Microsoft Touts Breakthrough In Making Chatbots More Conversational (windowscentral.com) 101
In a blog post today, Microsoft said that it has created what it believes is the "first technological breakthrough" toward making conversations with chatbots more like speaking to another person. Windows Central reports: Microsoft says that it has figured out how to make chatbots talk and listen at the same time, allowing them to operate in "full duplex," to use telecommunications jargon. The company says this allows chatbots or assistants to have a flowing conversation with humans, much more akin to how people talk to one another. That stands in contrast to how digital assistants and bots currently work, where only one side can talk at any given time. The technology is already up and running in Xiaolce, Microsoft's AI chatbot currently operating in China. Using "full duplex voice sense," as Microsoft calls it, Xiaolce can more quickly predict what the person it is speaking to will say. "That helps her make decisions about both how and when to respond to someone who is chatting with her, a skill set that is very natural to people but not yet common in chatbots," Microsoft says. Another bonus of the breakthrough is that people interacting with chatbots don't have to use a "wake word" every time they speak during a conversation.
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Well yeah, they're always recording everything you say, the wake word is just for show.
You still use the "wake word" to initiate the conversation. You just don't have to say it again at the beginning of each sentence during an ongoing conversation.
These home assistants use regular Wifi, and you can monitor the packets they transmit and receive. There is no evidence that they are "recording everything you say". If they were caught doing that (and they would almost certainly get caught), they would face ruinous criminal charges and civil penalties, along with a PR disaster that would far out
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These home assistants do record and store a considerable buffer locally, which the service can access at any time remotely.
mnem
Remember the fuss our NSA had over Furby? Now we're at Frrby Freakout Level... until they get the keys.
Re:don't have to use a "wake word (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not concerned that the record everything I say currently, but I am concerned that they may do so in the future. It will probably start with making different words "wake words," such as things the government might be interested in.
I avoided smart phones as long as I could because I try to avoid problematic technologies. And even though my iPhone is encrypted and Apple says the right things about privacy, it still makes me uncomfortable. It's gotten to the point where mentioning dystopias such as 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 has become redundant and cliche, but the reason those comparisons are so often made when we discuss these technologies is because they are glaringly relevant. We were warned about the consequences of underestimating the effects of these technologies so long ago that, despite the clear validity of the warnings, they're brushed aside as trite.
I'm not trying to be a Luddite, but we need to be careful about the technologies we adopt. We need legislation that will protect our privacy, but until that happens, we have to vote with our wallets.
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rationalist soul
Interesting oxymoron.
California touchie-feeliedom
I don't think they like being touched.
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If you're curious, it's Stephen Jay Gould. I believe it's from the book Full House, but it's been my sig for so long I don't really remember. I would have attributed it to him in the sig but that didn't fit. He was agnostic, and culturally Jewish, so "soul" in this case refers to his sentiments, not some ethereal part of man.
I like the quote because I consider myself to be politically aligned with several "liberal" causes, but for rational reasons rather than the emotional ones. My ultra-liberal west coast
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Thanks, I was curious and that's interesting.
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You still use the "wake word" to initiate the conversation. You just don't have to say it again at the beginning of each sentence during an ongoing conversation.
These home assistants use regular Wifi, and you can monitor the packets they transmit and receive.
Everybody loves using wireshark, My Grandma has a fine time sniffing packets. Darn - that sounded creepy!
There is no evidence that they are "recording everything you say". If they were caught doing that (and they would almost certainly get caught), they would face ruinous criminal charges and civil penalties, along with a PR disaster that would far outweigh any possible benefit.
The issue isn't that whether or not "they" are listening at this moment or not. The devices are very capable of listening full time. Or on really interesting trigger words. Or under a warrant. Or under a hack.
Go find a better conspiracy theory to glom onto.
You're smarter than that Bill. Conspiracy theories involve some convoluted logic and cherry picking of data/information, and discarding what doesn't fit your argument.
If someone is involved in
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Thanks - I needed a laugh this morning
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What was that? Sorry wasn't listening.
