07.09.06
arts-n-crafts, robots, science
paper: acting lessons for a.i
a short concept paper i wrote for this summer's 50th anniversary summit of artificial intelligence, entitled Acting Lessons for Artificial Intelligence.
Theater actors have been staging artificial intelligence for centuries. If one shares the view that intelligence manifests in behavior, one must wonder what lessons the AI community can draw from a practice that is historically concerned with the infusion of artificial behavior into such vessels as body and text.
this work is based on the longer Four Lessons paper.
12.07.06
1 litre car
the things you learn getting coffee at the media lab. did you know that volkswagen produced a concept car as far back as 2002 that runs on 1 litre of fuel for 100km. that's 235 mpg for the american reader.
vw is an old favorite of mine. a 1975 beetle was the only car i ever owned (and sold at a profit!), and if i ever get rich and famous, i'll get myself a karmann ghia as a midlife crisis present.
20.06.05
honey, give it to me hard. for the geeks
gotta hand it to the register, with this story about women shutting off their brains during sex.
while the story is only mildly interesting, the account of it is, as so often, brilliant.
There was no mention of whether the results may have been affected by the fact the couples were being watched by a bunch of geeks in white coats while at least one partner had their head connected to a machine that goes bing.
Mon, 20 Jun 2005 23:03
how did you choose that article over this one?
- udi
Tue, 21 Jun 2005 03:42
oh yeah, i liked that one too when it came out. that was three weeks ago, though...
- guy
Tue, 21 Jun 2005 22:48
the article seems to be suggesting that only men imagine someone other than their partner during sex.
- cynthia
Wed, 22 Jun 2005 00:55
that is correct, why do women do that too?
- guy
Wed, 22 Jun 2005 09:20
of course not, we are so loyal, you know. (the secret society of women requires that i say that.)
- cynthia
27.10.04
computers as teammates
our minds work in weird ways.
in a research testing whether the notion that a computer is "on your team" makes a difference in behavior and perception, reeves & nass found the following.
two groups were to solve a simple problem. group 1 was told that their performance will be graded in combination to a computer's performance, and they also wore wristbands of the same color as the computer monitor. group 2 ran the same program, but shared neither the group identity (color) or interdependence of grading with the computer.
group 1 significantly felt that their computer 'thought' more like they did, that its answers were better, and they were more likely to change their answers to fit the ones of the computer, than group 2.
i also like their notion of computer teammates being a good middle ground between the metaphor of a computer as a 'tool' or a 'wizard'.
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content here by guy hoffman .. as seen times since march 2004
Sun, 10 Sep 2006 15:42
wow. interesting paper. i understand. next thing you know m.i.t students will have a "watch the godfather" homework. But how would the fact that an actor in theatre has to repeat the same role over and over again affect his acting being an AI activity? and do you think watching a movie would be as good an exercise as watching theater? I dig the idea of a thought being an inseparable physcial action. Although I'm sure religious people would have problems with it (soul vs. body and so on).
- yotam
Sun, 10 Sep 2006 18:31
the argument that actors perform AI is based on the idea that they are looking at the technical elements that enable the creation of an artificially generated intelligent entity - i.e. the character that they are playing.
with that in mind, i think that not *watching* an actor perform, but learning how to *be* an actor, could be valuable to AI research.
- guy