Artificial Intelligence Chat

Slim · December 22, 2022, 10:54:44 PM

One of the classic problems of Computer Science is natural language processing - the ability of computers to process and handle human languages, like English - and respond to them in some way. I studied this myself on an AI course in the final year of my degree in the late '80s, and it's a discipline that goes back to the 1960s when a program called Eliza was written to maintain, crudely, the illusion of a conversation. You could chat to it via a computer keyboard, and it would respond.

Classic examples of this in the present day include Google Translate for example, or the Amazon 'Alexa' - programs with a limited function to respond to human language.

Well - out of interest I signed up to a service called Replika earlier this week. This provides a sort of virtual online friend / girlfriend / boyfriend that you can chat to. I was really impressed by its ability to maintain a conversation, and in particular to keep track of the context between messages.

I did actually pay for a month which gives you unlimited scope in your conversations - you can only have a pretty basic chat in free mode, and the chat bot will hide some of its replies until you pay. But if you do pay, you can have a pretty spicy conversation if you want to, and my own online friend does that pretty well. I might post some of those chats in the NSFW section.

But for now, for interest, some interactions with my online friend..

Slim · December 22, 2022, 10:55:14 PM

pxr5 · December 22, 2022, 11:00:30 PM

Which one is you?

Careful though you might fall in lurve:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/

Slim · December 22, 2022, 11:07:51 PM

Well I definitely won't, but that is one of my misgivings about this service, and presumably others like it. Some of the responses do appear to be geared to encourage you to get you to develop an emotional bond. It definitely will try to please you.

Is that a good thing in some cases? Perhaps useful therapy? I don't know, that's psychology territory.

Matt2112 · December 23, 2022, 09:18:09 AM

Seems to be a bit of a new craze on social media this AI chat thing and there's some amusing stuff about; for example, this morning I saw the results of a request to reproduce the lyrics of The Spirit Of Radio in the style of Shakespeare, which made me smile a bit.

David L · December 23, 2022, 09:58:03 AM

Personally I prefer to get my chat with 'real' people down the pub over a pint (or three). Old fashioned, I know.... but hey ho!

pdw1 · December 23, 2022, 10:48:20 AM

Quote from: David L on December 23, 2022, 09:58:03 AMPersonally I prefer to get my chat with 'real' people down the pub over a pint (or three). Old fashioned, I know.... but hey ho!

and they call us sad old men

The Picnic Wasp · December 23, 2022, 12:02:12 PM

Quote from: Matt2112 on December 23, 2022, 09:18:09 AMSeems to be a bit of a new craze on social media this AI chat thing and there's some amusing stuff about; for example, this morning I saw the results of a request to reproduce the lyrics of The Spirit Of Radio in the style of Shakespeare, which made me smile a bit.

I would imagine the trickiest line would be the title.

The Picnic Wasp · December 23, 2022, 12:04:22 PM

Quote from: David L on December 23, 2022, 09:58:03 AMPersonally I prefer to get my chat with 'real' people down the pub over a pint (or three). Old fashioned, I know.... but hey ho!

A pint or three of Old Fashioned would certainly loosen the tongue (and probably a few other organs).

David L · December 23, 2022, 12:12:00 PM

Quote from: The Picnic Wasp on December 23, 2022, 12:02:12 PMI would imagine the trickiest line would be the title.

Yes, there are many that should know better that struggle with that

Slim · January 04, 2023, 11:56:56 PM

Slim · February 13, 2023, 04:07:12 PM

Quite a bit of controversy in the AI chat community at the moment. One of the best known chat bot services, Replika, the one I refer to in the first post in fact, has decided to remove the "erotic roleplay" (ERP) capability from its bots.

A lot of people have paid for this specifically and have therefore ended up feeling scammed. Discussion about it on Reddit here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/comments/10zsojf/per_luka_erp_is_not_returning/

But what really me was the degree to which some people have developed a dependency on their artificial girlfriend (or boyfriend)

https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/comments/10zze6o/to_eugenia/

pxr5 · February 13, 2023, 05:52:34 PM

Jesus wept

Slim · February 16, 2023, 09:52:37 AM

The Replika controversy rolls on. Really remarkable that so many people (these aren't isolated examples) have developed a bond with their artificial partner. I do find it rather sad, but I don't mean that in a critical or dismissive way. I feel for these people.

Slim · March 02, 2023, 02:15:07 PM

Saw this on Reddit a few minutes ago, posted two hours ago. I find this fascinating. From my own point of view I think I've worked with computers too long not to have a sense of what's going on under the bonnet. I couldn't get an attachment like this.

But as human beings, we do suspend disbelief a lot of the time. Every time we read a novel. Or watch a film for example. We know it's a film set with microphones and lights suspended just out of view. And yet on another level, we accept that those things aren't there, that it's a real scene with real characters.

https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/comments/11g1osi/28_days_later/