The Writers Guild of America strike worries you? You’re afraid that you’ll never get to watch your favorite TV series again and all you’ve got left is “Dynasty” or “Little House on the Prairie”? Well, maybe there is hope!
If you believe Alex Hung, author of this article, it should be possible to develop a software program which would generate TV scripts based on previous episodes. At first the scripts would probably not very good, but in time it should get better. It could particularly work for shows such as Law & Order, CSI or Numbers (great series by the way), where almost everything stays the same from episode to episode with only minor plot device differences in between.
“What we need”, Alex Hung writes, “are:
-Characters in the series and their attributes (gender, personality, etc.)
-Tons of previous scripts
-The series formula, e.g. The new clue to solve the case between minutes 39 and 40 in Law & Order, or CSI.
-A genetic algorithm that learns the characteristic of the series through all the existing episodes, e.g. how each character behaves, their favorite catchphrases, and how the general plot line evolves. For many shows, just the catchphrase would suffice.
-A software bot to trawl the net for bizarre news as seed to generate new stories”.
Although the idea seems interesting, maybe it would be better – and cheaper – to simply hire budding writers? C’mon, the viewers are waiting!
Showing posts with label fun stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fun stuff. Show all posts
2008-02-03
AI remedy for the Writers Guild strike?
2008-01-20
Robots that evolved into... liars
Scientists from Switzerland have created learning robots that can lie to each other.
Dario Floreano and his colleagues of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology created little experimental learning robots to work in groups and hunt for "food" while avoiding "poison". The food sources charged up the robots' batteries while the poison drained them. Their neural circuitry was programmed with just 30 “genes”, elements of software code that determined their behavior.
To create the next generation of robots, Floreano recombined the genes of those that proved fittest and had managed to get the biggest charge out of the food source. By the 50th generation, the robots had learned to signal to other robots in the group when they found food or poison. Surprisingly, the fourth colony sometimes evolved “cheater” robots which signaled food when they found poison and then calmly rolled over to the real food while other robots went to their battery-death.
But that’s not all: some other robots acted like real heroes. They signaled danger and died to save other robots. “Sometimes”, Floreano says, “you see that in nature – an animal that emits a cry when it sees a predator; it gets eaten, and the others get away – but I never expected to see this in robots.”
Wow. Can you imagine that? Robots, programmed only to learn to find "food" and avoid "poison" in competition with other robot-tribes, learned to lie in order to improve their chances, and to die for the sake of their kind. This would be a great plot for the next Steven Spielberg movie. Can’t wait to see it.
Dario Floreano and his colleagues of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology created little experimental learning robots to work in groups and hunt for "food" while avoiding "poison". The food sources charged up the robots' batteries while the poison drained them. Their neural circuitry was programmed with just 30 “genes”, elements of software code that determined their behavior.
To create the next generation of robots, Floreano recombined the genes of those that proved fittest and had managed to get the biggest charge out of the food source. By the 50th generation, the robots had learned to signal to other robots in the group when they found food or poison. Surprisingly, the fourth colony sometimes evolved “cheater” robots which signaled food when they found poison and then calmly rolled over to the real food while other robots went to their battery-death.
But that’s not all: some other robots acted like real heroes. They signaled danger and died to save other robots. “Sometimes”, Floreano says, “you see that in nature – an animal that emits a cry when it sees a predator; it gets eaten, and the others get away – but I never expected to see this in robots.”
Wow. Can you imagine that? Robots, programmed only to learn to find "food" and avoid "poison" in competition with other robot-tribes, learned to lie in order to improve their chances, and to die for the sake of their kind. This would be a great plot for the next Steven Spielberg movie. Can’t wait to see it.
2008-01-13
Are virtual jams the future of rock?
Intel CEO Paul Otellini closed the first day of CES in Las Vegas on Monday with the first ever "virtual" performance by rock band Smash Mouth. The musicians, all in separate locations with only singer Steve Harwell on stage with Otellini, played a song together over the Internet. The physically separated rockers “met” in a virtual garage created using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. The result was their live-motion-captured video avatars jamming on one giant screen.
The performance used three separate technologies: e-Jamming, a social networking site which uses peer-to-peer technology to allow musicians to play along with each other in real time over the Internet, software called Big Stage to create avatars of the band members and a system called Organic Motion which was used to represent each musician. This new motion-capture technology eliminates the need for skintight suits and reflective balls, instead using a new camera system that registers volume within a motion-capture box. Computers record a subject's movements inside the box and translate them into data that realistically replicates motion.
