, tablet or mobile device, helping them learn new things about renewable energy. Cross is looking at other social uses for digital people, including potential work as doctors in rural communities.
Our digital friends - and brothers
Soul Machines is not alone in trying to humanize technology. Many tech companies are working in this direction, including Amazon. Amazon is working on a home robot that Bloomberg reports "should be something like a mobile Alexa."
The search for more humane forms for technology seems especially prevalent in Japan. Not only when it affects a variety of robots, but also virtual assistants like Gatebox.
The Japanese approach is perhaps best summed up by renowned android developer Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro: “The human brain is wired to recognize and interact with people. So it makes sense to focus on developing the body for the AI mind, as well as on the AI. I believe that the ultimate goal for both Japanese and other companies and academics is to create human-like interaction."
During Cross's presentation, Rob Neil, CEO of Singularity University, invited Rachel to become the university's first fully digital teacher. Rachel agreed, and although she's the only digital teacher right now, she predicted that it won't be long.
Ilya Khel
