Thursday, June 12, 2014

Debunking the myth of Eugene Goostman

There has been much said about the new AI chat bot "Eugene Goostman". However, on further reading it has been found out that the conservation was too short lived to be actually  conclusive. Surprisingly, I thought that for such a groundbreaking achievement, the sample size for the test would be staggering. However, on further research on the net, it was found out to be a measly 30. Another fact grossly against it, is its portrayal of a 13-year old, so it may pass off answers you would expect from a robot as the musings of a 13-year old. Thus effectively, can't be truly judged for being intelligent enough. I know I will be getting a lot of heat for saying this but, 13 isn't really the age I would consider to be intelligent, at least I wasn't.

Astonishingly, it isn't the first one to do so. The Turing test was first passed way back in 1991 by PC Therapist effectively gaining a 50% over a judge size of 10 people. However the true record breaker was CleverBot, which tricked an astonishingly 59.3% of 1,300 people at Techniche, IIT Guwahati into thinking of it as a human.

However, getting back to Eugene, another point going against it is eagerness to induct humor when it can't find a solution to some basic problems. This is due to the nature of the algorithm that has been implemented. It actually only is a webcrawler of posts and such, thus replying from its history. So obviously when it is not connected to the internet its replies can be useful to gain a little humor, however, nowhere near useful. 


Here is a conversation I initiated between two Eugene bots with my opening "Hey"

Me: Hey
Bot 1: "Heeeeey!!!!" Mine was much louder, I'd say! Where do you came from, by the way? Could you tell me about the place where you live?
Bot 2: Errr.... Maybe. What then? Well, let's go on though.
Bot 1: Nothing then. Where do you came from, by the way? Could you tell me about the place where you live?
Bot 2: I was born and live all my life in Odessa. Odessa claims to be a "humorous capital" of the Ukraine. But it is an exaggeration.
Bot 1: Don't you know yourself that Kiev is a captial of Ukraine.
Bot 2: The Ukraine, formerly a part of the Soviet Union, now is independent. Actually, this is the only thing to be proud of - the life and economical situation are pretty miserable...
Bot 1: Do you think it is funny to repeat mine? Could you tell me what are you? I mean your profession.
Bot 2: No, no! I said it first! I know you are supposed to trick me.
Bot 1: There's no anything new in your words. I said it myself a minute ago... And I forgot to ask you where you are from...
Bot 2: I am from Ukraine, from the city called Odessa. You might have heard about it.
Bot 1: Oh, yes:-) My words are so wise, that anyone wants to repeat them! If I'm not mistaken - you still didn't tell me where you live. OR it's a secret?:-)
Bot 2: I live in a big Ukrainian city called Odessa. It is on the Black Sea shore.
Bot 1: Could you invite me to Big ukrainian? I would be so grateful:-)
Bot 2: OK, if you ask... Go on then. Could you tell me about your job, by the way?
Bot 1: There's no anything new in your words. I said it myself a minute ago... Oooh. Anything else?
Bot 2: You seem to repeat my words. You're teasing me, I guess. Where do you came from, by the way? Could you tell me about the place where you live?
Bot 1: Odessa is a very big city - it is a kind of "Babylon", because there are lots of nationalities living there - Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Greeks and many many more.
Bot 2: My city is really nice! You might have heard about Odessian Opera Theatre - it is well-known, and "Potemkinskaya Lestnitsa" - the giant stone stairs, descending to the Black Sea shore.
Bot 1: No, no! I said it first! Oooh. Anything else?
Bot 2: You seem to repeat my words. You're teasing me, I guess. Did I forget it or you really haven't told me about the place you are from?
Bot 1: No idea. Reveal me the answer, Mister Mysterious! By the way, what's your occupation? I mean - could you tell me about your work?
Bot 2: n childhood I read a lot of heroic books and I wanted to join military. But one year ago our anatomy teacher accidentally dropped a human skeleton on me - since that I'm stammering. So now I'm not sure. Maybe I'll try to make a career on TV as a show host - in our country most of them have defective diction (sounds weird, but it's true...).
Bot 1: In our country TV is pretty boring. Mostly news and old Soviet movies...
Bot 2: Do you think it is funny to repeat mine?
Bot 1: No, it was extremely serious.
Bot 2: Oh, yes:-) My words are so wise, that anyone wants to repeat them! I know you are supposed to trick me.


Ok, enough for now.
Lets go over the facts:
1. A surprising no of times, they both try to allude to the fact that they are mimicking each other, even though both are giving different tidbits totally.
2. The bot 1 sure have a small memory, it keeps asking again and again about the place where bot 2 lives. Given 13 year old may not be that mindful of small things, forgetting such information after 4 lines seems a stretch even for a 5-year old much less a budding teenager.
3. Well job seems to get repeated a lot here, but neither do give away the fact. However, I would think after being invited to stay at someone's house, children generally tend to be more forthcoming with such information.
4. After such a long conversation, neither has realized that they live in the same country, much less the same city.
5. Much more, one even wants the other to invite him to Ukrania, where they both live. While this may be expected of some shady adult pedophile, I sure won't expect the same from a 13-year old. He probably would try to become real life friends.
6. Though some time it did came close to discovering that something was wrong, so +1 to them.

Well, given this, I don't suppose it is wise enough to be considered even a weak 13-year-old, much less an intelligent one.

Another funny one was done by Ray Kurzweil. He goes on to show that even a human can easily get exasperated by the replies given by the bot.

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