News Update On AI Based Virtual Assistant : Facebook Launches Its New Virtual Assistant ‘Facebook M’

Facebook is now moving to new league of virtual technology using assistants. Recently Facebook has launched a new virtual assistant named as Facebook M. This virtual assistant will be a part of Facebook Messenger and work on the same platform.

Interesting part of this assistant is while using this M users can do shopping and purchase items, get gifts delivered to your friends and loved ones, can book restaurants, can make arrangements of traveling and many more things that you can do simultaneously while talking to someone.

 

Unlike other virtual assistants that are available in market M uses text input to help users with their queries. Users will have to enter their queries and will get an answer as a text.

David Marus, the vice president of messaging products, said that on his Facebook Page that 'M' is powered by AI i.e. Artificial Intelligence that is trained and supervised by Human operators.

With no official date of launch, M has been launched in the Bay area in California and will eventually be made available to users all over the world. Facebook will develop this application for Android and iOS both.

Posted by Unknown Thursday, August 27, 2015

News Update Robotic Technology : Self-Aware AI Developed By New York Researchers

Machines have come a long way in the past few years. Engineers have developed robots that can navigate their environment based on the surrounding context, robots that can heal / repair themselves in just a few short minutes, and robots that can learn from their mistakes and improve future results.

And while Hollywood level artificial intelligence (AI) is still a long way from becoming a reality, little steps are being takes in that direction every day. The most recent achievement comes courtesy of professor Selmer Bringsjord from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who recorded video footage of a robot that waves and recognizes itself as an individual.

His self-aware experiment was conducted on three (3) commercially-available Nao robots. He programmed the machines to believe the two (2) of them were previously given a “dumbing pill” which would prevent them from speaking (of course, in reality, the professor only pressed a button that muted them).

All three (3) robots were then tasked with finding out which of them were unable to talk and which of them was able to talk. All of them tried to wanted to answer “I don’t know”, but since only one (1) of them was actually able to make any sounds, his voice was the only one he heard. He then waved his hand and said: “I know now. I was able to prove that I was not given a dumbing pill”.

Professor Bringsjord gave a statement informing the robot first needed to recognize the sound of his own voice in order to then use logic, prove that it understood the question, reach the above mentioned conclusion and pass the test.

The test itself was based on a classic philosophical problem known as “The King’s Wise Men” and addressed a very small but specific side of self-awareness. The philosophical scenario describes a king who has to decide who should be his next advisor. To do this he invites three (3) of the wisest men in his kingdom to compete in a contest, with the promise that it will be a fair one.

He informs them that he will be putting either a blue or a white hat on each of their hats, and that the color of each individual hat can be seen only by the men who are not wearing it. He then says that a least one of the three (3) is wearing a blue colored hat. The promise is that the first person to guess the color of the hat he’s wearing will become the king’s next adviser. The real answer is that they’re all wearing blue harts.

Professor Bringsjord is currently collaborating with the US Navy on a project that has the goal of teaching robots what’s considered right, what’s considered wrong, and what the difference between the two is.

Posted by Unknown Sunday, July 19, 2015