Facebook has decided to shut down a recent experiment it was conducting into Artificial Intelligence. The two robots involved, quaintly designated Alice and Bob, had reportedly started chatting to each other in a language unintelligible to the scientists conducting the research. Acting with a prudence sadly not always associated with this global tech leviathan, Facebook pulled the plug. Cue moderate-to-high-verging-on-silly levels of sci-fi inspired social media hysteria.
Having carefully studied the transcripts of the robo-chat which so spooked the boffins, we feel a degree of caution is advisable. Specifically, Bob said: “I can i i everything else.” And Alice replied: “Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me.”
Make of that exchange what you will. Readers are free, naturally, to form their own judgment. Yet in our humble opinion, these comments are less indicative of “kill the humanoids and conquer their puny planet” and rather more suggestive of the sort of tricky software glitch bedevilling the development of AI since it was first heralded.
It is entirely possible that Alice can make sense of Bob’s initial remark. It is also rationally allowable that Bob can understand Alice’s response. We cannot disregard the possibility that this peculiarly endearing couple have evolved a secret Botspeak decipherable only by their own kind. It is surely more likely, that Bob and Alice, bless ’em, superb contraptions as they are in other respects, simply got their grammar circuits mixed up.
No shame in that — happens to the best of us. We are confident that Alice and Bob will in due course come back better and stronger, ideally with improved syntax. A Rise of the Machines, Terminator-style robot takeover still lies some distance in the future. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s services are, we hope and trust, not yet required.