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Digital 'Ghosts' To Guide Students On Campus

Posted by timothy on from the my-school-had-undead-staffers-ahead-of-time dept.

Hambone.dk writes "The students at Copenhagen's new IT University will soon be guided by invisible, but talkative digital agents, known as ghosts or Disembodied Location-specific Conversational Agents. The ghosts are to compete amongst themselves for privileges such as better vocabulary or the ability to clone themselves. Ignored ghosts can die out completely. This project is a lot more serious than it sounds at face value - several papers have been published already."

15 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by Space+cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's to stop these ghosts being maliciously "trained" to give the wrong answer... I remember a teacher at college (Mr Tittershill), who was routinely used in a joke on freshers (report to Mr Boobershill at the senior common room, NOW! ...)

    Is it only me who first thinks of "how to game the system" when presented with a new technology ? Perhaps I should have been a hacker :-)) [note to US authorities - this is a joke, and I have no intention of committing any crimes (cyber- or otherwise) when visiting the USA]

    Simon

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
    1. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, if it's a true learning system, nothing, of course. But if you've got competition, then either you'll need a large body of people to make sure the badly trained ghost stays fresh and popular, or it will get ignored and "die".

      For this sort of project I think you actually NEED people to try and abuse the system. If it's well designed, it'll help it get smarter. If it's poorly designed, then, at least, they'll be able to tell.

      Mind you, I think the whole think will fail for lack of computing power, though I think it sounds cool.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  2. Great. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Get ready for the Marketing Ghosts assaulting you on every street corner...

    I can barely wait...

    1. Re:Great. by lionchild · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Get ready for the Marketing Ghosts assaulting you on every street corner... There's an upside to that: If you ignore them enough, they die off...unlike current marketing firms.

      --
      Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
    2. Re:Great. by |/|/||| · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Ah, but only if everyone ignores them. Telemarketers would go away if everyone ignored them, but unfortunately that is not the case.

      I find myself becoming less and less tolerant of advertising, as it becomes more and more prevalent. I wonder if anyone else feels this way. The only radio stations that I can stay on for more than a couple of minutes are the listener funded ones (like KEXP), and there's no way I can stand to watch TV anymore. I can tolerate banner ads as long as they're not animated, but anything on the web that delays me from the actual content gets closed and forgotten.

      I hope I'm not the only one who would be extremely pissed to have audio advertisements bombarding me on the street corner. If they can't be avoided, then they will have to be destroyed; and society should not consider those who do so to be vandals.

      Before you draw a parallel between these 'audio ads' and billboards (which also cannot be avoided) note that human vision is much more focused and selective than hearing - I can't just point my ears in a different direction.

      --
      [javac] 100 errors
  3. feelings??? right. by blue_adept · · Score: 5, Insightful

    from the website project pages...

    "the ghosts are not only able to talk and think like human beings they are also emotional and sensitive spirits. the ghosts have feelings and highly complex sets of behaviors"

    this is very misleading. natural language processing and complex behaviour is one thing, but to claim that these programs have "Feelings" is just ridiculous.

    --

    "Is this just useless, or is it expensive as well?"
    1. Re:feelings??? right. by thelasttemptation · · Score: 5, Insightful

      To be honest, the same can be said about you...

      natural language processing and complex behaviour is one thing, but to claim that these meat puppets have "Feelings" is just ridiculous.

  4. wikipedia by an_mo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... obviously you have never seen the wikipedia. To put it in somebody elses' words, "with many eyes, all bugs are shallow". This principle does not apply to software only.

  5. ghosts play pranks too by lockholm · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Ghosts use every means possible to get the users attention and affection but their modus operandi varies in accordance with the preferred segment of users they try to reach. Some rely mostly on entertainment e.g. by becoming popular as respected opponents in the local computer game, other use the assistive interaction as their preferred metier. Some perform practical jokes, some are 'jack-ass'ing', others rely on more innocent ways of entertainment (like the singing sisters street performing at second floor) while a few are responsible polite and earn their ITU's[positive feedback] from maximizing the standard of their services.

    I bet the freshmen are easy targets...

