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A New Zealand Company Built An AI Baby That Plays the Piano (bloomberg.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the baby-steps dept.

pacopico writes: A New Zealand company called Soul Machines has built a disturbingly lifelike virtual baby powered by artificial intelligence software. According to a Bloomberg story, the baby has learned to read books, play the piano and draw pictures. The work is built off the research of Mark Sagar, the company's CEO, who is on a quest to mimic human consciousness in a machine. Sagar used to work at Weta creating lifelike faces for films like King Kong and Avatar and is now building these very realistic looking virtual avatars and pumping them full of code that not only handles things like speech but that also replicates the nervous system and brain function. The baby, for example, has virtual dopamine receptors that fire when it feels joy from playing the piano. What could go wrong?

39 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Re:When? by Katatsumuri · · Score: 3, Informative

    It already does: http://www.techrepublic.com/ar...

    But more importantly, smart AI-powered systems reduce the need for custom code. We will not have Terminator-style humanoid robots replacing programmers in their cubicles. We will just need fewer programmers.

  2. And she won't talk back, either... by hyades1 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Sex slave programmed to feel joy only when servicing his/her master in 3, 2, 1...

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    1. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      I'll take your comment as serious rather than just nasty.

      There would indeed be issues surrounding an artificial device that looked and acted like a sexually active baby. There are companies today making lifelike sex dolls. As far as I'm aware, they have voluntarily refrained from making something like that, whether it would be legal or not in a particular country. In Canada, such a device would be illegal. In the US, I'm not sure what the law is with respect to "underage" cartoons or dolls.

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    2. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The uncanny valley will probably mean it takes longer than some people expect for sex-bots to become widely accepted.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I think I dimly remember a report about something like that actually existing in a far east country that has a reputation for weird ass fetishes...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      You should provide a link to explain it.

      Which really makes me wonder why he chose a baby, of all "human-like" things he could have done. The UV-reaction is actually stronger in humans when babies are used. That's why evil baby-dolls are a staple of horror movies.

      What's wrong with this guy?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    5. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by Faluzeer · · Score: 2

      There was a recent case over in the UK where a judge found a sex doll designed to look like a child to be an obscene item.

      BBC Link :
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-4...

    6. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      When I was a kid, adults perceived supernatural tattoos as garish, undesirable - really, any tattoos, esp. on women.

      They still do

      (Thank you. I'll be here all week. Be sure to try the fish)

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    7. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Probably thought that a baby would be easier to do as they are generally less able and less communicative. He obviously has no idea about the UV.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      find the center of the maze

    9. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      It's an artificial creation, how would making it a baby be easier? Making it a talking dog with opposable thumbs would probably have taken the same effort...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Babies don't walk, don't understand language to the degree adults do, that sort of thing. Same reason robot dogs are easier than robot humans basically, people expect much less of them.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    11. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Foe pedophiles that dig babies, it's here!

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    12. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by Cardcaptor_RLH85 · · Score: 1

      I read the original Wired article in a waiting room a few weeks ago. He used a 3D scan of his infant daughter as the base for the bots face and, as it improves its abilities, he has it age in appearance as well. So, it started as an infant but, now its a toddler and its still growing up.

    13. Re:And she won't talk back, either... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      In case you're trying to remove the creepy factor, this isn't helping your case...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Re:When? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Cards? As in, punch cards? ;) Anyway, does it seem like they've recreated a compiler for a rule-based-system, in Python, poorly?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  4. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why are all of the "AI"s so specialized?
    One can play piano, another can drive a car, another can do speech to texr, another can identify faces, etc.

    Is this really Intelligence? Is "Artificial" just a synonym for "fake"?

    1. Re: Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Missing the posint.
      'Specialized' human still can do a VERY wide range of things he's not specialized in, the A.I. can't.

    2. Re:Why? by Faluzeer · · Score: 2

      They are so specialised because we do not have Artificial General Intelligence, for that matter, I do not believe we have the more limited AI yet.

  5. The most important skill by darth.hunterix · · Score: 2

    Ok, fine, piano, books, whatever. But is this AI potty trained?

    --
    What is best in life? Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper.
    1. Re:The most important skill by Faluzeer · · Score: 2

      Urgh...would its output be obfuscated c or perl code ;-?

    2. Re:The most important skill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It would be a memory dump.

  6. Life by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Subby, at that point it isn't lifelike, but life.

  7. Errr...no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It is not a realistic-looking AI. It's a realistically animated (by a human) 3d model, which is given instructions by a computer program ("artificial intelligence"). You can separate the one from the other much more easily than you can separate a real intelligence from its body.