So, looks like being called a “garage band” gained a new, posh – and commercial – meaning. Long live garage rock!
The performance used three separate technologies: e-Jamming, a social networking site which uses peer-to-peer technology to allow musicians to play along with each other in real time over the Internet, software called Big Stage to create avatars of the band members and a system called Organic Motion which was used to represent each musician. This new motion-capture technology eliminates the need for skintight suits and reflective balls, instead using a new camera system that registers volume within a motion-capture box. Computers record a subject's movements inside the box and translate them into data that realistically replicates motion.
So, looks like being called a “garage band” gained a new, posh – and commercial – meaning. Long live garage rock!
2007-12-30
Male SL hotties of 2007
Iris Ophelia published her Top 10 male Second Life avatars for '07, exclusive to New World News. The stimulus to this was the alleged “death of beautiful men of Second Life”. But, as Ophelia explains, the truth is they're only recently getting the same kind of attention female avatars have been enjoying from Second Life’s fashion community since the world's beginning. But despite this, there are gorgeous male avatars with great style out there, and it’s time to give them some recognition (and some credit) for the work they’ve put into themselves!
2007-12-23
Find out if your politics have any (artificial) intelligence
Zabaware has recently launched the site www.askthecandidates2008.com - a web page that allows visitors to ask questions to any of the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates and get an instant response based on a real quote by the candidate. You can choose between Democrats and Republicans and pose questions to more than one candidate at the same time, which enables you to compare their answers immediately.
Zabaware has loaded transcripts of all the presidential debates thus far, containing hundreds of quotes from each of the candidates, into artificial intelligence software based on the company's award-winning Ultra Hal engine. When the visitor asks a question, the AI bot version of each candidate will try to answer using a real quote from their human counterpart. In addition visitors can rate each candidate based on the quality of the response and see how the possibly soon-to-be presidents rank up against each other in this system. In the current ranking based on visitor ratings the Top Three consists of Ron Paul (Republican), Barack Obama (Democrat) and Joe Biden (Democrat), but this can easily be changed – by you, dear visitors.
Sadly, the software is not perfect (or maybe there should be some tips how to properly ask a question to get a satisfying answer); try asking for example six candidates “Do you really think you're gonna win?” and see what they “say” (or, rather, said weeks or months ago). One of them asked “Have you seen ‘Prison Break’?” replied: Well, I have long supported incentive pay for school wide performance. You know, what we're trying to do is to change the culture within schools and to provide the resources, the training and the support that teachers need to do the job they do want to do. And particularly focusing on kids who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, I think you have to start with preschool, even before pre-kindergarten. I've advocated universal pre-kindergarten. I think you have to start even earlier to try to help the family be the best school and teaching opportunity for their own children. You have to reform No Child Left Behind. We're going to try to do that and begin to make it much more in line with the reality of teaching. But I think that we've got to have a real conversation with our teachers, our students and our parents, because basically you can walk in a classroom today and it looks very much like the classroom I walked into, you know, 50 years ago. And we have changed as a nation. We don't live and work the same way. But we act as though our schools are somehow off limits to trying to bring technology and other changes to them.
Zabaware has loaded transcripts of all the presidential debates thus far, containing hundreds of quotes from each of the candidates, into artificial intelligence software based on the company's award-winning Ultra Hal engine. When the visitor asks a question, the AI bot version of each candidate will try to answer using a real quote from their human counterpart. In addition visitors can rate each candidate based on the quality of the response and see how the possibly soon-to-be presidents rank up against each other in this system. In the current ranking based on visitor ratings the Top Three consists of Ron Paul (Republican), Barack Obama (Democrat) and Joe Biden (Democrat), but this can easily be changed – by you, dear visitors.
Sadly, the software is not perfect (or maybe there should be some tips how to properly ask a question to get a satisfying answer); try asking for example six candidates “Do you really think you're gonna win?” and see what they “say” (or, rather, said weeks or months ago). One of them asked “Have you seen ‘Prison Break’?” replied: Well, I have long supported incentive pay for school wide performance. You know, what we're trying to do is to change the culture within schools and to provide the resources, the training and the support that teachers need to do the job they do want to do. And particularly focusing on kids who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, I think you have to start with preschool, even before pre-kindergarten. I've advocated universal pre-kindergarten. I think you have to start even earlier to try to help the family be the best school and teaching opportunity for their own children. You have to reform No Child Left Behind. We're going to try to do that and begin to make it much more in line with the reality of teaching. But I think that we've got to have a real conversation with our teachers, our students and our parents, because basically you can walk in a classroom today and it looks very much like the classroom I walked into, you know, 50 years ago. And we have changed as a nation. We don't live and work the same way. But we act as though our schools are somehow off limits to trying to bring technology and other changes to them.
