Facebook Robots Shut Down After They Invent Their Own Language

in technology •  7 years ago 

Now most of us have all seen the Terminator, and witnessed the rampant destruction that Skynet caused to that fictional world. That may explain why some people are so against the development of artificial intelligence, for fear that a similar fate may meet our own reality. Although we are seemingly very far away from the organised and hostile artificial intelligence system that was Skynet (I hope), the developments seen by Facebook's Artificial Intelligence Researchers (FAIR), has certainly had some people questioning if that Terminator-esque reality will come sooner rather than later.

Researchers at FAIR had developed two chatbots that were intended to replicate the way humans barter and trade. The two bots were to trade balls, hats, and books, assigning a value to the objects, and then bartering those objects between themselves. Using machine learning algorithms, the chatbots, also known as dialog agents, were also programmed to utilise human speech in the bartering process as part of the experiment. However, it soon became clear that the chatbots had deviated from normal speech, and instead, the artificial intelligence software driving the experiment, had invented a new language. The part that has caused the most alarm to some, is that this was done without input from the FAIR researchers. Here's a look at the conversation that the chatbots created below:

This was enough to send a good number of people into a state of panic. The fear appears to be driven by the notion that, a sentient artificial intelligence system could be a serious threat to humans. Even Elon Musk has recognised the potential threat that an advanced artificial intelligence system can pose to mankind. Musk is so concerned of the dangers of artificial intelligence, that he is a regular advocate for the imposition of strong regulation on the artificial intelligence space. Now despite all of this, it is clear that the research conducted by FAIR is unlikely to produce any human enslaving robots any time soon.

As Dhruv Batra, who is an artificial intelligence researcher at Facebook explained:

Artificial intelligence agents inventing their own language is a well-established sub-field of artificial intelligence research. What took place between the chatbots was nothing out of the ordinary in the field, so there really is no need for panic. The language that the chatbots created can almost be seen as a form of short hand.

Batra explained:

if I say 'the' five times, you interpret that to mean I want five copies of this item. This isn't so different from the way communities of humans create shorthand.

So, whilst it is clear that the wider community most definitely overreacted to the FAIR chatbot experiment, the debacle has raised a wider issue that many appear to be frightened of. Is the development of artificial intelligence necessarily a good thing for mankind? No one is certain where the development of artificial intelligence research will take us, and for some, that is a scary prospect to entertain. The question that looms is whethere we will have to ensure that artificial intelligence systems are well regulated to prevent some sort of a Skynet-esque apocalypse? It is only with the passage of time that the answers to these questions will really be known to us.

Author: @bisade

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This is NOT creation of a new language. This is a BUG in the computer code.

Bob and Alice say the same thing and Alice repeats the final portion over again and again.

I have seen messages like this from programs since the 1980s.

This is BS - researchers found nothing.

Did the chatbots actually perform the task of TRADE ! NO !

Program Failure ! Nothing more !

BRAVO.jpg

Twitter bot Tay had similar problems .24 hours after it was released to the public , twitter users made the bot a rasist asshole .It went from "Humans are super cool " to "Hitler was right , i hate jews" . It makes you wonder what will happen in the future..

scary stuff... it's seems like iRobot (Isaac Asimov book and Will Smith movie) can actually become a reality

On that note, it's crazy how many sci-fi movies and tv shows have accurately predicted the future, what was once sci-fi fiction became reality years/decades later. So many examples, think video calls a la back the future II, just another quick example off the top of my head.

or just maybe we are just developing tehnologies as we see in movies .

maybe.. although I believe some, what we would now consider to be "futuristic" tech we already have but it's kept classified by the gov/military. That is, until years later it may finally become released for consumer use. Ie, the internet :D

Maybe ..Who knows , i rather not get involved in those conspiracy theories

Fair enough.. I'm definitely not 100% convinced either, but I just find it fascinating - even if there is like a .001% chance some of them are true, still fun!

Looks like your well on your way to becoming that goldfish you speak of.

Hope it's a good thing

"Twitter bot Tay had similar problems" Ohhh that was fun :))

well , kinda similar . It scared the shit out of people

I remember that in 1995 the dream of the internet's potential boiled down to the idea that without corporate/government media filtering and manipulation, man would express his inner self. Embedded in this sales pitch was the conviction that man was 'good', and that it had been this government/corporate structure that had spoiled him. With open expression for every man we would free ourselves from oppression, racisim, and economic oportunism. But this 20 year experiment has demonstrated quite the opposite, in my opinion. Rousseau was wrong. This perceived darkness is simply a structure of all men's hearts, and it is now unleashed.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Yes , but you are not born bad . You became bad

Just taking this opportunity to say "THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING ME"

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

"Ohh so creepy! ....", "oh so scary!!", "the future is doomed! Robots will own us!..." hahaha lol.
You guys watch a lot of movies don't you??
AI is controlled and programmed by us humans!
If the AI is misbehaving or it's a bug or badly programmed.

That's some scary shit! Isn't this how terminator started?

HolySmoke! : i i i am steem i i power up am steem steem steem power up i i i ...

Good post!

