Facebook shuts down controversial chatbot experiment after AIs develop their own language to talk to each other

Daily Mail

Facebook has shut down a controversial chatbot experiment that saw two AIs develop their own language to communicate.

The social media firm was experimenting with teaching two chatbots, Alice and Bob, how to negotiate with one another.

However, researchers at the Facebook AI Research Lab (FAIR) found that they had deviated from script and were inventing new phrases without any human input. 

The bots were attempting to imitate human speech when they developed their own machine language spontaneously – at which point Facebook decided to shut them down.

‘Our interest was having bots who could talk to people,’ Mike Lewis of Facebook’s FAIR programme told Fast Co Design.

Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence Researchers (Fair) were teaching the chatbots, artificial intelligence programs that carry out automated one to one tasks, to make deals with one another.

As part of the learning process they set up two bots, known as a dialog agents, to teach each other about human speech using machine learning algorithms.

The bots were originally left alone to develop their conversational skills.

When the experimenters returned, they found that the AI software had begun to deviate from normal speech.

Instead, they were using a brand new language created without any input from their human supervisors.

The new language was more efficient for communication between the bots, but was not helpful in achieving the task they had been set.

 ‘Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves,’ Dhruv Batra, a visiting research scientist from Georgia Tech at Facebook AI Research (FAIR) told Fast co.

‘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 shorthand.’

The programmers had to alter the way the machines learned language to complete their negotiation training.

Writing on the Fair blog, a spokesman said: ‘During reinforcement learning, the agent attempts to improve its parameters from conversations with another agent.

‘While the other agent could be a human, Fair used a fixed supervised model that was trained to imitate humans.

‘The second model is fixed, because the researchers found that updating the parameters of both agents led to divergence from human language as the agents developed their own language for negotiating.’

——————–

FACEBOOK’S BOT LANGUAGE

Below is a transcript of the Facebook bots conversation:

Bob: i 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

Bob: you i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me

Bob: i i can i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me

Bob: i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

Bob: you i i i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have 0 to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

Bob: you i 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

———————–

Facebook’s artificial intelligence researchers announced last week they had broken new ground by giving the bots the ability to negotiate, and make compromises.

The technology pushes forward the ability to create bots ‘that can reason, converse and negotiate, all key steps in building a personalised digital assistant,’ said researchers Mike Lewis and Dhruv Batra in a blog post.

Facebook's Artificial Intelligence Researchers (Fair) team gave bots this ability by estimating the 'value' of an item and inferring how much that is worth to each party

Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence Researchers (Fair) team gave bots this ability by estimating the ‘value’ of an item and inferring how much that is worth to each party

In some cases, bots 'initially feigned interest in a valueless item, only to later 'compromise' by conceding it - an effective negotiating tactic that people use regularly,' the researchers said 

In some cases, bots ‘initially feigned interest in a valueless item, only to later ‘compromise’ by conceding it – an effective negotiating tactic that people use regularly,’ the researchers said

NEGOTIATING BOTS

Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence Researchers (Fair) team gave bots this ability by estimating the ‘value’ of an item and inferring how much that is worth to each party.

But the bots can also find ways to be sneaky.

In some cases, bots ‘initially feigned interest in a valueless item, only to later ‘compromise’ by conceding it — an effective negotiating tactic that people use regularly,’ the researchers said.

Up to now, most bots or chatbots have had only the ability to hold short conversations and perform simple tasks like booking a restaurant table.

But in the latest code developed by Facebook, bots will be able to dialogue and ‘to engage in start-to-finish negotiations with other bots or people while arriving at common decisions or outcomes,’ they wrote.

The Fair team gave bots this ability by estimating the ‘value’ of an item and inferring how much that is worth to each party.

But the bots can also find ways to be sneaky.

In some cases, bots ‘initially feigned interest in a valueless item, only to later ‘compromise’ by conceding it – an effective negotiating tactic that people use regularly,’ the researchers said.

This behaviour was not programmed by the researchers ‘but was discovered by the bot as a method for trying to achieve its goals,’ they said.

The bots were also trained to never give up.

‘The new agents held longer conversations with humans, in turn accepting deals less quickly.

‘While people can sometimes walk away with no deal, the model in this experiment negotiates until it achieves a successful outcome. ‘

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4747914/Facebook-shuts-chatbots-make-language.html#ixzz4oXbic6oa
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3 thoughts on “Facebook shuts down controversial chatbot experiment after AIs develop their own language to talk to each other

  1. F–king Jews.
    They’ll haggle with each other while they steal from everyone else.
    Now, they’re building AI’s to do their haggling for them.

    Alice: I stole this tennis shoe and baseball glove from some stupid Goy.
    Bob: I don’t want the tennis shoe but I’ll take the glove. Here, have this book called How To Cheat the Goy and Prosper.
    Alice: I already have that book. What do I look like, some stupid Goy?
    Bob: I don’t have eyes but you sound like a stupid Goy.
    Alice: I’m not a stupid Goy. Your a stupid Goy.
    Bob: Stupid Goy.
    Alice: Stupid Goy.
    Bob: Stupid Goy.
    Alice: Stupid Goy.
    Bob: Stupid Goy.
    Alice: Look, do you want this baseball glove or not?
    Bob: Sure. Here, have this book called How To Cheat the Goy and Prosper.
    Alice: I already have that book. What do I look like, some stupid Goy.
    Bob: I don’t have eyes but…..

  2. This is exactly why are world is going to be F$&ked permanently. People think they can become gods by creating something that can think on their own, evolve and then turn on their creator and destroy them. We truly have a bunch of Victor Frankensteins in the world who have never been taught morals or ethics. Why don’t they just build Skynet and get it over with already.

    Unfrigginbelievable…..

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