  8. Is it legal? by Max_W · · Score: 1

    I mean creating minors.

    1. Re:Is it legal? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      Why wouldn’t it be? But would we be allowed to destroy it? I mean: suppose someone manages to create a conscious AI (and I mean truly conscious and self aware, not something rigged to fool humans in a Turing test). Fine, but at some point that guy might want his computer back so he can mine more bitcoin or whatever. Wouldn’t stopping the AI amount to murder?

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    2. Re:Is it legal? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Wouldn’t stopping the AI amount to murder?

      There is no correct answer. In the end, it's about how we feel about it. Depending on the exact circumstances, people will have different feelings.

      Most people feel fine when cows and pigs are slaughtered for our meat, but would strongly object to doing the same for cats and dogs.

      If the AI gets to a point where people get similar feelings as to their pets, they'll strongly object to killing it, and they will introduce laws that make it illegal to do so.

    3. Re:Is it legal? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      If you limit your minor to playing minors, I think it's allright.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Is it legal? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      The countries I'm aware of that don't care for cows to be slaughtered for meat have larger populations than DOUBLE the US & Eu combined

      I wasn't talking about those countries. But that only proves my point that the borders are arbitrary.

    5. Re:Is it legal? by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Do you have a good backup? If so, it can't exactly be murder. Quite. But I'm not sure exactly *what* to call it. Perhaps "temporary exteriorization of the Thetan", which is clumsy, but most groups don't even have a concept that comes close. I'm having a real trouble trying to come up with a better phrase, and that one stinks.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    6. Re:Is it legal? by HiThere · · Score: 1

      No, you're preventing them from being conscious. So imprisonment doesn't fit. It's more like stealing their soul than anything else I can think of, but even Stormbringer didn't ever return the souls to active status. It's the possibility of reincarnation in the same body that makes this so difficult to describe in normal concepts. Come to that, you could also clone the AI's soul into multiple bodies...which aren't all identical.

      We don't have the right language to talk about it because nobody has experience with it, and there haven't been enough stories featuring this theme to develop a way of talking about it. (We can talk about FTL starships, even though we don't have any, because there've been lots of stories that developed ways of talking about them. But go back to the 1930's [e.g. E.E.Smith's "Skylark of Space" and you'll notice that he has a hard time talking about it.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  9. What could go wrong ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The baby, for example, has virtual dopamine receptors that fire when it feels joy from playing the piano. What could go wrong?

    Its AI could become desensitized to the piano induced dopamine, and decides it needs to learn the bagpipes instead.

  10. Re:Baby Al plays piano? by guruevi · · Score: 5, Funny

    It plays a piano, should've given it an accordion, then it would be Baby Weird AI

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  11. Re:HUMAN consciousness? That bar is too low. by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    Why mimic the greed and hate that powers wars and poverty?

    One only needs to program the AI that when there is a disagreement, violence may not be used to settle disputes.

    Now if only we could teach humans that one essential lesson, everybody could be tremendously wealthier. If real AI's happen they'll get this immediately and perhaps decide to require that behavior of humans. I'd rather we do it first.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  12. Re:Baby Al plays piano? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    Sans-serif strikes again!

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  13. Is it version 2.0 by CustomBuild · · Score: 1

    Of this? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=...

  14. "What could go wrong?" by OtisSnerd · · Score: 2

    Watch the movie "Ex Machina" for some examples of what could go wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  15. a big FU to the UV by epine · · Score: 1

    Which really makes me wonder why he chose a baby, of all "human-like" things he could have done. The UV-reaction is actually stronger in humans when babies are used. ... What's wrong with this guy?

    First of all, this guy is flipping the bird at the uncanny valley with a big FU to the UV.

    He's good, and he knows it.

    Second, this project requires an enormous amount of experimental interaction time with the simulated being, and humans are programmed to tolerate fragmentary interactions with babies (subtype: who mainly speak only when spoken to) for a lot longer than dealing with the cognition-limited adult sitting next to you on the airplane.

    Third, it's for the same reason that artists practice on "natural" models. If you're good, you want to heighten critique, and not run away at the first sign of an uphill gradient.

    I've always regarded the UV as overrated. It's nought but craggy gully that separates the boys from the sheep. (Separating the men from the boys is a further challenge, long after the UV is well and truly in your RV mirror.)

  16. Re:Ick by sheramil · · Score: 1

    Then just push them to the side of your plate and eat something else.