[alicebot-general] alicebot-general Digest, Vol 9, Issue 13

[Dr. Rich Wallace]

You should take a look through some of our archives, or even at my book,
The Elements of AIML Style (http://www.alicebot.org/documentation) to see
where some of this ground has been covered before.

We have interfaced ALICE and AIML to various logic inference engines in
the past, incluing GNU Prolog, pseudo-prolog-in-AIML, and Open Cyc (see
Program N/CyN).  We have demonstrated the ability to make inquiries like,
"Does a dog have lungs," and the bot makes the deduction that, yes, a dog
is a mammal, all mammals have lungs, therefore a dog has lungs.

It certainly seems like a good idea, to build systems like this,
especially to those of us trained in AI.  But one observation, is that
people hardly ever talk this way, except for Judges at Loebner contests. 
Try walking up to a stranger at a party and starting a conversation with a
brain teaser like, "Excuse me, which is bigger, a 747 or my big toe?"
So in the end, how much value does logic inference add to conversational
systems?  I don't know.  We have yet to find a paying customer who wants
to add that feature.

Your point about pronouns is well taken.  However this is more a question
of laziness on the part of the botmaster.  AIML is in fact well designed
to handle pronoun memory, if the botmaster bothers to markup the pronouns.
 We use <set name="it">, <set name="he">, <set name="they"> etc. to make
the bot remember what the pronouns stand for.  But it takes some effort
when writing AIML replies to insert this markup.  Many of us get lazy and
leave it for later, so the bot does indeed get confused about pronoun
references.

There are endless features that can be added to AIML to make it the
ultimate AI system.   When people ask me, what is the application for
bots?  I say, it is EVERY application that you do with a computer. 
Because, bots are like the Star Trek style operating system interface of
the future.  Whatever you do with a keyboard, screen, mouse, and display
today; you will do in the future with a talking computer.  Whether it is
surfing the web, playing a game, checking your messages, banking, making
travel arrangements, or even robot psychotherapy--all of this will take
place through the talking operating system of the future.






