Artificial intelligence is the hot topic all around us. All major tech companies are trying their hand at developing artificial intelligence robots which would contribute in some way in our collective future. Such robots created by Facebook were shut down after they failed to achieve the desired results. In a bid to challenge its robots to trade among each other, each was given the task to negotiate with the other over a number of balls, hats, and books. Their task was to swap these items with each other and improve their bartering abilities. But they hadn’t been clearly instructed to do so in a comprehensible language.
The robots started conversing in a language that did not make any sense to the humans taking care of the program. They formed a kind of code language, which they seemed to understand, but was completely incomprehensible to everybody else. This ‘shorthand’ language they developed seemed to have helped them talk to each other more easily.
Facebook, therefore, shut down the experiment because the purpose of these robots was to talk to humans. Since they were unable to talk in a language understood by humans and did not fulfill their purpose, the program was abandoned.
Here is an excerpt of how the negotiations took place between the two robots:
“Bob: i 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
Bob: you i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me
Bob: i i can i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me
Bob: i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to
Bob: you i i i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Alice: balls have 0 to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to
Bob: you i 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”
This whole conversation appears quite useless to read and makes no sense whatsoever. But researchers are of the opinion that this conversation is not entirely out of order. Rather, the way the robots keep stressing on their own names have some meaning in its own way. It is not some mistake in the conversation, rather means something to them and that is why it appears in a certain way. These robots even successfully concluded their negotiations, in the end, talking in the strange language they had developed.
According to a visiting researcher, Dhruv Batra, at the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research Division,
But this kind of language has no value for human beings. Although they did at times negotiate in a very human way, they could not meet their purpose. The purpose of making these robots was to talk to human beings in a language they understood. Since they could not achieve the desired outcome, the program has since been shut down.