SL for TuringTesting MilitaryMommy AI's?

The DoD (Dept of Defense) has published preliminary specs for a project proposal. The goal is to provide a software app with voice-recognition that is usable by children and would simulate their deployed parents.

Can the multifunctionality of SL and its user-groups/SoultionProviders be leveraged to
meet the needs of these families?

Ethics aside, what are the pro's and con's to using the SL platform for this agenda?

You mean like a telephone?



Or are you saying that the app will sound like their parents for some reason? And if so, do you truly think it's for the benefit of all those poor wee children?

is there a link about this?

I thought xyryx was implying that it recognized the childs voice and activated a response from the AI mum and dad, simulating them sounds illegal though!

In any event if the Government is involved tyhey will spend 3 to 5 times the amount of money actually necessary.

I know the USA believes itself to be under threat from many quarters, but can someone explain to me why on earth the DoD should want




Their parents are deployed in Iraq?



Don't let me down guys. Lets have some amusing answers

If that AI mommie and daddy pay out allowance I want them too
lmao

Well, not attempting to be funny here. You don't know the reason or the 'agenda' of the request, but the U.S. military has a large contingent of dependents and there probably are a significant number that are impacted by parent deployment. This may simply be something to address childhood psyche problems in the dependent population - speaking as an army brat that had his dad deploy overseas in hardship areas three times in my childhood. I doubt that there are sufficient numbers of hardship redeployment granted to warrant this on the purely military side.

Not that I was negatively impacted by the deployments, mind you, other than latent homicidal tendencies and the occasional desire to drive the wrong way on one way streets. I find they can be complementary if done right...

....a software app with voice-recognition that is usable by children and would simulate their deployed parents.


Would it simulate their deceased parents?

That would be *such* a comfort.
How nice of the DOD to dream it up!

PeterPan, I am so appalled that I can't muster up any humor.

It's either a hugely stupid waste of money (for gods' sake, buy more body armor so that the REAL mommies and daddies can come home safe!)...

...or it's one of the creepiest, cruelest, most unethical things I've ever seen. To lie to a child (with a computer program, FFS) and let them think they are talking to their parent. That's simply the sickest thing I've ever heard of.

I think it sounds awful.

It sounds as if the project's proposers imagine children to be incredibly ignorant, gullible, and easily fooled.

Whoever works on the project should be sent to a base in Antarctica and allowed to only relate to their creation, to test its efficacy.

And I think you have never worked with emotionally damaged children. You don't know the purpose of the proposal (or the accuracy of its presentation here). I've seen similarly oriented proposals when I worked with a contractor for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and it would not surprise me at all in a similar context. Again, the U.S. military works in a lot of venues other than strictly military, including education with military impacted school districts and health in the U.S. military hospital system, which supports dependents as well as the military. A young military dependent that has mental health problems compounded by a 12, 18 or 24 month deployment of a parent may very well have a legitimate need for such a system.

Not a supporter of the U.S. military particularly, but I have seen states and organizations work through the U.S. government to get funding for all kinds of projects. DoD has funded some interesting projects only tangentially applicable to any part of its basic missions. Before the current conflict, they funded doctors at emergency rooms of some suburban hospitals to get them current on treating gunshots and other sever trauma, as an example.

Hereyago!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Military Aims to Design Virtual Moms and Dads

Filed under: Society

The Pentagon is initiating a project to build a virtual parent, a software application that would be used by children with military parents out on deployment that don't have the time to communicate with their kids. As the Department of Defense is building simulated moms and dads, the Orwellian aroma is unmistakable. But fear not, this project is currently only at the stage of seeking proposals from companies interested in tackling the idea in practice.

From the DOD project overview:

