When I was 11 years old I got my first computer. At the time it was the coolest thing in the world, I could browse the internet, create cool works of art on Paint and play games on Newgrounds.After a while though I started to look into Artificial Intelligence(I know, quite a leap to take from making shitty mosaics on Paint). But it absolutely blew my mind.
As I grew older my interest in it grew, I took IT classes in school and eventually went on to study Game Development in college where I spent most of my time looking up information on neural networks and AI in games. After a while though this interest grew into an obsession, I wanted to make my own sentient computer assistant. Depending on how old you are, you may remember an old application called Bonzi Buddy, It was a shitty little desktop assistant that could perform a limited amount of tasks. Despite its limitations though it allowed me to expand on my idea and come up with a plan for what I wanted to create.
Fast forward to the current day and Artificial Intelligence is taking massive leaps, we have major public figures such as Steven Hawking and Elon Musk talking about it and if you took a stroll over to /r/Futurology then you'll see a lot of hype about 'The Singularity' occurring in our life time.
Because of all this hype though it has re-sparked that interest within me for the perfect Sentient computer assistant. So I started to look in to how to achieve this, I knew it wouldn't be sentient but I was (and still am) determined to make it as human as possible. I looked at videos of home made J.A.R.V.I.S type systems, I found tv shows that involved AI and even watched a few anime. That's when I found a show called 'Mekakucity Actors.
In this show (Anime) There is an AI character called 'Eru' and she is exactly what I imagined when planning this project.
What I wanted as a result of my project was:
1. An AI with a distinctive personality
2. Fluent conversation over microphone and speakers
3. Ability to effect my computer whether that be searching the internet for me, looking for files and notifying me of anything that's happening on my pc
4. be able to use the internet to search for answers if I asked something like "Whats the weather like this week".
5. Text to Speech function so that I could listen to it over the speakers rather then read a text bubble. (with a natural voice)
6. Interface/Character on either my phone or computer screen
This anime displayed all of that and it got my brain whirling, wishing for technology to progress further so I could get to creating my dream. In the meantime I'm limited to playing around with this J.A.R.V.I.S program that I downloaded, But I won't be put off!
The work on Artificial Intelligence is progressing at an extreme rate, so much so that it has Very smart public figures warning us of the potential dangers. I hold on to hope that I'll see this become reality in my life time and I look forward to seeing how it will be used in the future with new technology like smart contact lenses and Virtual reality.
Thanks for reading, I know it isn't very interesting but its been a dream of mine for a long time. Hope you enjoyed it.