Babybot Learns Like You Did 107
holy_calamity writes "A European project has produced this one-armed 'babybot' that learns like a human child. It experiments and knocks things over until it can pick them up for itself. Interestingly the next step is to build a fully humanoid version that's open source in both software and hardware."
AI Learning (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:AI Learning (Score:3, Insightful)
Real babies have goals like getting their parents' attention, being fed, keeping warm.
I wonder what sort of goals a robot baby has to have to learn in the same way a real one does.
Re:AI Learning (Score:4, Funny)
You said: Not a bad goal at all
Apparently you've never been around a 2-year old.
--
BMO
Re:AI Learning (Score:1)
Re:AI Learning (Score:1)
Open Sores Suggestion: Independent power supply, to me, is the single biggest choke point. I would suggest that the power supply be able to survive for about 3 hours, with the "baby bottle alarm" going off at the 2 hour mark; If after 3 hours and a "feeding" has not occured, then go to "hibernation/nap mode".
Of course BabyBot will not need diapers, or nap time. That means
What are the learning principles? (Score:2)
Yes. AI scientists have a bad habit of making implausible claims for their creations. The open approach will keep them honest and is to be commended. At the very least, such a robot needs several types of learning functions including perceptual, short and long term memory mechanisms, concept formation, pattern completion, anticipatory behavior, motor learning and coordination, operant
Open Source? (Score:4, Funny)
names (Score:3, Funny)
Re:names (Score:2)
Don't fire them, give them a bonus! If they had picked some other boring name, do you really think the article would have, e.g., made in on
...and Wii! (Score:2)
If they had picked some other boring name, do you really think the article would have, e.g., made in on /.?
But will Robocub want to play with its Wii?
May? (Score:5, Funny)
They don't know and they're playing with it. Have they even seen the Matrix??
Dude (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dude (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dude (Score:2)
And a hooker! In fact, forget the slot machine!
Re:Dude (Score:2)
Re:Dude (Score:1)
Re:Dude (Score:1)
That one arm comes in "handy" when he hits puberty
Interaction Design/Usability Blog [unc.edu]Re:Dude (Score:1)
Squash (Score:1)
Obviously babybot doesn't know it's own strength! LOL
Babybot Learns Like You Did (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Babybot Learns Like You Did (Score:2)
Re:Babybot Learns Like You Did (Score:2)
On a more serious note, can anyone define "Open source hardware"? Short of publishing blueprints for the chips, how can you open source it? Publishing a parts list and assembly instructions is not open source...
Re:Babybot Learns Like You Did (Score:1)
So this bot is going to lie in its crib, thrashing its arm and legs, screaming at the top of its lungs, until someone picks it, gives it a full juice bottle, a cookie and walks it around trying desparately to amuse it?
There is more to a 2-year-old than walking (Score:5, Interesting)
A fun project, and potentially a good step on the road towards human-like intelligence. However, the "2-year-old" remark is again one of those far-fetched promises that is a loooooooooooooong way off. Making a robot-arm play with a rubber ducky is one thing, letting a robot understand what a rubber ducky is, is quite another. Making a robot crawl is one thing, but letting a robot crawl with a self-conscious purpose, again is quite another.
Fortunately, one of the researcher in TFA admits that 20 computers with a neural network on each is no replacement for a human brain. But the 2-year-old remark follows later, and is evidently entered as a way to generate funding. It sounds cool, but it is not what the result of this project will be. I assume the researchers know this all too well. Or perhaps they have no children of their own.
But just think... (Score:1, Interesting)
Think of how Social Services could use something like this if it can act like a 2 year-old. Do they want to make
Re:There is more to a 2-year-old than walking (Score:1)
> that is a loooooooooooooong way off.
Also, how do we know how a baby learns? Perhaps a more accurate description would have another comma: "It learns, like a 2 year old learns" ?
Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:5, Insightful)
However, just suppose, and then suppose, and then suppose...
So far, we can build computers that can simulate brain cells. There is nothing stopping us making a computer that has a similar complexity to the brain. We will have to mimic the strange mix of part-design, part randomness that brains are. Or maybe we can just throw more computing power, and stuff the brain doesn't have, like the ability to back up and regress. Sooner or later - probably later is my guess, but who knows? - we are going to come up with something that shows intelligence, and probably has inteligence.
African grey parrots are kept as pets. These are said to be as intelligent as a two-year old. Some of them can understand sentances from a vocabulary of hundreds of words. They don't progress much beyond a two year old. And they are Not Like Us, so it's OK to keep them in cages. Apparently. Hmmm.
