聊天機器人 同時和千人對談

聊天機器人 同時和千人對談

編譯夏嘉玲/綜合報導

機器人也能上網聊天？號稱全球最聰明的聊天機器人、虛擬英國男子「喬治」，可如活生生的人一般與人在網上聊天，不但話題五花八門，網路形象也和人一樣有表情與動作，許多與「他」線上聊天的人都被騙倒，以為自己在和真人聊天，最近還有人和喬治一聊就聊了快11個小時，還欲罷不能。

喬治號稱可同時與上千人線上對談，還能講40種語言，據稱已與全球網友聊天多達1000萬次，並以「最人性化的聊天機器人」獲頒去年的人工智慧領域大獎Loebner獎。登上http//person.jabberwacky.com/george就可與喬治對談。

網路上的喬治是個出身倫敦南部的39歲光頭男子，身穿白色套頭衫，戴著一副黃框螢光綠鏡片眼鏡，聊天時腦袋常左搖右晃，眼神飄忽。基本上喬治聊天時有來有往，但偶爾會迸出十分無厘頭的回答，令人一頭霧水。

研發出喬治的人工智慧程式設計師卡本特指出，喬治採擷曾與之對談的人的智 慧，擷取這些人使用的詞彙，從以往聊天的內容中找出最合適的字句回覆對方，「它與許多其他對話程式相異之處，除了回話有邏輯，還設法與對方建立人際關係， 討對方歡心，十分人性化」。不過，喬治也從網友那學了不少不登大雅之堂的字彙，有時回話十分粗魯無禮。

喬治本來只是個程式，沒有形體，直到去年秋天，才被它的發明者具體化，升級 為一款具有虛擬形象、虛擬聲音和聲音識別系統的智能軟件，有了一個完全動態的3D身體，讓訪客不僅可以看到顯示幕上喬治的樣子表情，透過鍵盤敲打句子和喬 治對話，還可以和他進行「面對面」的語音聊天。

作為一個虛擬聊天機器人，喬治並非時刻都保持優雅舉止。他有時風度翩翩，但偶爾也會口吐髒字。他非常聰明，認為宗教是一種「社會現象」，喜歡黑色電影、科學偵探小說，愛幻想。此外，喬治有著69種姿勢和表情，包括諷刺的、悶悶不樂的，乃至於像個醉酒的司機般搖搖晃晃的。

為喬治設計3D形象的柴歐德認為，諸如喬治的人工智慧機器人或許有朝一日會成為家庭互動式娛樂系統的基本配備，「就像能帶來歡樂的寵物」。

【2006/09/25 聯合晚報】

AI prize award for British firm

A prestigious Artificial Intelligence (AI) prize has been won for the second year running by a British company.

Icogno scooped the 2006 Loebner Prize Bronze Medal after judges decided that its AI called Joan was the "most human computer program".

The competition is based on the Turing test, which suggests computers could be seen as "intelligent" if their chat was indistinguishable from humans.

The gold medal, which goes to an AI that fools the judges, is unclaimed.

The prize is awarded after judges hold a conversation with the AI, asking questions to determine its "humanity" and the quality of its responses.

Joan is a "26-year-old budding writer" who exists only on a set of computer servers. Last year's Loebner prize went to Icogno's AI called George.

'Big difference'

Joan and George's creator Rollo Carpenter said: "The big difference overall between the two AIs is that Joan has learnt from the general public and has grown a huge amount in the last year and is keeping ahead of the competition."

Joan is one of the firm's so-called Jabberwacky bots, which develop their conversational skills by speaking to the general public online.

The technology has moved on a bit during the course of the year but there's been no revolution Rollo Carpenter

English writer Ariadne Tampion worked with Mr Carpenter to help develop Joan's persona by chatting to the AI online.

Those conversations helped develop the majority of the 16,000 lines that distinguish her from a generic AI. In all, the bot has more than five million lines of conversation available to it.

"She helped create a much more conversational ability for Joan than George last year.

"It does not mean the AI only ever uses her words. Any amount of teaching is not quite enough for a realistic conversation."

He added: "So the AI uses other things said by other people to it that fit the conversational model."

The underlying technology that powers George and Joan is the same, said Mr Carpenter.

"In terms of her ability to retain her character Joan is more sophisticated than George.

"The technology has moved on a bit during the course of the year but there's been no revolution."

George learns how to use words and phrases through online chat George in action

The technology which powers Joan resides on Windows server machines. The core of the AI is on a Dual Xeon machine with lots of memory, said Mr Carpenter.

He said there was a very direct relationship between the computing power available and the sophistication of the AI.

'Rate of learning'

"Investment in a lot more equipment could accelerate the rate of learning," he said.

"If I had Google's hardware behind it and more hits than Google receives, the AI's range of utterances could grow by a million every single day." he added.

Mr Carpenter has said he expects a machine to fool people that they are speaking to a human being and therefore pass the Turing test by 2016.

Icogno is now working to commercialise the technology of the AI.

"We are working with an organisation that wants web avatars for use in marketing and entertainment purposes.

"Long term we see the use of AIs in call centres, support services and even for sales."

One day in the future when you pick up the phone to seek help with your broadband connection, the person you are speaking with may be George or Joan, AIs residing on a computer somewhere in the world.

The following is an extract of a conversation between one of the Loebner judges and the AI Joan:

Judge: But can't a machine think?
Joan: It may be possible.
Judge: And conscious?
Joan: Not after I'm done with you.
Judge: What are you going to do to me?
Joan: Nothing. I just wanted to talk.
Judge: What about?
Joan: Being tested like this.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/5355838.stm