Facebook researchers shut down artificial intelligence programs that talked to each other in code.

HAL doesn't mean any harm. Really.

You know how Hollywood always creates some movie regarding artificial intelligence, where a robot or software starts becoming a little too smart for its own good? Usually chaos ensues, humanity is on the brink, and a great time was had by all.

That's all fiction. But we're off and running with it in reality now, too.

Mark Zuckerberg is obsessed with artificial intelligence and investing in its development. As a result, Facebook researchers created sophisticated software designed to have two programs speak to each other in English.

While the two AI programs used English words, their respective sentences were nonsense. An example of their conversation:


Bob: “I can can I I everything else.”

Alice: “Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to.”


The kicker? The computers understood was the other was saying. Researchers? They have no idea what the programs meant and don't know the sort of linguistic code being used by each. As a result, the software was shut down quickly.

Don't look so casual, pal! Why so cryptic??

A Georgia Tech researcher at Facebook's AI Research (FAIR), Dhruv Batra, told Fast Co. Design "[t]here was no reward to sticking to English language," and that "[a]gents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves. Like if I say 'the' five times, you interpret that to mean I want five copies of this item. This isn’t so different from the way communities of humans create shorthands."

Computers using codewords between themselves that we can't understand--sounds safe to me!

Wha--what are you saying, computer?

"Our interest was having bots who could talk to people," FAIR scientist Mike Lewis told Fast Co. Design. The end result was that Facebook researchers required typical human English be used by the software in the future.

While scientists seemingly paused with trepidation at having computers speak in code to one another, others don't have issues with humanity being left in the dark. Mark Wilson, senior writer at Fast Co. Design, wants the software to have free reign. "[A]t the same time, it feels shortsighted, doesn’t it? If we can build software that can speak to other software more efficiently, shouldn’t we use that? Couldn’t there be some benefit?"

Wilson admits that humans won't know how AI thinks, their thought processes, and how their intelligence might evolve, but if we allow AI to speak in ways humans might never decipher "[I]t offers us the possibility of a more interoperable world, a more perfect place where iPhones talk to refrigerators that talk to your car without a second thought."

Thanks, Mark, but I can survive without my phone talking to my fridge. I really don't need an update that I'm out of mustard before both AIs decide to overthrow humanity.

The fridge was reallllly irked I didn't buy the mustard.

Does a computer know your reading habits better than you know them yourself?

Avid reader...of lips.

Who knows better what will become a bestseller? A human being or computer?

Inkitt is a website and publisher that believes computers know best. Kind of like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, except less easily offended and more interested in your penchant for sassy beach reads. Inkitt suspects that by using various algorithms they can track readers' collective behavior patterns, at least when it comes to the behavior of purchasing books.

Writers can publish passages and chapters of their books in the community forums of Inkitt and receive feedback from members. Inkitt then uses a proprietary algorithm to detect the likelihood of the "stickiness" of pieces, as the website's co-founder and CEO Ali Albazaz once described it.

Using this method, and through Tor Books publishing, Inkitt will release the first book using a data-driven focus. Bright Star, a young adult story, will challenge the algorithm next year.

Today is Ask a Stupid Question Day.

According to Wikipedia, the holiday was created by teachers in the 1980s to get their students to ask more questions.


Okay, I'll play along:

In the oldies song "Who Put the Bomp," what exactly is a 'bomp' anyway? Or a 'shoo'?

Where was Baby New Year born? I assume Sheboygan.


What did the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey mean? Is there a gigantic space baby floating over Earth? If there is, I think it's time for us to freak the hell out. How does this go unnoticed by humanity? I'd think we'd all be in a lather that a giant fetus might start eating us--and that, my friend, would be a more logical end to the movie. Just pandemonium as the giant space baby licks its lips and reaches out for America.

There's no other day I can ask these things.

HAL is now moonlighting as a sports reporter these days.

Are you generally a cold, emotionless person? Do you enjoy conversations with awkward people who sound like robots? Do you enjoy books that read like a 5th grader's interpretation of a Hemingway novel? Then you're in luck.

A company called Narrative Science has created a new software system that eliminates the need for writers for a variety of newspaper stories that are heavy on statistics. Likewise, it also eliminates the need to have any sense of human emotion in the story, too. It's like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but without the murderous jealousy.

So, let's play a game. Here are three different versions of a baseball game between the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa. Two are from local news reports, and one is from the Narrative Science software: You guess which one loves binary codes the most:

1.) The University of Michigan baseball team used a four-run fifth inning to salvage the final game in its three-game weekend series with Iowa, winning 7-5 on Saturday afternoon (April 24) at the Wilpon Baseball Complex, home of historic Ray Fisher Stadium.

2.) The Iowa baseball team dropped the finale of a three-game series, 7-5, to Michigan Saturday afternoon. Despite the loss, Iowa won the series having picked up two wins in the twinbill at Ray Fisher Stadium Friday.

3.) Michigan held off Iowa for a 7-5 win on Saturday. The Hawkeyes (16-21) were unable to overcome a four-run sixth inning deficit. The Hawkeyes clawed back in the eighth inning, putting up one run.

Let me help you out. One of the above examples uses rapid fire sentences like it's hopped up on premium unleaded gas. The rapid fire example--#3? Shockingly, it's not written by a sports reporter high on six pots of Maxwell House. That would be the software pumping out a story. I know, who'd have guessed software would write such a silky smooth narrative?

The company says that the software is "machine-generated content" trying to become a "less bad writer." Wow, that's a way to make the whole machines-as-amateur-writers sound sexier than ever. Even better, the software was partially created by journalism professors--the same journalism professors who probably decry the lack of jobs for journalists.

Awww, cannibalism can be cute sometimes!