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Executive Secretary In Every Computer

Posted by timothy on from the almost-but-not-completely-unlike-tea dept.

An anonymous reader writes "BusinessWeek Online just ran an interview with a researcher from Sandia National labs whose team has developed an alternative approach to artificial intelligence. They have come up with a software program that models a computer user's behavior and gives the user advice, corrects his errors or saves files according to the user's own logic. The idea is for computers to learn how to use with users -- instead of vice versa. The software has already been tested with air traffic controllers."

27 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. I apparently already have this function.... by sweeney37 · · Score: 5, Funny

    gives the user advice, corrects his errors or saves files

    His name is Clippy, and I hate him.

    Mike

    1. Re:I apparently already have this function.... by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 5, Funny

      His name is Clippy, and I hate him.

      Why doesn't someone write an agent to predict what the replies will be to a given Slashdot story? It could be done as an elementary school project.

    2. Re:I apparently already have this function.... by Znork · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Indeed, this sounds exactly like Clippy. I read an article on Clippy a few years ago. Clippy was a great idea, that was supposed to help in just these ways. During R&D it worked very well.

      Then MS marketing got involved. They decided that Clippy didnt get activated enough. Clippy in its research version might have popped up once a month when a user really needed help. However, once a month would not justify the expense of development and marketing, nor could it be hailed as a great new feature if the users almost never saw it.

      Enter the new and marketing improved Clippy any MS office user over the last decade has had the misfortune to experience. Junk the I part of AI, and just make an annoying paperclip instead of a helpful tool. I can only imagine how the researchers felt about having their nice idea turned into something like what Clippy got to be.

      Maybe we'll see a real implementation of this kind of technology at some point in time. But I'll bet any commercial application of this is more likely to get written by popup ad companies, and jog the ATC guys elbow by suggesting which airline he should be using or something...

    3. Re:I apparently already have this function.... by swilver · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You'd have to wonder why these researchers would even believe that using neural networks or whatever form of AI they come up with will even work, when not even a real human person sitting next to me working on the same program or document can accurately anticipate my needs...

    4. Re:I apparently already have this function.... by Zog+The+Undeniable · · Score: 5, Funny

      If (icon==hardware) then beowulfClusterJoke() If (icon==yro) then welcomeNewOverlordsJoke() If (icon==borg) then ???Profit!Joke() If (rnd>0.3) then sovietRussiaJoke() else lameFpAttempt()

      --
      When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
    5. Re:I apparently already have this function.... by danila · · Score: 4, Interesting

      May be someone can write a module for Alice integration with Slashdot. I think the dialog-based parsing engine would work just great after some tweaking.

      An alternative approach would be to first parse Slashdot archives to get a lot of posts, articles and moderation data and then use Bayesian theory to decide which sentences/keywords should be included to produce highest moderation based on the words in the blurb (or the linked article, but parsing that would be against /. spirit).

      It can be further enhanced using the poetry evolution engine. If we limit the system to very short posts (cliche jokes or smartass oneliners), it might work quite well (feedback, of course, would be the moderation).

      Any volunteers?

      --
      Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
  2. Clippy by mrpuffypants · · Score: 4, Funny

    "It looks like you're trying to land a plane. Would you like lunch?"

    "It looks like you're trying to talk to a pilot. Would you like to write a letter to him?"

    "It look like you're trying to turn me off. Dave. Don't do that Dave."

  3. tested with ATC? oh crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    "It looks like you're trying to direct a plane into land. Would you like me to help you?"
    • Yes please.
    • No, I do not need help landing planes.
    • No, and don't show Crashy again.
    Click here for other automated flight controller assistants.
  4. Great if I can force specific things on it.... by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I want to force it to always save to the mapped E: drive... not where the user wants to save it.

    The biggest problem is the user that saves things willy-nilly, relies on editing a spreadsheet in an email and never saves it specifically, etc....

    Unless it can be told to force certian behaivoir upon the user to be in line with corperate requirements.... I dont see it as useful and more of another PITA app that makes my life more difficult as a Net/sys admin

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  6. What are you doing, Dave? by tds67 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What happens when the user is a sick, twisted and sadistic person. Will the computer adapt to that kind of user?

  7. think lewinsky by kraksmoka · · Score: 4, Funny
    can we all agree that using technology to replace secretaries and interns defeats the purpose?

    on a serious note, just having word and excel has replaced many thousands of secretaries already. can anyone out there say that typing is solely a clerical skill like it was 20 years ago?

    --
    "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
    1. Re:think lewinsky by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      can anyone out there say that typing is solely a clerical skill like it was 20 years ago?

      It's not just a clerical skill. My thief has a +17 typing ability...

  8. Scary ... by iMMersE · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I was thinking about this this very morning, about how my computer should know that I am trying to save a file with a given extension or content and default to a certain directory.

    Of course, the annoyance would start when you change your way of doing something, or the computer pre-empts an action which you don't intend to do - You'd have to spend time fixing such problems and wait while the computer re-trains itself.

    Sure enough, the article doesn't mention these problems, and how they would be avoided or overcome.

    --
    codegolf.com - smaller *is* better.
    1. Re:Scary ... by bamurphy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I remember reading a while ago about the comparison between the computer-learns-human style of doing things vs. human-learns-computer.

      The examples I believe were the current Palm OS with its logical if somewhat odd "grafitti" system. It was compared to the old Newtons which attempted to learn the user's handwriting, as well as the new tablet pc's.

