Facebook shuts down AI system after bots start chatting in uncomprehensible language
31 Jul 2017
Facebook faced a dilemma recently when it found that its AI bots were communicating in a shorthand mutation of English.
By way of example, Facebook provided the passage from two of its bots Bob and Alice in communication with each other:
Bob: ''I can can I I everything else.''
Alice: ''Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to.''
As such the exchange made no sense to humans, though, according to research scientist Dhruv Batra, from the Facebook AI Research (FAIR), just like humans often used ''shortcuts'' with the English language, which was easily understood by other humans, AI could use similar methods to get their point across more efficiently. According to experts, computers need not work within the confines of the English language if they can communicate with each other faster using a seemingly [to them] better language?
''Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves,'' media reports quoted Batra. ''Like if I say 'the' five times, you interpret that to mean I want five copies of this item. This isn't so different from the way communities of humans create shorthands.''
''It's definitely possible, it's possible that [language] can be compressed, not just to save characters, but compressed to a form that it could express a sophisticated thought,'' Batra added.
Facebook now requires its bots to speak in plain old English. ''Our interest was having bots who could talk to people,'' says Mike Lewis, research scientist at FAIR. Facebook isn't alone in that perspective.
Meanwhile, Google, Amazon, and Apple are also focusing on developing conversational personalities for human consumption, which will be the next wave of user interface, like the mouse and keyboard for the AI era.
The other issue, as Facebook admitted was that there was no way of truly understanding any divergent computer language. ''It's important to remember, there aren't bilingual speakers of AI and human languages,'' says Batra.