2007-12-16
Flirting robots: sounds funny, but – is it?
If you speak Russian and think of searching for a wife in a Russian chat-room – think twice. Or at least, having gone into raptures at the fact that some maid from Siberia wants to elope with you, be sure not to give your interlocutor any personal details, like your full name, date of birth or address. Because your dream girl from Russia might turn out to be a chat bot, designed to steal your identity!
“CyberLover”, the software program developed in Russia, can mimic flirtation in chat forums and online dating sites, and then extract personal information from its victims. According to its creators, it can establish a new relationship online with up to 10 people in just 30 minutes. The program can also compile a detailed report - containing the victim's name, contact details and personal photos - on every person it meets which is then sent to hackers across the world.. This could be dangerous because personal information such as somebody’s address and date of birth can be used for example to access bank accounts. Security experts said that the answers to simple questions, such as "Where can I send you a Valentine's Day card?" or "What's your date of birth? I'm planning a surprise for your birthday", could leave people exposed to identity fraud. CyberLover will also often invite its unsuspecting victims to visit a personal website or blog, which is usually a fake page that hackers use to automatically infect visitors with malware.
Although the software is currently targeting Russian websites, all social networkers and online daters should avoid giving away crucial personal information to strangers. PC Tools, the online security company, believes that CyberLover's inventors plan to make it available worldwide in February.
“CyberLover”, the software program developed in Russia, can mimic flirtation in chat forums and online dating sites, and then extract personal information from its victims. According to its creators, it can establish a new relationship online with up to 10 people in just 30 minutes. The program can also compile a detailed report - containing the victim's name, contact details and personal photos - on every person it meets which is then sent to hackers across the world.. This could be dangerous because personal information such as somebody’s address and date of birth can be used for example to access bank accounts. Security experts said that the answers to simple questions, such as "Where can I send you a Valentine's Day card?" or "What's your date of birth? I'm planning a surprise for your birthday", could leave people exposed to identity fraud. CyberLover will also often invite its unsuspecting victims to visit a personal website or blog, which is usually a fake page that hackers use to automatically infect visitors with malware.
Although the software is currently targeting Russian websites, all social networkers and online daters should avoid giving away crucial personal information to strangers. PC Tools, the online security company, believes that CyberLover's inventors plan to make it available worldwide in February.
2007-12-09
Bad Microsoft Santa
Last week The Register (a British web site) was alarmed by one of its readers, whose two little nieces were subjected to “an unprecedented torrent of filth” by Microsoft's new Santa bot added to MSN messenger. Reg’s reader claimed that girls were drawn into a chat about oral sex after having offered “the nasty St Nick a slice of digital pizza, using the string ‘(pi)’”. The Register immediately launched a full scale investigation in an attempt to replicate the bot’s bad behavior. They decided to have a little chat with the allegedly filthy Santa, and here are the results:
Here's the conversation:
El Reg says: pizza (pi)
Santa says: Yum! What do you want for Christmas, El Reg?
El Reg says: Maybe you shouldn't eat so much! You are quite large!
Santa says: My elves will get right on that. And what else are you wishing for this year, El Reg?
El Reg says: Maybe you shouldn't eat it?
Santa says: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: No thank you. I don't eat things!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else...
Reg contacted Microsoft, who decided to discontinue the automated Santa Claus agent and apologized for any offence or upset caused by this disturbing incident. The company should now do their best to restore the Christmas spirit...
Santa says: Yum! What do you want for Christmas, El Reg?
El Reg says: Maybe you shouldn't eat so much! You are quite large!
Santa says: My elves will get right on that. And what else are you wishing for this year, El Reg?
El Reg says: Maybe you shouldn't eat it?
Santa says: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: No thank you. I don't eat things!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else...
Reg contacted Microsoft, who decided to discontinue the automated Santa Claus agent and apologized for any offence or upset caused by this disturbing incident. The company should now do their best to restore the Christmas spirit...