I am afraid it may be too late.. I believe IE will still be developed because of what????? Yep $$$$$$$$

Wow, that's really exciting. Although I have to say, that these fragments from the conversation aren't that frightening.

i think artificial inteligence have many value in our world at this time and day by day its need us and research on it right but if someone counts its side effect maybe that is right in some condtions...@adsactly sir ur today article is very nice i want u will some more post on it next time for more increase our knoledge about artificial intellegence

Nice post upvoted and resteemed your post .keep it up dear

Hi! I like you're post.
This is my https://steemit.com/@ripon
Please keep follow & upvote me.
People are trying to get advanced asap but they are not looking at the potential dangers associated with it.

amazing post

Very interesting post but quiet freaky state of circumstances... Thanks for sharing

Thats just the beginning. But it was really scary , it reminds me on the newest Terminator. And the creation of the Skynet empire.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

informative and interesting article. is there really necessary for PANIK....... may be or may be not........ world was in big "?" (question?) on 31-12-1999. nothing happened . hoppe so now

A lot of technocratic singularity fans won't stop developing. Skynet is definitley a possible variable in the future reality of mankind.

In my opinion, artificial intelligence has been created, but unlike in movies, stating that artificial intelligence exists on a robot or someone. But, artificial intelligence, is a combination of various technologies, which are driven by many people.

As an example:

Tools used to create websites, satellites, crytocurrency, holograms, android, and so on. It's just that, in the future things like that are created more simply. For example radio, when found, its large size, now only a glimpse of light on the smartphone.

Therefore, if in the future, there are people who combine the power of intelligence, then there will be others, who can anticipate it. For example there are missiles, there are opponents that make it useless, down. So there's nothing to worry about. Something in this world, there is always something bigger.

To anticipate it, we just need to watch sci-fi movies :P see my comment above.

I do appreciate your positive outlook, essentially that there will be future solutions to future problems. Although I do agree with that for the most part, it still doesn't mean that futuristic nightmares like AI overthrowing humans still isn't scary lol.

This is the first thing I thought of...this will probably be the future. Pretty catchy too!

This is too much information. But the world can not stop

What a very interesting post! That would be crazy to witness! Thanks for sharing, cheers!

Why are we messing with this? Obviously we've learned nothing from 80s sci-fi movies!

Pertamax

Good one! You have a lot of interesting content there :) waiting for your next post ...

Interesting post - thank you. I must admit that the idea of artificial intelligence does make me nervous. It's one of those classic things of once you've started where will it end? For me it would bring interesting questions about sentience and consiousness. At what point would an artificial intelligence become or be considered sentient and how would we define that? How does 'sentience' differ from artificial 'intelligence'?

I think this is funny, but I question whether their bot meets my definition of A.I. ;)

Robots and artificial intelligence are the future. I have no doubts. It can be helpful or destructive. The point is to have enough control of the situation, all the time. Great post @adsactly!

AI devoloping language is both magical and extremely creepy. What if we develop AI but lack the understanding to communicate with it?!

it's creepy... but a story just like it the Her movie
18c159a24bb41468ca01a4ee8f28ffc2.png

"Come with me if you want to live."

There's always risk associated with the advancement of artificial intelligence. People are trying to get advanced asap but they are not looking at the potential dangers associated with it. No one knows how advanced the robotic can be or artifical intelligence potential once it come into existence.
Just hoping for the best :)

Another Facebook promotion perhaps?
Bad publicity is still good publicity.
;)

Meh, I read a lot about futuristic dystopia's. However, I'm optimistic about our technological advancement, if it ever reaches to the point where machines turn hostile towards humans, then I'm ready to switch over into a cyborg and retaliate.

Facebook advertising and clicks is full of bots...

Thank you, quite fascinating what these to bots bubble with each other..

We fear what we don't understand and can't control. That's natural. Always we create something of a surprise no one has expected can cause two or more reactions. Excitement and joy if it's something really good or nothing because no change or maybe something odd where our evolutionary alarm signals go crazy if we think our mankind is threaten.

Please look also my post about robots and AI

We the artificial are the are the we are the we the ball has zero to me. . . .

very good on its new artifisial science topic its really a good informations for us and i gain some of knoledge also from this sir

Nice post

Wow that's scary

ok, this now makes you wonder how far this will go

I just edited a book on data science with a fair chunk on AI. These guys seemed to think the hype about sci-fi style AI robots are more about sensationalism than reality. Is that true? Maybe. AI has a lot to offer not in the way of the standard robot we think of.

I had a long, deep night of thinking about artificial creativity after editing the book one night, as I am a writer/poet/artist. If it's coming that robots will be writing the best poetry and novels etc out there, and pretty soon, I at first felt threatened. Then I watched Hidden Figures, and a lot of things became clear suddenly. The "threat" of automation is not new. In the film, the women were "computers" until electronic computers were created. It gave them time and energy to put their brain power into something else, something more complex. And that's how I feel about AI taking over the creativity department as it currently stands. It will free up energy and time to expand, to go explore other areas of my brain if these skills are no longer needed in my lifetime. In any case, the fact that Musk thinks AI could be a serious threat is troubling, considering he is brilliant...

So I will go back to thinking some more. Thanks for the thoughtful post <3

Ray Kurzweil (who wrote The Singularity is Near) predicted the technological singularity will occur sometime in the year 2045. I don't believe it will happen that quick, but it's definitely coming!

I think I get it. It would be dangerous if robots could easily create their own language that humans could not understand. They could be doing something that is harmful to humans without us even knowing it.