Digital 'Ghosts' To Guide Students On Campus

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."

Comments

Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ?

[Space cowboy]

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

Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ?

[SatanicPuppy]

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.

Great.

[Anonymous Coward]

Get ready for the Marketing Ghosts assaulting you on every street corner...

I can barely wait...

Re:Great.

[lionchild]

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.

feelings??? right.

[blue_adept]

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.

Re:feelings??? right.

[thelasttemptation]

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.

ghosts play pranks too

[lockholm]

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...

PR nightmare

[Ssbe]

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.

Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind?

[ryanwright]

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.