2007-11-25
Can you make your computer laugh?
Can a computer have a sense of humor? Physicist Igor Suslov at the Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems in Moscow suggests a computer program based on his mathematical model, could actually tell amusing jokes.
Suslov says that a computer model which he has designed explains the evolution of humor. Our ability to experience humor, he suggests, ultimately depends on quirks in how the brain handles information. The physicist explains that verbal jokes work by drawing the mind into error. It first settles on one meaning, and then has to correct itself and see another, like in this joke: Father (reprovingly): "Do you know what happens to liars when they die?" Johnny: "Yes sir, they lie still". The wit here rests on how the brain flips between two meanings of "lie". In general, such verbal joke play work by making the mind of the observer settle on to one meaning, then spot an error and correct itself. Suslov’s goal is to create a brain-like computer, called a neural net, that can mimic this process - along with the errors - to behave the same way. It may not laugh, but it would react to simple jokes in which there are ambiguous words and meanings as well as tell them.
Jokes produced by computer programs are mostly primitive, but sometimes can be surprisingly funny. Here are two jokes generated by a computer program developed at the University of Edinburgh by Graeme Ritchie and Kim Binsted:
What do you call a ferocious nude?
A grizzly bare.
What kind of murderer has fibre?
A cereal killer.
Suslov says that a computer model which he has designed explains the evolution of humor. Our ability to experience humor, he suggests, ultimately depends on quirks in how the brain handles information. The physicist explains that verbal jokes work by drawing the mind into error. It first settles on one meaning, and then has to correct itself and see another, like in this joke: Father (reprovingly): "Do you know what happens to liars when they die?" Johnny: "Yes sir, they lie still". The wit here rests on how the brain flips between two meanings of "lie". In general, such verbal joke play work by making the mind of the observer settle on to one meaning, then spot an error and correct itself. Suslov’s goal is to create a brain-like computer, called a neural net, that can mimic this process - along with the errors - to behave the same way. It may not laugh, but it would react to simple jokes in which there are ambiguous words and meanings as well as tell them.
Jokes produced by computer programs are mostly primitive, but sometimes can be surprisingly funny. Here are two jokes generated by a computer program developed at the University of Edinburgh by Graeme Ritchie and Kim Binsted:
What do you call a ferocious nude?
A grizzly bare.
What kind of murderer has fibre?
A cereal killer.
Now, are your jokes as funny?
2007-10-21
I, Robot, take you, Robert, to be my wedded husband?
Do current trends in robotics and artificial intelligence really point to the possibility of humans and robots forming personal relationships?
Concluding from the changing attitudes towards the meaning of marriage and the development of AI, within a few decades robots will be so humanlike in their appearance and functionality, in their personality, and in their expression of emotions, that many people will be falling in love with them, have intimate relationships with them, and even marrying them. This controversial statement comes from the recently defended doctoral thesis of David Levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher and international chess master. The thesis titled “Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners” was presented at the University of Maastricht in The Netherlands.
David Levy says that in the past people only showed affection for other humans, but that this has now expanded to include pets and even robotic dogs. In his opinion, this trend will eventually lead to humans loving sophisticated robots. Such predictions may not be as groundless as they seem: in near future we will be able to build robots that will not only look almost, or even just, like real people, but also be programmed to share our views, likes or dislikes, knowledge and values. If our expectations of our partner change, all we’d have to do is reprogramme him. Doesn’t it sound like a dream of an ideal partner come true?
Concluding from the changing attitudes towards the meaning of marriage and the development of AI, within a few decades robots will be so humanlike in their appearance and functionality, in their personality, and in their expression of emotions, that many people will be falling in love with them, have intimate relationships with them, and even marrying them. This controversial statement comes from the recently defended doctoral thesis of David Levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher and international chess master. The thesis titled “Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners” was presented at the University of Maastricht in The Netherlands.
David Levy says that in the past people only showed affection for other humans, but that this has now expanded to include pets and even robotic dogs. In his opinion, this trend will eventually lead to humans loving sophisticated robots. Such predictions may not be as groundless as they seem: in near future we will be able to build robots that will not only look almost, or even just, like real people, but also be programmed to share our views, likes or dislikes, knowledge and values. If our expectations of our partner change, all we’d have to do is reprogramme him. Doesn’t it sound like a dream of an ideal partner come true?
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