SL for TuringTesting MilitaryMommy AI's?

Ahh!

Do you people really think to goal of this program is to *trick* children into thinking they're really talking to their deployed parents?

My father was deployed during Desert Shield; a letter once every week or two kept me satisfied. But, I did need those letters. And they could've been written by absolutely anybody, couldn't they? It never crossed my mind, though - far as I was concerned, he wrote them to me and that's all that mattered. And to be honest, if some stranger told me tomorrow that it was he, and not my father, who'd written them back then, I couldn't see myself caring all that much. At the time, they served the purpose.

On the other hand, no - I don't think I could see DoD planning to use this system to simulate -dead- parents. That's a horrid accusation to make; and in any case, no psychologist in the world would propose it.

Ah. I don't know much about the Turing Test.

I was thinking they were just trying to get an AI that could respond appropriately to what the child says, using the deployed parent's own voice and words. Sort of this is what I would say to you in this situation if I were there with you. It would have to be pretty general of course but I think it might be comforting to hear something like "I miss you too" "I believe in you; have faith in yourself" and so on.


Trying to produce a robot which a child will believe IS her parent sounds like a pretty crazy idea and not very likely to be accomplished anytime soon.

Cody, the people working on this project have, I'm sure, just such benign intentions. It's the people who will USE the technology that's developed that I'm worried about.

I'm not accusing anyone. I am merely pointing out the potential for misuse and harm from even ill-considered use.

The culprit doesn't even have to be Capital-E EEEvil. You have far too trusting an opinion of psychologists. There are plenty of nutters in that profession (just like anywhere else).

I don't think you're suggesting that we should ban the development of any technology that could ever be used for bad purposes...

That´s creepy rofl...
Will they pay also for development of a program that can simulate sexual relationships?
I know some clubs that might be interested in helping out.

The Dod version located at:
http://www.dodtechmatch.com/DOD/Opportunities/SBIRView.aspx?id=OSD09-H03
Virtual Dialogue Application for Families of Deployed Service Members

Technology Area: Biomedical, Human Systems
Open Date: 11/12/2008
Close Date: 1/14/2009

Description:
The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury recognizes that family outreach and advocacy is pivotal for both the psychological health of the family and the resilience of the Service Member. Deployments put stress on the entire family, especially small children and communication is key. The ability to reach out and communicate with loved ones from areas of conflict is better than at any time in history. Nevertheless, the stresses of deployment might be softened if spouses and especially children could conduct simple conversations with their loved ones in immediate times of stress or prolonged absence. Historically, families have derived comfort and support from photographs or mementos, but current technology SHOULD allow for more personal interactive messages of support. Over 80% of American children between the ages of three and five regularly use computers, and 83% of families have a computer in their home. So, computer-based applications would resonate with children and capture their interest and imagination. 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.

Objective:
To develop a highly interactive PC or web-based application to allow family members to verbally interact with virtual renditions of deployed Service Members.

Phase I:
Work with DoD Subject Matter Experts to define exact needs and scope of the application. Provide for the development of a complete concept plan, concept design for the overall system and a simple working proof-of-concept demonstration. In this concept plan, address the following items with respect to the Phase II requirements: 1. Develop metrics to determine user acceptance, usability, and content requirements. 2. Describe, illustrate, and storyboard a complete scenario with the help of Subject Matter Experts. 3. Outline technology limitations and risks, including minimum system requirements. 4. Identify development tools for producing the simulation. 5. Devise an implementation and plan for a detailed usability study 6. Develop a basic proof-of-concept demonstration of technology

Commercialization Potential:
This technology would be useful for providing support for civilian families and could be easily expanded to provide highly-interactive training and lessons-learned from experts in the field.

This seems to trigger a sortofa uncanny valley response. Like others here, the idea just sounds sorta creepy to me.

I think I'd be less creeped out if it didn't sound like they were trying to trick kids into thinking their parents (or whoever) was really there. A product more obviously not-real would probably be more well received..

No, not at all. If I did that, you'd have me sitting in a cave shivering and eating my meat raw.

All I'm saying is that we should consider the consequences before jumping on new technologies.

Well, bringing it back to the possibility of a Second Life-created platform being used for this: as we know well, the art of avatar creation doesn't yet rise to the level of being able to trick kids into thinking their parents are really there.

(The question of how creeped out a kid might be by a SL-style avatar of their parent is another thing to consider.)

To me the alarming point is that the military is working on making voice-quality and Turing-level responses that could fool someone who knows the person being impersonated by the software.

There are all sorts of avenues for committing mayhem with such a system.

The possibility of nefariousness use of any seemingly benign technology is never a stretch when Governmnents are concerned. Haven't you seen "Wierd Science".

"Real Genius" maybe? I don't remember the government doing aything nefarious with Kelly LeBrock.

Lazlo Hollyfeld on the other hand....

It's doomed to never get out of the lab because it's got "voice recognition" (of course they mean *speech* recognition) written in the RFP. That also means the whole thing is almost certainly wired to a particular speech recognition vendor, as are many (most?) SBIR projects.

Ultra-long-term, I don't find it that creepy. If it could only work--*really* work--I can imagine an interactive "surrogate" that could be as relevant as a photograph and a collection of well-worn letters or replayed voice recordings.

But really ultra-long-term. Long before that, management personnel had better watch their backs: managing staff is pretty similar to parenting.

Oh yeah. I always get those two confused.

Well, you can't trust private corporations either. Haven't you seen Alien? Or Aliens? Or Aliens 3? Or Aliens 4?

I stopped after #2. I didn't even know there was a #4. Did they give Sigourney her hair back?

3 wasn't very good. 4 was terrible.

Her hair, yes. Her humanity, not so much.

For some reason I thought of Nell's book, "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" from Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" when I read the OP. Sort of an interactive AI stand-in that was never meant to raise a child but did so.

Or that piece of dreck movie Speilberg finished for Kubrick.

Now THAT was a BOOK.

Haven't you heard of the life-size cardboard cutouts that the army gives out to families?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/08/usa.paulharris


I think they are looking for a more interactive experience. It's just a thing to keep the kids from forgetting their faces and voices. I'm sure they probably get a lot of phone calls and emails too.

I agree.

"Daddy, Mommy must have died. She's turned into a ghost! Or a cloud or something. Whaaah!!!"

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"Look Mom, Daddy walks like a duck."


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"Why is Iraq all gray?"

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"Mommy, why are there slight pauses every 9.9 seconds when you talk?"


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"Daddy, why are there flying penises all around you?"

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