One day, someone is going to make something intelligent, and then turn it off, and there will be an outcry. Is anyone doing the thinking on the ethics of making it before making it?
Re:Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:1)
Yes, of course people are thinking about this. Philosophers, cognitive scientists and AI researchers all frequently discuss such subjects. But why would turning an "intelligent" computer off cause an outcry? A truly intelligent agent will likely need a substantial amount of memory. This suggests to me that it will involve a per
Re:Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:2)
I guess it would if you turned the computer off without its consent. The question is how much say a computer has in determining what is done to it. I give a surgeon permission to turn me off for a while if an operation must be performed on me. If I am going to add extra memory to an intelligent computer for which it needs rebooting, I am going to politely ask if it would not mind being turned off for half an hour or so. And I expect the c
Re:Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:2)
Ever read the original 'Frankenstein'? In particular, the bit were the doctor meets the 'monster' on the glacier, and the 'monster' demands that Frankenstein - who he regards as someone who has taken of the role and therefore the responsibilities of a creating god - finishes the job properly and give
Re:Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:2)
Re:Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:1)
Because we don't keep anyone *like us* in cages maybe?
Re:Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:2)
But we keep ywo year olds of our own species, in cages. Haven't you watched "Rugrats"?? they were kept in cages!
Re:Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:2)
Most people keep small children in cages, they just normally refer to them as cribs, cots or playpens. Oh and don't get started on swaddling, okay that is only up to sbout 5 months.
Re:Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:1)
Re:Can you turn off a 2-year-old? (Score:2, Insightful)
Interesting (Score:1)
What happens when machines reach human level thought speech or better yet surpass it? What then about us becomes obsolete?
Re:There is more to a 2-year-old than walking (Score:3, Interesting)
How do we know the 2 year old does understand what a ruber ducky is?
Of course their brain may understand the rubber ducky is "that yellow thing... that feels a certain way... has that c
Re:There is more to a 2-year-old than walking (Score:1)
Dude, we are so far from a human-like AI, it's like taking a step towards the east and saying "it's potentially a good step on the road towards Moscow". I may be exagerrating a little tho.
Neural Networks (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's amazing how such simple data structures can generate such complex behaviour.
In case anyone is interested, there's this pretty easy to understand tutorial on neural nets here:
http://www.ai-junkie.com/ann/evolved/nnt1.html [ai-junkie.com]
Re:Neural Networks (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Neural Networks (Score:1)
Neural nets running on a cluster of computers is quite a lot more complex. I can only hope that they're looking to improve the ANN paradigm to take us that little bit closer to real AI, rather than just using existing techniques to prove a point.
Anyway, I'm going to hunt around for more data on this. It looks intere
Re:Neural Networks (Score:2)
I am amazed that you are amazed. Simple behavior is at the root of _all_ complex systems: simple interactions between molecules give rise to climate. Cells in a finite state machine produce complex emergent behaviour.
Re:Neural Networks (Score:1)
No need to be superior about it
Re:Neural Networks (Score:2)
Me, on the other hand, think it's pretty amazing how simplistic behaviour these basic models can recreate and still be at the forefront of academic research. Simple statistical models outperform AI-techniques on most classification problems any day. They bloody well shouldn't!
Re:Neural Networks (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps by AI you're referring just to neural nets? While people get them to do some cool things, these (in the for you're used to seeing them in) are at the very very "dumb end" of A
Re:Neural Networks (Score:3, Insightful)
That's what I said :)
Perhaps by AI you're referring just to neural nets?
By AI I'm referring to something that is not inheretly (too) bound by the abstractions required to make it work. EG; how easily transferable is the experience from numbers to actualc concepts. Various forms of regression analysis and stuff sure do wonders, but to be honest, they feel so inheretly limited
Re:Neural Networks (Score:2)
Re:Neural Networks (Score:3, Insightful)
I think we, the AI community, are making actual progress. The problem is that the problem is much harder than people thought it would be back when it first emerged.
Statistical models have done wonders for a lot of things. Classification, mentioned above, is one of the most obvious successes. Natural language processing is another surprising success of statistical methods. The use of hidden markov models has solved a number of problems that were difficult using symbolic approaches (mostly dealing with
Re:Neural Networks (Score:1)
If you are still reading this thread, 2 quick Q's:
Which school?
and
Would you recommend it?
