The man who built a virtual nervous system explains how humans will interact with machines in ten years
The man who built a virtual nervous system explains how
humans will interact with machines in ten years
Mark Sagar invented a virtual nervous system that powers
autonomous animated avatars.
He is best known for developing Baby X, a virtual infant
that learns through experience.
Sagar says people will learn how to work cooperatively
with AI powered robots.
By Chantel McGee May 21, 2017
In ten years artificially intelligent robots will be
living and working with us, according to Dr. Mark Sagar, CEO of Soul Machines,
an Auckland, New Zealand-based company that develops intelligent, emotionally
responsive avatars.
Sagar, an AI engineer, is the inventor of a virtual
nervous system that powers autonomous animated avatars like Baby X — a virtual
infant that learns through experience and can "feel" emotions.
"We are creating realistic adult avatars serving as
virtual assistants. You can use them to plug into existing systems like IBM
Watson or Cortana — putting a face on a chatbot," said Sagar.
Within a decade humans will be interacting with lifelike
emotionally-responsive AI robots, very similar to the premise of the HBO hit series
Westworld, said Sagar.
But before that scenario becomes a reality robotics will
have to catch up to AI technology. "Robotics technology is not really at
the level of control that's required," he said.
The biological models Sagar has developed are building
blocks for experimentation. "We have been working on the deepest aspect of
the technology -- biologically-inspired cognitive architectures. Simplified
models of the brain," he said. At the core of the technology, are virtual
neurotransmitters that can simulate human hormones like dopamine, serotonin and
oxytocin.
With computer graphics, Sagar says he can easily develop
virtual humans that can simulate natural movements like a smirk or blinking of
the eyes, which is not as easy to replicate with robots. "Robotics
materials will have to get to the point where we can start creating realistic
simulations. The cost of doing that is really high," said Sagar.
"Creating a robotic owl for example would take half a year or something.
The economics are quite different from computer graphics," said Sagar.
In about five years, Sagar says the system he has created
could be used to power virtual reality games. "We want to create VR
experiences where users can freely move through a world and the characters
start to have a life of their own," he said. "Once you put your AR or
VR glasses on, you will have this alternate populated world of fantastic things
that people haven't even imagined yet," said Sagar. Soul Machines is
currently building the next version of Baby X.
The company recently introduced Nadia, a virtual
assistant that helps people navigate information as part of the National
Disability Insurance Scheme in Australia. (Nadia's voice is that of actress
Cate Blanchett.) "By adding voice you're able to increase the dimensions
of communication," he said. The NDIS developed Nadia to help provided
support for its disabled participants. "The Australian government is
taking away the boring, painful things like repeated questions, a computer can
do that and then the humans can respond to the more complex or more important
questions. Freeing them up from mundane tasks," said Sagar.
His goal is to shift the way humans communicate and
interact with machines. "We are creating an interactive loop between the
user and the computer. A real-time feedback loop in face-to-face interactions.
If [the avatar] isn't understanding, it can express that," he said.
Nadia, like Baby X, can see through a computer's camera
and hear through its speakers. "Because it can see, you can show it
things, which starts mixing the real world and the virtual world," he
said. Nadia's ability to express emotions and read the expressions of others is
an essential part of the user experience, according to Sagar. "We create
intelligent and emotionally aware interactions between people and
machines," he said.
Sagar and his team are looking at other possible
applications of the technology including medical education, psychological
research and children's characters that can be used for edutainment. "It
could become a platform for which [animation studios] could build all types of
different characters," said Sagar. "It can also be [used] to create
characters for medical simulation or training," he said.
There is already a shift in the way humans interact with
machines, he said.
"We'll see increasing use of [AI] in lots of types
of jobs to enhance people's abilities," he said. And if we want to know
what the future relationship between humans and machines will look like, he
says, look no further than our own daily interactions with other humans for
clues.
"Humans cooperating together is basically what has
created all technology and art and all kinds of things," said Sagar.
"When we start adding on to that the creative possibilities of machines,
it radically expands," he said.
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