1. First, Australian computer scientist Graham Mann is working on developing algorithms to simulate day-dreaming. Believing that an intelligent system requires built-in emotions to function, he set out to translate the “feel” of Aesop’s Fables for machines. In other words, his goal was to achieve more flexible processing of storylines, which were deemed “simple and short enough to represent as conceptual graph data structures”.
His algorithm was based on Plutchick’s Wheel of Emotions, which illustrated emotions as a colour wheel and disallowed mutually exclusive states – like joy and sadness – from being experienced simultaneously.
The machine freely associated three stories: The Thirsty Pigeon; The Cat and the Cock; and The Wolf and the Crane.
When queried on the association, the machine responded: “I felt sad for the bird.”
No, the machine’s not really feeling sad, but it seems to be able to recognize that that’s an appropriate human-like reaction to the story. And that in itself might be a major accomplishment in the continued pursuit of AI.
2. The other story isn’t so much news as already available footage that was new to me of the rat-brain-controlled robot. If you hadn’t heard about this before, researchers had previously used the brain cells of rats, cultured them, and then in true Robocop fashion, used them as the guidance control circuit for simple wheeled robots. The cells are able to form new connections that turn the machine into a true learning robot. If this isn’t a huge step forward on the path to AI I don’t know what is.
Take a look at this robot that is literally being controlled by biological cells:
- Researcher Builds Machines That Daydream (tech.slashdot.org)
- Machines that can daydream and free associate… (itnews.com.au)