(B.S. shopping for grad schools)
Re:Neural Networks (Score:1)
http://www.ml.cmu.edu/ [cmu.edu]
Re:Neural Networks (Score:1)
Re:Neural Networks (Score:1)
However, I have known SVM to outperform humans on some tasks, such as identifying genes correlated with cancer diagnoses.
Babybot (Score:1)
Re:Babybot (Score:1)
Never. The ultimate quake setup requires two hands - one on the mouse and other on the keyboard.
Cmdr Data (Score:1)
Re:The 'conscience' of the BabyBot (Score:2)
Conscience may be a root of the word consciousness, but in general usage, it usually denotes moralistic sentiment :
I don't think anybody's expecting to develop an artif
Morality is easy. (Score:1)
Wow. (Score:4, Interesting)
(... yeah, baby robot masturbation... but no, seriously...)
What is Open Source Hardware? (Score:2)
"Everything about it will be open source, including the hardware, so anyone can use it in their own work," Metta says.
I'm unclear on this concept. Do they mean off the shelf commodity parts? Blueprints so that you can machine the parts yourself, if you have a lathe? Or is open source going to become a euphemism like "five finger discount"?
Seriously, what is Open Source Hardware, if it's not just a sorry misuse of a buzzword?
Re:What is Open Source Hardware? (Score:2)
Re:What is Open Source Hardware? (Score:2)
Seriously, what is Open Source Hardware, if it's not just a sorry misuse of a buzzword?
Valid point, but please don't let that detract from the benefits of this. As a part-time "tinkerer" myself, I for one am happy to know that not *everyone* in this world is patent-obsessed.
After all, how can we stand on the shoulders of giants when those same giants keep stepping on the little guy?
Its about anthropomorphism (Score:2)
There is another side to doing that; When something looks human, we are more likely to attribute human like qualities to its action. Anthropomorphism. Works with animals too, ie Aibo.
MIT were doing some great work on this, and social computing, at the MIT Media lab in Dublin before it was shut down. I was lucky enough to see some of their ideas in action.
Real shame to see them go, I hope the work gets picked up elsewhere.
Re:how many dead babybots... (Score:1)
Sounds perfect to me... (Score:1)
Can you say.... (Score:1)
Simple algorithm (Score:4, Funny)
You don't need an advanced AI to do that, the algorithm goes like this:
while(1) {
throw_toy();
while(!toy_is_back())
cry_loud();
}
Re:Simple algorithm - ver 2.0 (Score:1)
throw_toy();
while(!toy_is_back())
cry_loud();
if (mom_leaves) {runsilent();}
}
Trust me. Robot or not, its the oldest trick in the book.
Re: (Score:2)
Video (Score:1)
I have seen 2 (all?) of them and I have noticed that the bot had to rest his hand on the surface everytime he fails the task before attempting again. Why does it have to do that?
Also. At first I have noticed that the bot drops objects into the hand of the researcher. But later I have noticed that it just drops it in the particular place (second video, pile of objects on the right at the level of the babytable). I guess the reasearcher sticks his hand so the object drops into his h
Re:Video (Score:1)
Making babies (Score:5, Funny)
There is a far easier and more pleasant way to create a child.
Unfortunately, it requires 2 years, nine months, and three minutes.
But can it say... (Score:1)
-- had to. :-P
fully open source? (Score:1)
You mean, one where the microcode for any processor included in it is published openly, and the masks used at the chip foundry are also openly published? Or if it's a FPGA 'Free Hardware' design, all design details of the FPGA silicon are disclosed, and all of the code for the FPGA development software is open source (good luck)?
Nice but ... (Score:1)
ouch (Score:3, Funny)
Pain (Score:2, Interesting)
Sometimes a child needs to have a hand across his/her hiney to teach him. What if the bot touches a hot stove and melts the crap out of its hand - without pain it would not know the difference.
Let a robot go through that, and then they might truly begin to learn like a human being.
Re:Pain (Score:2)
I'm still a baby... (Score:1)
In other news... (Score:1)
Closed Source Hurting Public Good (Score:1)
The human model has proven difficult to reverse engineer. We need its source to help fix bugs. For example, it's susceptible to viruses in its current state.
So, I welc
Re:Closed Source Hurting Public Good (Score:1)
Obligatory (Score:1)
Yikes, I just looked at the picture! (Score:1)
Good Place to Start (Score:1)
Even the human brain, extremely advanced compared to where we're at in the creation of intelligence, starts out nearly helpless and takes years