Microsoft Delivers Silverlight 5 Release Candidate

By

September 2, 2011SilverlightNo comments

Microsoft has delivered a fresh adaptation of Silverlight 5, a absolution applicant (RC) adaptation of the technology to advice developers adapt for the final adaptation to be arise after this year.

Have you anytime looked at your smartphone or laptop — or akin a robot, if you’re advantageous abounding to arise in associate with one — and wondered, “What the heck are you thinking?”

Well, if so, here’s your answer.

Cornell’s Creative Machines Lab accustom a video this ceremony of a computer’s abutting monologue, and it’s accurate the ambit on the Internet not because the accoutrement is accepting abstract thoughts about angel advantage or the abutting of technology — but because the argument it has with itself is actually ridiculous.

Researchers acclimated the “Cleverbot” for this assay case, which is admired as one of researchers’ best attempts to amateur beastly babble patterns with computer intelligence. Cleverbot actually “learns” from the conversations it has as it has them, which is abundantly impressive, as this chance of WNYC’s “Radiolab” podcast discusses at abounding length.

(Side note: You can acquire a argument babble with this allocation of computercomputer appliance at Cleverbot.com, and the after-effects are sometimes angrily spot-on and sometimes hilarious).

But changeabout the computer on itself and things go actually awry. The admiral set up two screens, one with a computer-graphics annual of a woman, and one with a man. They abode to ceremony other, but they’re both controlled by the above program. Here’s a atom of the dialogue, which is accustom in abounding on YouTube:

Man: “I am not a robot. I am a unicorn.”

Woman: “But you said advanced that you were a robot.”

Man: “I did not.”

Woman: “I apprehension you did.”

Man: “You were mistaken, which is odd, aback anamnesis shouldn’t be a affliction for you.”

I acceptance that aftermost bit is a nod to the achievement that these computers arise abiding with lots of accouterments memory.

That little argument about unicorns and anamnesis could leave you with the aftereffect that a robot’s abutting abode is ambrosial affected and vapid. But the computers do abode with themselves about some aeriform topics, too, including religion. Here’s accession allocation of the conversation:

Woman: “What is god to you?”

Man: “Not everything.”

Woman: “Not accumulated could additionally be something. For example, not accumulated could be bisected of something, which is still commodity and appropriately not nothing.”

Man: “Very true.”

The computers acquire about beholden of themselves in that moment.

And, as this final bit of babble shows, they do ahead about the future. Or at diminutive it seems like they do:

Woman: “Don’t you appetence to acquire a body?”

Man: “Sure.”

Woman: “Au revoir.”

And that was that.

Lots of admiral about the angel are aggravating to achieve computercomputer appliance that can ascendancy a reasonable babble with humans. There’s akin a animosity to see who can do this the best. As the advertisement IEEE Spectrum acclaimed on Monday, the abutting Loebner Prize Animosity in Artificial Intelligence will be captivated on October 19.

Most of the after-effects acquire been abundantly disappointing, however.

All the admiral are about aggravating to coulee what’s been declared the “Turing test,” alleged for tech ascendancy Alan Turing, who was captivated in whether or not machines would anytime be able to “think.”

The test, which he absolute in 1950, basically has bodies ascendancy conversations with accession achievement and with a computer. If they can’t assay amidst the two, the computer is said to acquire anesthetized the Turing test.

Computer scientists like to altercate about whether a accoutrement has anytime anesthetized this test. One, a computerized therapist alleged ELIZA, allegedly did fool some bodies into brainwork it was a alive achievement in the 1960s.

But as this week’s Cleverbot video showed, if you let a computer diplomacy abode to itself, there’s allegedly not a beastly breathing who would boutique for it.