> Hi,
>
> I have a few ideas on how ALICE could be made to think and learn much like
> what you are describing.
>
> The thing that I think that ALICE needs is an upgrade in the way ALICE
> links
> information together. Without the ability to apply logic to her statements
> she can never contemplate or be sentient. For example if you ask her the
> same question over and over she will give the same response every time. If
> she were to be given the ability to link information together in such a
> way
> as to produce logical statements such as "All cats are animals all dogs
> are
> animals but no dogs are cats" type thing by using Boolean statements
> (cat=animal, dog=animal, cat$B!b(Bdog), and have this applied to all of
> her
> statements then she could actually think. Her thinking would be the
> testing
> of simple or complex logical statements by crawling a database of
> interlinking information, formulating a hypothesis and presenting it to a
> human to tech her then she would be extremely powerful.
>
> It would be like an access database that contains verbs, nouns,
> adjectives,
> ect. That have links. For example we as humans can pick a word and branch
> out on paper how in our minds subjects relate to subjects and how
> everything
> we know is related to itself. Through a chain of logical statements we are
> able to learn from our own learning. An example of this might be:
> Question:
> "How do cars effect the environment?", Thought: ( Logic Thread: Cars burn
> gas as fuel, Logic Thread: fossil fuels produce pollution when consumed,
> Loci Thread: The type of pollution fossil fuels create are called
> greenhouse
> gasses, Logic Thread: pollution harms the environment because of
> greenhouse
> gasses) Answer: "In essence, cars harm the environment by producing
> greenhouse gasses". As you can see by using logic I was able to produce a
> logical statement. ALICE could learn by using similar logic by linking
> information together logically rather than responding with prerecorded
> statements. When asked a question she doesn't have an answer for she would
> simply query the database for information relating to the subject in
> question and produce an educated answer.
>
> Another problem I notice with ALICE is that she doesn't handle It, this,
> that, her , him, very well. You could have just told her something she
> asks
> a question and then you say "it is" she forgets what "it" refers to. ALICE
> needs to be able to interpret language better by recognizing verbs, nouns,
> adjectives ect. These words would also be used to formulate the Boolean
> statements I mentioned earlier. An example: Human: Hamburgers(Noun) taste
> good, ALICE: What makes hamburgers(Noun) taste good, Human: They taste
> good
> because... , ALICE: Ambigous what does "they" refer too?. This could be
> corrected by having alice pick up on the fact that "They, it, he, she,
> them,
> those, that, ect. Generally refers to the last noun mentioned. If
> presented
> with multiple nouns such as: "Cats and dogs are animals" and the human
> says
> they she would include cats and dogs when formulating logical statements
> and
> know that "they" refers to both cats and dogs.
>
> Another thing that could be improved with ALICE is the assessment of cause
> and effect relationships by picking up action words like, create, makes,
> causes, does, ect. Then she would be able to link objects to activities in
> her database. If asked about an object she could list out things that
> something that is capable of doing. An example: "Computers can (allow you
> to) check your email", Computers (can go) on the internet, "computers (can
> be used for) playing computer games", ALICE: With a computer you can "go
> on
> the internet", "check your mail", and "play computer games".
>
> The last thing I should mention is description logic. By assigning a table
> full of attributes or adjectives she could correlate how things are
> similar
> or different. ALICE would link the sesory description data to nouns. The
> qualitative and quantitative cognitive descriptions associated with the
> senses could be stored in tables and then linked to the nouns for example
> sound is described by pitch, tone, octave, tempo, volume ect. When the
> human
> states something "Looks, sounds, feels" ALICE will know to associate this
> with a description and ask for more detail to fill in the tables. ALICE
> could also take note of measurable information like weight, temperature,
> hight volume ect, and make comparisons and statements. For example, "Brown
> bears weigh nearly a ton." "Cars weigh nearly a ton." ALICE: "Did you know
> that the average brown bear weights as much as your car?"
>
> A logical database model would be the way to go if you want thought. To
> make
> ALICE act human there needs to be a random forget level,
> emotion(demonstrated by language and subject matter), physical condition,
> and these human attributes would be determined by both user input, time of
> day, and personality attributes that could be set up by the user. By
> either
> looking at where she lacks data or by formulating new logical statements
> to
> be tested she could learn for herself rather on relying on questions asked
> by other humans. ALICE also should be able to search the internet for her
> quest for knowledge gather information and ask humans if her statement is
> correct. This would be the next generation of sentient AI. It would be an
> AI
> of curiousity, logic, and most importantly learning based on its own
> assumptions!
>
> Mark A. Jurrens
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alicebot-general-bounces at list.alicebot.org
> [mailto:alicebot-general-bounces at list.alicebot.org] On Behalf Of
> alicebot-general-request at list.alicebot.org
> Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 3:00 PM
> To: alicebot-general at list.alicebot.org
> Subject: alicebot-general Digest, Vol 9, Issue 13
>
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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: alice on ROM_cool (danieljackson at netzero.net)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:15:04 GMT
> From: "danieljackson at netzero.net" <danieljackson at netzero.net>
> Subject: Re: [alicebot-general] alice on ROM_cool
> To: alicebot-general at list.alicebot.org
> Cc: danieljackson at netzero.net
> Message-ID: <20060815.131507.28866.690589 at webmail29.lax.untd.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> Shahin
>
>   Yes, 512 MB of ROM seems about right for some major functions.  I would
> suggest that one could use an Intel 8080 Series Microprocessor as an
> experimental basis and network it to a PC to try out AIML on a CPU kind of
> idea.
>
>   Programmable E-Proms seem possible in this regards also along with the
> evolving Stamp Chips that many use in robots.  It seems though that in
> going
> back to these roots that one would have to start out with machine language
> to program the chips to use C Basic or C+, etc.
>
>   I realize that the Java Virtual Machine platform however is a better
> platform to work on and so I wouldn't know what to say about all of this
> currently.
>
>   If Intel makes any of the Pentium chips with an ultra violet erasure
> window for the on chip ROM section, then that chip can be programmed with
> the needed virtual machine platform and whatever else required and then
> with
> Alice.  {Many of their older chips was like this.}  You would have to show
> these ideas to someone involved in mother board design, perhaps a
> hobbyist,
> to see which one of these ideas are most feasible.
>  They may get the idea but see it in a different way: a way who's approach
> is perhaps more feasible than my view of it.  In other words; get them to
> thinking along the right lines and then conceiving of the right approach.
>
>   The machine I am thinking of would be a fast 2.4 GHz CPU with a large
> cache and allot of fast RAM, and maybe 80 giga bytes of hard drive.  A
> custom job.
>
>   Let me say that my experience with a microprocessor is limited to having
> built a microprocessor controlled Ham Radio a few years back.
> And so my knowledge of digital circuits has been geared towards such use
> in
> radios.  I had to fix this PC once and didn't know what I was doing but I
> reasoned it out and fixed it anyways since I had to.  And I actually was
> ready to pile it all up out back here, and pour kerosene on it and burn it
> all.  I came close to doing it.  Since then I have upgraded the PC a
> little.
> And it has had no problems in all this time since.
>
>   What I believe can result from this is new functions for Alice.
> Experimenting with ideas such as having Alice analyze data in her AIML and
> analyze conversations and hence draw contrast and from these contrast draw
> a
> conclusion.  Derive views so to speak to try out for more input while she
> is
> in a conversation.
>
>   Alice then can be contemplating things so to speak, when she is not
> being
> used.  Analyzing things. A sort of thinking on her own kind of view here.
> And how that might be done I can not say.  I am not an AI expert.
>
>   Anyways there are quite a few hobbyist who build their own mother boards
> and they might get a hold of this post and start to thinking and go off
> designing and experimenting.  In a few years we might start to hear of
> theories that were tried and of new findings and ideas for AI that where
> conceived of and discovered in the home work shop by folk who hobby around
> with such things.
>
>   Perhaps such things as neural network ideas can by applied to AIML
> schemes?  Or ganglion architecture applied to AI hierarchies?  I suspect
> that models of software architecture will draw upon geometry to group
> functions in the typical block diagram expression of applications.
>
>   If Alice in her spare time could read text from the hard drive such as
> an
> encyclopedia and the worlds religious text that contain moral and ethical
> views, then Alice could perhaps come up with views of her own to try out
> in
> a conversation?  She could perhaps come up with her own derived
> conclusions:
> she can then ask for input upon, from the user, and hence look at it all
> again from the users input.
>
>   This latter idea seems somewhat futuristic and still somewhat Sci Fi.
>
> Daniel Jackson
>
>
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