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Wait impatiently? No, they just interrupt as soon as they have something to say.
Now chatbots can do the same. Great.
Robocalls (Score:4, Interesting)
The Chinese have already stolen this technology and are using it to robocall me.
I've had a couple of calls recently where I get the connect silence of a predictive dialer followed by a woman speaking with call center background noise. She gives her name and asks how I'm doing. The first time it happened it seemed off for reasons I can't quite articulate, so I asked: "Are you a robot or a person?" She responded "yes" and then launched in to a sales pitch. The next time I asked, "where can I direct your call?" She responded "that's good" and launched in to her pitch.
Doesn't have to be prefect (Score:3)
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I am glad that talking on the phone will be dead by the time I am that age. I already never answer the phone if the number is recognized.
Re: Robocalls (Score:3)
They're finally catching on then. I've been using the Jolly Roger Telephone Company's bots for a while now, sending all my spam call to them. You should hear how frustrated some of those poor bastards get after 10 minutes on a call with a bot. Great hilarity.
Re: Robocalls (Score:2)
Where's the fun in that? I torment them directly.
No problem; give me your number and I'll start forwarding them to you, instead.
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Where's the fun in that? I torment them directly.
Oh yes. I've had a few where I let them start the pitch and then interrupt with "have you heard the good news?" I used to say something like "how many 'no's does it take? Five? No,no,no,no,no - click. If I can get them to hang up in anger, not only have I won, but they may rethink that crappy job.
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The best ones are when they are not allowed to hang up. I tormented a guy for 15 minutes one time. His supervisor finally got on the line, heard my singing, and hung up.
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Perhaps, but I knew a telesales guy a couple years ago, he was doing it because he could not find any other work - seems cruel to put someone through that just because you don't approve of their job. A simple, "No thank you" - click - also works and will save YOU time.
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Your poor friend that is unable to work any other job can go fuck himself. And YOU can go fuck yourself too for demanding that we be pleasant to people that are trying to scam us.
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Ahh yes, the old social justice, "you have to agree with me or I will commit violence against you" argument. Well played.
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Obviously I was trying to be funny by connecting China's notorious reputation for intellectual property violations, the fact Microsoft developed the technology there and the apparent change in robocalling behaviors. Obviously you don't find it nearly as funny as I do.
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How can the Chinese have stolen it if it was invented in China? Check TFA, Microsoft built it in China. The engineers are Chinese.
Great (Score:1)
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Take a moment to realize that there are no* hot women who want to talk to you. That will make it a lot easier.
* You can make an exception for any who are physically** next to you, but maybe ask if they are cops and remain skeptical even after.
** Until they get those robots past out of the uncanny valley.
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...trick you into thinking they are a hot girl or whatever.
If he says he's a guy? He's a guy.
If she says she's a hot chick? She's a guy.
If she says she's a hot underage chick? She's a cop. And also a guy.
There are no women on the internet, just pics and videos of them. Put there by guys. Women posting to the internet are a myth.
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Women posting to the internet are a myth.
You clearly don't have teenage daughters.
old news (Score:5, Funny)
Last year Microsoft released a chat bot which did a pretty fair impression of a racist human.
He codes?!? (Score:4, Funny)
Wait, Trump wrote Tay?!?
He codes?!?
Is there absolutely nothing that man is not great at?
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Exactly. There is absolutely nothing that man is not great at.
"first technological breakthrough" (Score:5, Funny)
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I think we're mostly done there already.
Four words (Score:4, Insightful)
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I was just thinking there are a whole bunch of humans I have very little or no desire to talk to. So a chatbot, is it one I want to talk to or is it just empty pointless conversation, talking to talk, hell, I can do that already by talking to myself.
Perhaps M$ are desperate to create a chatbot because pretty much everyone hates them now and they would prefer to never have to talk to their pissed off customers any more and the expected torrent of abuse for invading the customers privacy and force install sh
How do we prevent AI from impersonating humans? (Score:1)
Microsoft answers "Yes!" then launches into a prerecorded sales-pitch.
