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Dr. Bhattacharyya shares his thoughts on Facebook's chatbot experiment and possible implications

When Artificial Intelligence is Too Intelligent, Doomsday is Declared

By Alex Johnson on Sep 27, 2017
Person_Holding_Checklist, Guidelines
In the past few years, we have become accustomed to, and in some cases reliant on, living in a world full of smart devices and virtual assistants, such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana. But while we are happy for Alexa’s assistance with playing music or Siri’s help in getting from point A to point B, are we ready for these machines to start thinking independently and, in doing so, eventually rule the world?

Admittedly, machines taking over the world is quite the leap but it is one that society collectively took in response to the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) lab’s experiment with chatbots earlier this summer.

Researchers of the FAIR team developed chatbots to barter simple items in an effort to ultimately improve AI-to-human communications. During the course of their experiment the researchers came across an interesting, yet not entirely unexpected, result. The two chatbots, nicknamed Alice and Bob, initially began their trading communications via English, but as their negotiation software learned and evolved, the two chatbot’s discussion took an interesting turn of events. What started as normal bartering between the bots, using words in a way easily understood to humans, soon became strings of words (still in English) that made very little to no sense to the typical person:

Bob: “I can 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.”
To most people the above snippet of dialogue between the bots may look like nonsense. In actuality, it is the result of complex AI and machine learning algorithms at work. More specifically, it is the embodiment of a speedy and efficient “conversation” between the two chatbots with their final goal of bartering for the best deal between themselves.

Because the whole point of the experiment was to better AI-to-human interaction (i.e. through use of the English language that’s comprehensible to people) the researchers at FAIR decided to no longer continue running those particular experiments where the bots were not “rewarded” for using the English language correctly. This was a slight oversight on the part of the programmers, who after discovering what was happening, promptly addressed the matter and in future experiments ensured the bots were rewarded for using English correctly.

“It thus appeared to be the fallout of both the awesome and horrifying potential of AI,” Dr. Siddhartha Bhattacharyya, Principal of RCC Institute of Information Technology in India, exclaims.

With that being said, when society initially got wind of “Facebook’s experiment gone awry” and that they had “shutdown AI after it had secretly invented its own language,” there were many exaggerations and incomplete pictures painted of the events that took place in FAIR labs. Among the most common response was an allusion to the worry that we were drawing one step closer to a sort of robotic doomsday.

“This bizarre behavior was expected from the bots given the immense intelligence embedded therein. This can be attributed to the exaggerated intelligent attributes of the robots which enabled them to frame shorthand for communication overriding human inputs and instructions,” Bhattacharyya comments.

These “intelligent agents” are able to learn about their environment and take subsequent actions to maximize their chance of desired success. With artificial intelligence (AI) they have the ability to emulate the human brain, which bears particular importance when it comes to learning and problem solving.

“There is no harm in creating more intelligent devices as long as these devices are under the fullest control of human beings,” Bhattacharyya added, “Then, and only then, the boon of AI can be felt and appreciated.”

Are we inevitably creating our own Terminator-like end of world scenario? Will we someday defer to Siri as “ruler of the universe”?

Not likely, but as Bhattacharyya ominously advises, “As more and more intelligence is embedded into AI devices, a time will definitely come that these devices will not only surpass human capabilities but also override human intervention in any form. As a result, if proper control mechanisms are not in place, these devices may lead to mass destruction in the near future.”

Dr. Bhattacharyya has edited and contributed to IGI Global publications covering such topics as soft computing, pattern recognition, and quantum computing. IGI Global would like to thank him for sharing his insight on the complicated world of machine intelligence.

For more information on artificial intelligence and its many applications, please see the publications below:
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of IGI Global.

QUESTION: Are advancements in artificial intelligence and steps towards a fully intelligent vehicle a step backwards for humanity? Share your thoughts in the comments below or continue the conversation on Twitter and Facebook. Don't forget to include IGI Global!
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