[ExI] Killer apps for AI-controlled avatars in virtual worlds ??

[Jef Allbright]

Ben -

Any comment on my suggestion of applying the technology to
motivational enhancement for learning, the virtual learning assistant
interacting with the student and providing intelligent feedback?  Not
so much a new idea as one that could be done better.

- Jef




On 5/4/07, Benjamin Goertzel <ben at goertzel.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> > Well one application is obvious, considering the spread of the
> > pixel-sex trade in Second Life, and it wouldn't require a lot of
> > high-level intelligence to animate virtual prostitutes.
>
>
> But I wonder if anyone would really like this, apart from the
>  immediate novelty value?  I don't regularly
> make use of prostitutes in the physical or virtual world,
> so I don't have a great understanding of the psychology of
> people who do....  But isn't the fact that it's a HUMAN at
> the other end of the avatar important for the psychology
> of e-sex?  At least, I think this would require a very convincing
> illusion of humanity.  But of course, giving a convincing illusion
> of humanity in that particular context might not be very hard....
>
> A student of mine once wrote a chat bot that impersonated
> a hot and horny young 15 year old in online chat rooms.  It
> did very well and attracted a lot of email ;-p
>
> > But for more general applications, thinking along the lines of more
> > intelligently interactive PDAs should be a good bet. More
> > sophisticated phone answering, with intelligent message-taking
> > (ensuring the important points are taken), prioritization and
> > forwarding;  flexibly interactive appointment-taking on your behalf --
> > these are areas where we expect a human and are disappointed when we
> > get a machine.  If the machine agent can effectively represent the
> > specifics of its principle in such cases when the principle isn't
> > available, it should be a net positive.
>
> Yah, I see ... the famous virtual secretary, which according to the AI
> gurus of the 1960's was "right around the corner" ;-)
>
> Presumably with a direct link into "Google Docs and Spreadsheets" +
> Google Calendar or some such...
>
> > Another area where personality counts, but doesn't require a high
> > level of intelligence, is in artificial pets.
>
> That is quite possibly where we'll start ... I already have thought a
> lot about that space though, which is why my question was about
> humanlike avatars specifically...
>
> >
> > Similarly, but more suited to physical robotics, would be therapeutic
> > devices that sense affect and respond with appropriate motivational
> > behavior.
> >
>
> That is interesting.  Ideally we would want to work with some
> physical device that automatically senses affect from the person's
> body and voice, though....  Sensing affect from text is hard, which is one
> of the
> problems with email and chat communication.  (Chat is better for
> affect than email, but achieves this at great cost in terms of loss
> of subtle non-emotional content).
>
> -- Ben
>
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