[ExI] What Does Chatbot Eugene Goostman's Success on the Turing Test Mean?

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
To: ExI chat list

> >...  Side note: nursing home costs 
> ruin families' finances.  If they can reduce staff, they can reduce costs.
Cool!

>...I think the reporter was concerned that it might lead to a lack of human
contact...

Well ja, of course it will.  I can easily imagine the reporter who is thus
worried has not had to pay for that human contact, which is very expensive.
Furthermore, nooobody wants to do that job, nobody.  It is the work of last
resort, and it attracts a crowd you would prefer didn't hang around your
grandparents.  So they get better pay there than they can get elsewhere, and
you can bet plenty of the orderlies and such have criminal records and are
as dumb as a post.

>... Like mechanised factory farming care homes...

Ja.  Factories get things built.

Perhaps the real problem here is that no one knows what goes on in nursing
homes when the visitors are gone.  The patients won't or can't talk, but
they are the ones who see and who know.  Perhaps people imagine grandma gets
the same level of care outside visiting hours as they do when the children
are present.

>... I don't see that as a near-future risk. In fact, as robots improve it
is likely that they will provide better and more reliable care than humans.
BillK
_______________________________________________

I think we are almost there.  This talking avatar notion is an excellent
first step: it gives the patients at least some human-like interaction,
which they don't really get now.  The staff doesn't sit and talk to the
patients after the visitors leave.

Personal note: nearly three decades ago I was part of a group which used to
go to nursing homes about once a month to visit with the patients and try to
spread some cheer in the saddest place on earth.  It was when MTV was new.
As an experiment, they put TVs in every corridor and visiting room, all
playing MTV.  The aged loved it; they learned all the songs and the artists,
knew all of them far better than I did when I was in my 20s.  It was
exciting, lots of flash, lots of dancing, etc.  It wasn't my thing, but hey,
if they want MTV, they should have it.  

I expect these talking avatars would be extremely popular, and might help
save families some money by reducing nursing home staff.

spike