Robots Invent Their Own Language

[Ichingcarpenter]

Robots Invent Their Own Language
But no word yet on when they plan to overthrow us.



Australian scientists have invented a new breed of robots called Lingodroids, programmed to make, use, and share language. The bots can coin words to describe places they have been, places they want to go, and plans for getting there. “When they need a new word, they invent one,” says Janet Wiles, a cognitive scientist at the University of Queensland who leads an interdisciplinary team on the project.

The rolling chatterboxes “see” using 360-degree cameras, laser range finders, and sonar. A microphone functions as their ears, and a speaker acts as a voice box, emitting the familiar beeps of a touch-tone phone. As for brains, Wiles outfitted each Lingodroid with an alphabet of beeps that correspond to letters. Then she programmed them to play a series of games in which they paired the letters into nonsensical combinations like “ja” or “ku” and joined those syllables to coin neologisms as needed. For example, in one game two robots roamed through a course and met in an unfamiliar part of it. The meeting triggered one robot to name the spot “jaya” and share the new word with its partner, who then added the word to its lexicon. In this way the robots slowly built a new language to describe their travels and eventually even learned to communicate and understand directions.

Wiles notes that although the language may seem simple, for robots, grasping spatial information is incredibly complex. “We don’t realize how sophisticated our use of language to describe the world around us is,” she says. Ultimately, she hopes to teach her robots to chat up humans, paving the way for robotic caregivers, companions, and butlers.


More:http://discovermagazine.com/2011/sep/16-robots-invent-their-own-language

[DemVoter2012]

1. SmarterChild...

It'd be like running into SmarterChild on the train or something, hahaha. That's as neat as the robots that learned to poison each other.

[targetpractice]

2. Let me be first to say...

I welcome my new robot overlords.

[Motown_Johnny]

3. Now can we get them to invent their own math?

I would love to see if they might even provide some insights that we mere humans may have missed

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. Marvin the paranoid robot says its 42

I thought you understood that? Anyway Marvin thought that the best conversation he ever had was with a coffee machine but that was millions of years ago.

In seriousness I think A.I. is getting here faster than we think.

[Tesha]

6. AI is probably like everything else:

Plunk along for ages and ages, making scant progress until things
reach critical mass/a tipping point and then the technology explodes
onto the scene everywhere.

Tesha

[Motown_Johnny]

8. I hope A.I does get here fast. Is seems human intelligence is waning quickly

judging from the (R) debates that is.


I have long considered the possibility that we have a basic flaw in our mathematics that is causing some of the insane paradoxes in cosmology. IMO it would be something akin to applying Euclidean Geometry to non-Euclidean problems.


I think we need a 4 dimensional version of Euclid's 5th postulate and that humans just are not smart enough to develop it (yet).

Maybe if an A.I. were to start from scratch and develop mathematics on its own we might be given some new tools to work with.


Just a dream, I know, but isn't that what scientific advancement holds for all of us?

[Tesha]

5. "There is another system." (NT)

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. I really enjoyed that dystopian movie then

and even now.

The computers used in Colossus: The Forbin Project
When the executives at Control Data Corporation found out that Universal was planning a major movie featuring a computer, they saw their chance for some public exposure, and they agreed to supply, free of charge, $4.8 million worth of computer equipment and the technicians to oversee its use. Each piece of equipment carried the CDC name in a prominent location. Since they were using real computers - not just big boxes with a lot of flashing lights - the sound stage underwent extensive modifications: seven gas heaters and five specially-constructed dehumidifiers kept any dampness away from the computers, a climate control system maintained the air around the computers at an even temperature, and the equipment was covered up at all times except when actually on camera. Brink's guards were always present on the set, even at night. The studio technicians were not allowed to smoke or drink coffee anywhere near the computers.

Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a supercomputer firm. For most of the 1960s, it built the fastest computers in the world by far, only losing that crown in the 1970s after Seymour Cray left the company to found Cray Research, Inc.

[miyazaki]

9. Nothing nonsensical about "ja or "ku"

it's right of of the Japanese kana syllabary.