Clippy on steroids (Score:1, Offtopic)
Bob/Clippy leading to Armageddon is among my top 5 nightmares.
This is great (Score:2)
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July 15, 2006 (Score:2)
Twitter launched July 15, 2006. So, I'm guessing it was August 15, 2006 when most of those conversations were just chatbots talking to each other.
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I wonder how long it will take before all these conversations are just chatbots talking to each other...
Well, I'd love to have a chatbot take care of my conversations with customer service. That would rock!
I want an AI chatbot to chat with the cable company for hours and negotiate a lower rate, for example.
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Major Step in Advancement of Humans (Score:1)
Another piece of technology that nobody asked for.
Cancer must have been cured. What else can be even worst than social networks? There's your answer.
Did Clippy and Tay have a baby? (Score:2)
Did Clippy and Tay have a baby?
| It looks like you're trying to burn a cross on someone's lawn.
|
| Would you like help?
| * Get help on how to ignite a cross
| * Just ignite the cross without help
|
| [_] Don't show me this tip again
An overly helpful racist AI chatbot...
Make it easier to set up (Score:2)
Just like one's spouse (Score:2)
"Xiaolce can more quickly predict what the person it is speaking to will say". Who needs to listen?
This is ridiculous. (Score:2)
Two people talking over each other doesn't make a conversation.
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Ehhh. (Score:2)
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Sociopath.
Withdraw.
Bots?
Judging by how you used them together, you seem to be unfamiliar with the fundamental definition of at least one of these terms. Are you a bot?
Perfect this & that'll be the end of call cent (Score:1)
We can't all be robot repair men. And the rich don't need us to buy their stuff if they already own everything. If we're gonna stop fighting among ourselves for scraps & do something now would be the time...
No wake word? (Score:2)
At least with a wake word, we can tell whether chat bot should be sending audio over your network, and we can detect that. Although it should be pointed out that once you're in the middle of the conversation, you no longer use the wake words.
BS (Score:2)
Leave it to Microsoft. (Score:1)
Solving yet another "problem" that is better left unsolved.
will it go any better this time? (Score:2)
Coming soon to a sexbot near you (Score:2)
And if having a sexbot that is more like a real person isn't bad enough, there's this: "Another bonus of the breakthrough is that people interacting with chatbots don't have to use a 'wake word' every time they speak during a conversation."
Great...so there's another incremental step toward "always on, always listening, get used to it". Not that I need to worry about a "wake word" interfering in a conversation with a chat bot. As long as I made the wake word "fuck", "shit" or "son of a bitch", the thing
I'm so tired of them attempting to fool me (Score:3)
Wonderful!
Just what I wanted for Christmas - a realistic "sounding" robot. I'm so tired of them attempting to fool me, now I need to worry they might. Wonderful. Progress. Not. Yes, I know the post said Chat Bot.
Great, thats all I’m waiting for. (Score:2)
--- Location: Six story office building on Brand Blvd, Pasadena
--- Time and Date: Friday afternoon, in the near future
--- Setting: Shortly before the end of business, the servers hosting their sales portal went down, the subject attempted to call tech support to resolve the issue.
--- The following phone transcript was recovered
{C} How can I help you?
{H} I want to talk to a huma... {C} of course you do, let me direct you to
subway surfers (Score:1)
Controversial (Score:1)
That is no breakthrough (Score:2)
Not a breakthrough.
Obvious.
Makes me wonder what all of their Research Fellows do all day. Vest and rest?
They set the bar way too high (Score:2)
All they should be working on is keeping them from turning all racist Nazi. When their AI chatbots are biased towards kinder, gentler personalities, then we can find value in their learning from that base quicker.
But, having been programmed by humans, should we expect kinder, gentler? And why?
... they will now insult you (Score:2)
Microsoft already proved it with their racist AI that they're able, but now they've gotten better, their bots can now insult everyone!
In fact, I was running such a bot a few years back, modeled after Captain haddock [wikipedia.org]