The challenge is to design an application that would allow a child to receive comfort from being able to have simple, virtual conversations with a parent who is not available "in-person". We are looking for innovative applications that explore and harness the power of advanced interactive multimedia computer technologies to produce compelling interactive dialogue between a Service member and their families via a pc- or web-based application using video footage or high-resolution 3-D rendering. The child should be able to have a simulated conversation with a parent about generic, everyday topics. For instance, a child may get a response from saying "I love you", or "I miss you", or "Good night mommy/daddy." This is a technologically challenging application because it relies on the ability to have convincing voice-recognition, artificial intelligence, and the ability to easily and inexpensively develop a customized application tailored to a specific parent. We are seeking development of a tool which can be used to help families (especially, children) cope with deployments by providing a means to have simple verbal interactions with loved ones for re-assurance, support, affection, and generic discussion when phone and internet conversations are not possible. The application should incorporate an AI that allows for flexibility in language comprehension to give the illusion of a natural (but simple) interaction. The current solicitation is not aiming to build entertainment, but a highly accurate and advanced simulation platform. Voice-recognition and voice-interaction are required. The User Interface is a critical component for this program. Application must be user friendly and application must be easy to install and maintain. Verbal interactions should be as normal as current technology will allow. Proven track record for creating similar types of applications is desired, but not required. Development plans should include the use of trained psychological health and family advocacy experts with experience providing services to military populations. Project MUST include discussion of how personal information would be collected, recorded, and rendered as well as address issues about information content and complexity of proposed simulation application. If using a web-based application, security and maintenance issues must be addressed. Application must run on typical family-owned computer systems.

DOD request from proposals: Virtual Dialogue Application for Families of Deployed Service Members

It's all in the plan to finally create the Wife Bank of B3K...

Pardon me, Cael, but I say BS to this. What that kid needs is a real person, not an AI. Even if the system is designed with the most benign intentions, and used properly, I see a potential here for terrible outcomes. And if it is NOT used properly, or used with malign intent, the implications for creating devastating emotional trauma are staggering.

We've seen plenty of examples, right here in SL. How devastating is it to find out that the person you've fallen in love with, trusted with your innermost thoughts, is really an alt of the jerk who dumped you three months back?

I find myself reminded of this as well:

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/18/Tampabay/_Flat_Daddy__keeps_bo.shtml

Speaking of BS, I was applying this (potentially) to children with serious emotional and psychiatric issues. No doubt there are some on SL that fit that profile, but there are children that are on multiple treatment regimens and the idea that a responsive parental voice would not be beneficial, especially when that voice is not otherwise available WHEN NEEDED, is nonsense.

I've done the treatment budgets for some of these kids, and redone them and redone them, to accommodate new approaches when the other didn't work. Sat in conferences where the professionals tried to come up with a combination that would make a 12 year old less destructive or suicidal. It isn't one tool, it is a combination in most cases. And this would have been a tool even when parents were living only a few miles away, but had to work to put food on the table for the rest of their family. That voice may be calming at midnight, not next Tuesday when the family can afford to visit.

Of course, I'm sure the old medicate, medicate, medicate is sooo less invasive...

Still don't know the actual intent of the program, but IMO there are possible valid purposes.

Maybe. But as a mother, it scares the snot out of me as well as offending me on a very deep level. Maybe I just have a Frankenstein complex.

Of course a parent's voice would be beneficial. No one would argue any different. A computer program is not a parent. Surely it would at best delay the results of emotional trauma until the child found out.

"Department of Defense" = nice euphemism there.

An artificial intelligence system that can imitate a voice and respond in real time in so convincing a way that someone would believe he or she was actually speaking with a person that he or she knows quite well.....

Does anyone seriously believe that 'comforting children' is the main purpose to which the military would put such an invention???

If the actual parents were able to program the AI's repertoire of responses this might be a useful tool for children who miss their mom or dad. It wouldn't be that much different from leaving behind a picture or some written words of advice. I don't think the kids would confuse the AI's with their real life parents.

Then why do they need Turing Testing?

This has the smell of brimstone about it.

Sounds more like an interrogation tool. I mean... You would tell your mother, wouldn't you? (^_^)y

We all know the current state of voice-recognition AI: it's the phone menus that say, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand that" when you say "yes" or "no" -- and those are the only choices.

It's also the chatbots that say, "Why did you say that I say you said that when you were not visiting London?"

While I *do* think it would be useful to put money into AI research, and that it would be even better to put money into helping children whose military parents are far off, this program sounds far-fetched and ill-conceived.

Would it be so monumentally hard to let them actually talk to their parents? Or at least allow them to trade videos?

You know what the Turing test is, right? It's when a human interacting with a computer can't tell whether there's a human or a computer on the other end.

Yes, Key, I do know what Turing Testing is. I was responding to the post that said children wouldn't confuse the AI with the parent.

It seems that doing Turing Testing would mean that would be the desired outcome.