Slashdot Mirror
The Virtual Teacher
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from Illinois and Florida are developing a networking system which will create virtual representations of real people to improve our knowledge. They will use artificial intelligence and natural language processing software to enable us to interact with these avatars. The goal of the project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is to give us the possibility to interact with these virtual representations as if they were the actual person, complete with the ability to understand and answer questions. We should see the results at the beginning of 2008 — if the researchers succeed."
Summary of article (IMHO):
Guess what. In the future, we will create avatars that will look and sound just like real people. To see how far along we are, take a look at some of these avatars
(decent graphical images, which not an AI make)
There's some money from the NSF to continue this effort.
Really smart guys are working on ways to get realistic sounding voices and
mannerisms.
We're using motion capture too.
Is this commercially viable? We'll have to see.
First of all, this virtual avatar stuff is icing on the cake. The first (easiest) Turing test implementation does not require body language, realistic avatars, or
mannerisms, and we are still YEARS from that. What makes anyone think that this is remotely possible by next year?
P.S. The submitter's name seems familiar. Where have I heard it before?
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
but can I frag them with a rail gun?
True Names by Vernor Vinge to me...
It will never be able to be used to help in public schools because it doesn't pay union dues.
Allergies are blocking my nose, but I can still smell the stench of sensationalism with this one.
'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
I doubt we will see any meaningful result soon on this field. First because AI is not at this advanced point yet (in order to provide improvisation and interactivity), and the use of pre-recorded images and sounds cannot cope with the ingenuity and the unpredictability of the students. Second because human beings, although very sympathetic to the idea of talking heads (just look at clippy), in the long run get bored of it.
On the other side, I already had a couple of teachers that were completely inept to their jobs, following scripts just like a computer program with pre-recorded footage would. But computers are very unlikely to come even near to advantages a real good teacher can provide.
P.S. The submitter's name seems familiar. Where have I heard it before?
Roland submits dozens upon dozens of stories to Slashdot. "Vacuous" is pretty accurate; I've repeatedly heard Slashdotters ask for the ability to filter his crap like we used to be able to filter Jon Katz.
The primary difference is that while Katz was batshit insane and overimpressed with himself, Roland simply states the obvious and inane in his "article", and then submits it to slashdot. He regularly does little more than quote sections of the article and supply obvious commentary...and watches the hit counts roll in.
There are two remarkable facts: one, that there isn't better content in the submission queue, and two: I don't think I've ever seen comments posted supporting him. Hilariously, on the rare occasion he does post, he's moderated down so fast, he must be on the level of the GNAA people in terms of Karma.
Since hits support Roland, I'd suggest slashdotters tag his stuff "boycottroland"
Please help metamoderate.
I know that a lot of people here at Slashdot have a burning hatred for Roland Piquepaille. But I find it confusing. The articles he submits are always very interesting, especially for those of us interested in science. They're the epitome of "news for nerds".
The problem is that he submits interesting articles which are linked via his blog. So we read a blog story about a blog story about something interesting.
He forces slashdotters to go through his site (racking up hits and advertising dollars) to read the actual interesting content...
Please help metamoderate.
He used to summarize the articles on his blog, and then submit the link to his blog on Slashdot instead of linking to the original article, which netted him ad dollars every time someone visited. Now, he submits links to the original article, but still gets a link back to his blog (if you click on his name). Most Slashdotters still hold a grudge against him for his past actions, which is understandable since he was essentially spamming.
Sent from my iPhone
"Ask Jeeves" tried to do this and failed miserably. What hope does this have? Researchers still cannot even write acceptable language translation software, and this would be far beyond that.
The problem is as soon as the teacher says anything like: 'Now class, I'd like you to help me do this...' WAAAJAANNAAA!!! Everyone gets a massive fine from Amazon for infringing their 'Humans Assisting Computers' patent.
I wonder if Amazon will use special lawyer avatars to hand out the court summons?
I'm going to transform myself into a mighty hawk. Either that or I'll just go and work at Dixons, haven't decided yet.
seen that one before too.
This is an automated comment generated by a grease monkey script. If you agree that this is posted by a blog whore, or if you do not want to read any future articles with no useful or new content, you can gray out all Roland Piquepaille articles with this script:
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don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
How does Virtual Teacher discipline Non-Virtual Ritalin-Required Student? Shock buzzer? Stern language? Complete room lockdown with titanium sheeting? Lasers? How does Virtual Teacher respond to vulgarities? Slang?
"Yo', homes, teach me sum alg'braw 'n' shiz so I be up on da fo'-one-one and tut' me sum ladayz, fo'shizzaw muh nizza, biznatch."
"Please repeat query."
"Yo, man, dis shit is whack."
"Please repeat query."
"What da fuck."
"Please refrain from using profanity."
"Hey, fuck you, man."
"LOCK DOWN IN PROGRESS."
*CLANG CLANG CLANG*
"Cleansing speech orifice with Javex. Please wait..."
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
... they have a Mary K. Letourneau avatar available.
Have gnu, will travel.
I've just added *.primidi.com (Roland's blog) to my adblock filters. I obviously never go there intentionally, but I've clicked on his links a few times without checking the submitter name. I suggest you all do the same.
Unfortunately, the ZDnet article linked is also written by our buddy Roland. I do wish that Slashdot would give me a way to avoid his crap (or, y'know, just not approve his stories). Either way, I think the boycottroland tag will help me in the future.
Actually, the zdnet article he linked to is a blog that Roland writes for zdnet. So, he is still linking to his spam. Unfortunately, zdnet seems to think that Roland is providing a useful service, just like Taco does. I was sort of hoping Roland would go away, and he is only becoming more popular.
I don't believe this would benefit learning.
A real teacher interacts with his students.
He notices their behaviour and based on that he adepts his lessons.
Think of it would a digital teacher help teenagers learn (adults are much the same).
More likely computer screen colors fancy graphics will distract away from what has to be learned. Remember we probaply all had tried that web advising monkey advater that could speak and would help you search the web. Nice idea but it mainly distracts. And computers dont understand people.
If you want to learn and want to learn.
You want to do it in quikest possibble way (as learning is a boring time eating proces).
You need the get facts inside your head, you could only do that optimal in environments with minimal distraction. while your mind is 'fresh' like in the morning (not tired).
Then simply the best method is "Read a book", and make some notitions of what you read.
There realy isn't anything better then that for theoretical knowledge.
If you need practicle knowledge then the best way is do it, i can talk about sculptures, but if you would like to know what it takes to make it, you need to do it.
And so far all those modern computerized les methods, i have to say crap!
(as a teacher i've often studied the way how people learn)
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change.