Video: A robot and a unicorn share an awkward conversation

Researchers at Cornell’s Creative Machines Lab didn’t know what to expect when they orchestrated a conversation between two chatbots – the resulting exchange is nothing short of bizarre. Chatbots are computer programs designed to communicate with humans so naturally as to be indistinguishable from humans themselves. Generally known as natural language processing, these chatbot programs are used in a variety of applications such as the automated phone systems we all love to hate or similar online help agents offering support through text chat. In rare cases we may initially be fooled into thinking we’re interacting with a human, but more often than not the truth is painfully obvious.

Many have linked the concept of chatbots with the quest for artificial intelligence (AI) theorizing that one measure of artificial intelligence is the ability to communicate seamlessly and convincingly with humans. While not everyone agrees with this viewpoint, the Loebner Prize for AI certainly does. Touted as the first formal instance of a Turing Test, the Loebner Prize is awarded to computers or computer programs whose responses are indistinguishable from that of a human.

Alan Turing asked the question “Can a Machine Think?” He answered in the affirmative, but a central question was: “If a computer could think, how could we tell?” Turing’s suggestion was, that if the responses from the computer were indistinguishable from that of a human, the computer could be said to be thinking.

The Loebner prize has awarded thousands of dollars a year in prize money for the last 20 years to human-like computers. However they have yet to award a Gold Medal – a prize worth $100,000 involving rigorous testing of the computer’s responses to visual data, written text and other stimuli.

This year’s Loebner prize is on the 19th of October and in the midst of their preparations researchers at the Creative Machines Lab decided to see what would happen if they introduced two chatbots to each other, an awkwardly comical conversation ensued:

Cleverbot may or may not bring home Loebner prize money this year, regardless, I have a suspicion that we’ll be seeing more bot to bot verbal aggression soon – a sitcom perhaps? Whether true AI is found in a chatbot or in a brain-inspired chip it’s undeniably a driving force for technology. Perhaps after a few more conversations these two computers will learn to enjoy each other’s company, after all, why shouldn’t robots and unicorns get along?

[via IEEE Spectrum]