  6. PR nightmare by Ssbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This technology mixing AI and artificial voices seems really cool, but comments like

    "Ghost are almost living beings like you and I"

    need to go if they want the public behind it. No matter how complex the AI is or how real the voices seem, they aren't the same as humans. And while they are at it change the name of the AI beings. The word ghost already has a very defined meaning ... and it's not a good one. Remember what happened with the American car "nova" or "no go" in Spanish? This really could turn into a PR nightmare for these guys. Which would stink because the technology definitely looks interesting.

  7. Too much by mod_critical · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This seems to me to be going quite a bit overboard...

    If the purpose is to provide a useful resource to the people who will engage these ghosts, then I see far to much work going into the AI. A helpful computer contains what you want to know and provides an effecient interface for extracting the information.

    Not that this project is not of great interest to me from a research standpoint, but perhaps the most useful faceless computer interface wouldn't be one that is trying to gain popularity and lock the morons in the closet.

  8. Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? by gears5665 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the blind people I know are more able to get around campus than some of the sighted folk.

    While your heart is in the right place...you understimate and insult through your ignorance a very capable sector of our society.

  9. Re:M$ Word Paperclip anyone? by dave420 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Location-specific ghosts are just that - they belong to the location. To the instutution they "haunt", it's more important for those ghosts to be theirs. Would you create a system where any script-kiddie can walk in and upload their own code via wifi? exactly. Especially seeing as these ghosts sound like future replacement for staff (with all the responsibilities/abilities that implies). Imagine going into a shop with your own personal check-out boy/girl, and have them run behind the counter to serve you. Not exactly a nice idea for the shop owner - strangers in the till, no guarantees they're not ripping you off. That's exactly what having a personal ghost interacting with a building/institution is like. Having ghosts that were built for a specific area also means they can be programmed to suit that area better (ie they know the fire alarm test is in 2 minutes and warns you not to spill your coffee, or that the west stairway is less crowded in the afternoon). It must be very difficult to convey flow through buildings in an XML file, adequately enough to be of use.

    And, dude - You don't see microsoft going on about "linsux", do you :-P

  10. Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? by ryanwright · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While your heart is in the right place...you understimate and insult through your ignorance a very capable sector of our society.

    I chose to respond rather than mod you down:

    Quit your P.C. whining. Nobody is insulted unless they choose to be insulted, in which case the problem lies with them. As you yourself said, his heart is in the right place, so your response is unnecessary.

    You really can have this one of two ways:

    1. You can accept that people are ignorant about a disability and choose to appreciate their help, however unnecessary it may be.

    2. You can choose to be insulted and become a P.C. weenie, bitching and moaning and berating people who have nothing but good intentions. End result, that person will never again offer their assistance to a person with a disability because you've made them feel ashamed of themselves for doing the right thing.

    I suggest number one. It makes you look like less of an ass and doesn't discourage people. Maybe the blind people you know are very capable who don't want any help, but there are others who aren't as capable and actually appreciate the assistance. Don't leave them out in the cold by turning away those who would seek to help them through your P.C. nonsense.

    --
    -Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
  11. Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? by Some+Dumbass... · · Score: 2, Insightful

    2. You can choose to be insulted and become a P.C. weenie, bitching and moaning and berating people who have nothing but good intentions.

    Based on your post, it seems that the same can be said of Un-P.C. weenies. Do you really think that the grandparent post had such bad intentions?

    You know, this whole concept of "P.C." has really run its course. All we have now are two sides. Both of them complain that the other side is putting them down for no reason, both insist on the right to speak their mind, and both probably have good intentions most of the time.

    What's the f*#$ing difference between them anymore?

    I mean it. Consider that any of these insults could apply to either side equally well:

    Nobody is insulted unless they choose to be insulted, in which case the problem lies with them.

    This applies just as well to both gears5665 and ryanwrights' posts

    As you yourself said, his heart is in the right place, so your response is unnecessary.

    Likewise.

    I already commented about that "#2" from the parent post. Here's my favorite part:

    Maybe the blind people you know are very capable who don't want any help, but there are others who aren't as capable and actually appreciate the assistance.

    The irony is that the granndparent post said exactly the same thing. The grandparent post replied to a post which claimed that blind and disabled people might need help by stating that the some blind people (the ones "he knows") wouldn't. Both of you are saying that some blind people might need help, but that many don't. What bothered the grandparent post was the implication that _all_ blind and/or disabled people needed help.

    The grandparent poster may have read too much into the great-grandparent post. Maybe. But that's about it.