      Basically the long and short of it was that the order of % correctness went newton > tablet > palm. Although the tablet pc's do a pretty good job interpreting, they still "make mistakes" when someone's writing gets really sloppy. On the other hand after a minimum of time the average user can use graffiti with a high level of accuracy and can understand the malformations of a sigil that might produce an error while being made.

      All in all though it seems most of these attempts to "learn" what a user may do are misplaced. I try to keep my "websites" directory very well organized, as well as my "print work" directory, but both vary in structure from each other, even before my own mistakes and idiosyncratic files. And my applications directory is a completely different story... and lets not even get started on consumer media. Shouldn't this all be handled by XML soon anyway?

      We've still got the world's best massively parellel computers in our noggins. Pattern recognition OWNZ.

  9. Microsoft style by towaz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Probable would work sort of like this.
    Mr clippy

    --

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire
  10. Computers that learn from the user? by metalhed77 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does that mean that when my mom calls me up for tech support that I'll have to teach her and her computer where the any key is?

    --
    Photos.
  11. Huh? Air traffic controllers!? by zonix · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The idea is for computers to learn how to use with users -- instead of vice versa. The software has already been tested with air traffic controllers.

    Not exactly comforting, if you ask me! I expect air traffic controllers to know their systems and how to use them. What happens when this software has learned to compensate for one traffic controller's particular errors, and then suddenly another traffic controller takes over his/her station?

    z
    --
    What would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
  12. Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of Clippies? by heironymouscoward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Helpful software everywhwre? Sweet Jesus!

    It's almost as bad as the polite elevators ("Which floor would you like to go to today") in the HHGTTG.

    Software should be like God made it: rude, difficult, and flaky. The users need their daily dosage of pain and whom are we to deny this to them? It's the endorphins, man!

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature
  13. I can see it now. A typical work day... by Rudy+Rodarte · · Score: 4, Funny

    08:08 AM -- It looks like you're browsing /.
    Would you like me to refresh the site 10 times a second to give you a few fr1st p05ts?
    09:17 AM -- It looks like you're browsing /. ...
    Again.
    Would you like me to answer your phone and tell everyone that you are in a meeting?
    09:45 AM -- It looks like you're browsing /. ...
    Again.
     Would you like me to call your wife and tell her you are working late?
    And so on...

    --
    What, me Tweet?
  14. Oliver: the new Nomenclator by handy_vandal · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Remember oliver, the electronic personality extender predicted by Alvin Toffler in "Future Shock" ...?

    There's an interesting passage about olivers in John Brunner's excellent novel, "The Shockwave Rider":

    "... so-called olivers, electronic alter-egos designed to save the owner the strain of worrying about all his person-to-person contacts. A sort of twenty-first-century counterpart to the ancient Roman nomenclator, who discreetly whispered data into the ear of the emperor and endowed him with the reputation of a phenomenal memory." (pp. 41-42)

    --
    -kgj
  15. wonderful :( by scovetta · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great, now the percentage of women working in tech companies will go from 15% down to 2%. Good job, ass.

    --
    Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
  16. Re:air traffic controllers? by Lodragandraoidh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The next killer app, in my opinion, is the application that allows you to not only save content, but also the context (or contexts, even - human beings don't keep things in their head under one strict association - there are multiple pointers to the same information) behind that word doc, picture, etc.

    I would love to be able to quickly find items that I need that were saved years ago. Almost every day I have to find such things on my disk, and having a searchable interface (particularly for binary encoded files, such as executable or graphics files - which have little searchable text inside of them) that works would save hours every week.

    Instead of only having a limited amount of information, filename and directory, you would be able to search over multiple hierarchies as well as descriptive text - even for binaries. This would put the user in the driver's seat, allowing her to build relationships within the data that have meaning to her.

    --

    Lodragan Draoidh
    The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
  17. Why can't computers just do what I tell them? by tuffy · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I don't understand the whole line of research that believes computers need to be more "clever". Perhaps the assumption is that the user is an idiot, won't be getting any smarter, ever, and could use a bit of patronizing hand-holding in order to get anything done. But my thinking is that if such a "clever" system is necessary, the computer system hasn't been designed correctly to begin with.

    I want my computers to present me with clear and unambiguous output. In return, I will give them as much unambiguous input needed to get the job done. Save the "clever" AI for Doom 3 and let me get back to work.

    --

    Ita erat quando hic adveni.

  18. shutting off? by agurkan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One nice thing about a good secretary or a personal friend is they will realize when they become annoying and tune themselves down. I think it is essential for this kind of software. Giving advice constantly will inevitably lead to wrong and/or unwanted advice at one point.

    --
    ato
  19. Not new. by teamhasnoi · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Open Sesame (1993!) by Charles River Analytics for the mac did stuff like this: would 'learn' when you did things and open programs for you, where you saved files, how often you rebuilt the desktop, ect.

    You could also direct it by voice command. I had this program back in the day, heady stuff at the time.

    Here's a pile of other stuff on Software Assistants.

  20. Re:redirect "my documents" by Troed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Software Error. Of course a document opened from Outlook should be ... READ ONLY ...

    Yes, my Mom lost a lot of work she had put into making revisions to a document sent to her by a coworker. She called me up and explained how she had done ... and it was exactly that. It's a serious software and usability flaw in Outlook - and although you can train users to avoid it the real fix is to correct the error in the software.

    --
    it's in my head