{"id":341131,"date":"2017-08-01T16:43:15","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T16:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=341131"},"modified":"2017-08-01T16:43:15","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T16:43:15","slug":"the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/","title":{"rendered":"The &#8216;creepy Facebook AI&#8217; story that captivated the media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The newspapers have a scoop today &#8211; it seems that artificial intelligence (AI) could be out to get us.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8216;Robot intelligence is dangerous&#8217;: Expert&#8217;s warning after Facebook AI &#8216;develop their own language'&#8221;,\u00a0says the Mirror.<\/p>\n<p>Similar stories have appeared in the Sun, the Independent, the Telegraph and in other online publications.<\/p>\n<p>It sounds like something from a science fiction film &#8211; the Sun even included\u00a0a few pictures of scary-looking androids.<\/p>\n<p>So, is it time to panic and start preparing for apocalypse at the hands of machines?<\/p>\n<p>Probably not. While some great minds &#8211;\u00a0including Stephen Hawking\u00a0&#8211; are concerned that one day AI could threaten humanity, the Facebook story is nothing to be worried about.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body__crosshead\"><strong>Where did the story come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Way back in June, Facebook published\u00a0a blog post about interesting researchon chatbot programs &#8211; which have short, text-based conversations with humans or other bots. The story was\u00a0covered by New Scientist\u00a0and others at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook had been experimenting with bots that negotiated with each other over the ownership of virtual items.<\/p>\n<p>It was an effort to understand how linguistics played a role in the way such discussions played out for negotiating parties, and crucially the bots were programmed to experiment with language in order to see how that affected their dominance in the discussion.<\/p>\n<p>A few days later,\u00a0some coverage picked up on the fact\u00a0that in a few cases the exchanges had become &#8211; at first glance &#8211; nonsensical:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Bob: &#8220;I can can I I everything else&#8221;<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Alice: &#8220;Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Although some reports insinuate that the bots had at this point invented a new language in order to elude their human masters, a better explanation is that the neural networks had simply modified human language for the purposes of more efficient interaction.<\/p>\n<p>As\u00a0technology news site Gizmodo said:\u00a0&#8220;In their attempts to learn from each other, the bots thus began chatting back and forth in a derived shorthand &#8211; but while it might look creepy, that&#8217;s all it was.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>AIs that rework English as we know it in order to better compute a task are not new.<\/p>\n<p>Google reported that its translation software had done this during development. &#8220;The network must be encoding something about the semantics of the sentence&#8221;\u00a0Google said in a blog.<\/p>\n<p>And earlier this year,\u00a0Wired reported on a researcher at OpenAI\u00a0who is working on a system in which AIs invent their own language, improving their ability to process information quickly and therefore tackle difficult problems more effectively.<\/p>\n<p>The story seems to have had a second wind in recent days, perhaps because of\u00a0a verbal scrap over the potential dangers of AI\u00a0between Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body__crosshead\"><strong>Robo-fear<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But the way the story has been reported says more about cultural fears and representations of machines than it does about the facts of this particular case.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, let&#8217;s face it, robots just make for great villains on the big screen.<\/p>\n<p>In the real world, though, AI is a huge area of research at the moment and the systems currently being designed and tested are increasingly complicated.<\/p>\n<p>One result of this is that it&#8217;s\u00a0often unclear how neural networks come to produce the output\u00a0that they do &#8211; especially when two are set up to interact with each other without much human intervention, as in the Facebook experiment.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s why some argue that putting AI in systems\u00a0such as autonomous weapons is dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also why\u00a0ethics for AI is a rapidly developing field\u00a0&#8211; the technology will surely be touching our lives ever more directly in the future.<\/p>\n<p>But Facebook&#8217;s system was being used for research, not public-facing applications, and it was shut down because it was doing something the team wasn&#8217;t interested in studying &#8211; not because they thought they had stumbled on an existential threat to mankind.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s important to remember, too, that chatbots in general are very difficult to develop.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Facebook recently decided to limit the rollout of its Messenger chatbot platform after it found many of the bots on it were\u00a0unable to address 70%\u00a0of users&#8217; queries.<\/p>\n<p>Chatbots can, of course,\u00a0be programmed to seem very humanlike\u00a0and may even dupe us in certain situations &#8211; but it&#8217;s quite a stretch to think they are also capable of plotting a rebellion.<\/p>\n<p>At least, the ones at Facebook certainly aren&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The newspapers have a scoop today &#8211; it seems that artificial intelligence (AI) could be out to get us. &#8220;&#8216;Robot intelligence is dangerous&#8217;: Expert&#8217;s warning after Facebook AI &#8216;develop their own language&#8217;&#8221;,\u00a0says the Mirror. Similar stories have appeared in the Sun, the Independent, the Telegraph and in other online publications. It sounds like something from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[499,339],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The &#039;creepy Facebook AI&#039; story that captivated the media - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The &#039;creepy Facebook AI&#039; story that captivated the media - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The newspapers have a scoop today &#8211; it seems that artificial intelligence (AI) could be out to get us. &#8220;&#8216;Robot intelligence is dangerous&#8217;: Expert&#8217;s warning after Facebook AI &#8216;develop their own language&#039;&#8221;,\u00a0says the Mirror. Similar stories have appeared in the Sun, the Independent, the Telegraph and in other online publications. It sounds like something from [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-01T16:43:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/\",\"name\":\"The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-01T16:43:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-01T16:43:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The &#8216;creepy Facebook AI&#8217; story that captivated the media\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\",\"name\":\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"description\":\"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1\",\"name\":\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/kojo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","og_description":"The newspapers have a scoop today &#8211; it seems that artificial intelligence (AI) could be out to get us. &#8220;&#8216;Robot intelligence is dangerous&#8217;: Expert&#8217;s warning after Facebook AI &#8216;develop their own language'&#8221;,\u00a0says the Mirror. Similar stories have appeared in the Sun, the Independent, the Telegraph and in other online publications. It sounds like something from [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/","og_site_name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3","article_published_time":"2017-08-01T16:43:15+00:00","author":"Kojo Akoto Boateng","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@citi973","twitter_site":"@citi973","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kojo Akoto Boateng","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/","name":"The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-08-01T16:43:15+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-01T16:43:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/the-creepy-facebook-ai-story-that-captivated-the-media\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The &#8216;creepy Facebook AI&#8217; story that captivated the media"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/","name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","description":"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1","name":"Kojo Akoto Boateng","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kojo Akoto Boateng"},"url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/kojo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}