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intro.psych (Psyco 105) Discussion: Group 3 Discussion Group: Cognitive Development: TIPS - An Artificial Intelligence Program That Talks to You
By Connie Varnhagen (Admin) on Tuesday, September 8, 1998 - 01:57 pm:
TIPS is an artificial intelligence program that "speaks" English. TIPS is maintained by Communications Canada. Try having a conversation with TIPS. Is TIPS a good communicator? What is it about our speech that makes is "conversation?"
This "conversation" is good if you want to talk about what the computer is talking about. There are no tangents. The conversation is pretty linear. It only takes a few responses/question for the computer to say how bad he's feeling this week beacause of his job.
What is conversation? hmmm that's a hard question to answer. If you look in dictionaries the answer is usually something to the effect of "Talking together...familiar talk"
I engaged in talk about sex with TIPS. I first asked TIPS what it thought of abortion, and it provided me with an answer that was directly related to my question. I then asked "Should abortion be used as a form of birth control" and it answered my question by telling me what birth control is. I then asked if oral sex was immoral, and it focused on the morality of sex in general.
I discussed mystery with the computer. I found that unless you asked questions the dialogue didn't flow or even make sense.
Do you guys think TIPS might have some type of aphasia?
Summary re: TIPS
Good, direct answers to the questions asked. You've also uncovered why TIPS is not able to communicate well (e.g.," it would be very difficult to program a computer with all the grammatical nuances of a particular language").I liked that you expanded your discussion and summary to situations that suggest other issues about conversation. A thought about the nature of computer "intelligence" would have been interesting (e.g., do computers "think"?)
Go There
Back to Cognitive Development Sites to Visit
By Montresor on Friday, September 25, 1998 - 12:48 pm:
Same with the sex talk. The computer won't talk about anything but sex.
It also seems like the computer doesn't listen. It just picks up keywords. It never asks us questions.
For example it said that he might get fired and I said I might get fired too he said he doesn't want to get fired (can't afford it, etc.) I said I like my job and he said "It's all right. It pays the rent"
So it seems like the computer doesn't acknowledge the word "I".
More on conversation later
By Montresor on Friday, September 25, 1998 - 11:21 pm:
Talking is usually defined as "spoken words OR speech substitutes (such as signs)".
This means that any form of exchanging ideas is conversation. Some people believe that chimpanzees are capable of conversation. The textbook raises the question "Can chimpanzees learn human language?" The textbook doesn't give a straight answer, BUT seems to lean towards the NO answer. The book mentions that beacause the chimps can't learn proper grammar, it isn't conversation they are learning but a result of operant conditioning (think back to 104!!!).
A similar case is with the horse from the beginning of the book, Clever Hans. People believed this horse to be intelligent and capable of answering questions, therefore capable of conversation, but the horse just learned the gestures of people, such as a head looking down at the horse's hoof means the horse would tap it's hoof.
Therefore conversation requires the participation of all involved and to be considered conversation, they must also be thinking of the words themselves and not because someone teaches them how to respond or PROGRAMS them.
Therefore TIPS is not capable of conversation, because TIPS is programmed to pick up keywords in a person's sentence and respond by already programmed responses.
The idea of computers having conversations with people is science-fiction right now until Artificial Intelligence is real. Until then, as the book states humans are "the only animals who can carry on a really interesting conversation.
By Jene on Saturday, September 26, 1998 - 01:32 pm:
After asking several more questions, I came to the conclusion that TIPS could not pick up the nuances in my questions, and was thereby not engaging in coversation with me. Instead, TIPS was picking out key concepts, such as abortion, birth control, immorality and answering them.
Conversation involves taking the whole sentence into context and responding to it. It would be very difficult to program a computer with all the grammatical nuances of a particular language, plus provide it with the tremendous number of responses a given question can elicit.
By Mollyc on Monday, September 28, 1998 - 09:08 am:
Conversation is more than one creature using the same form of language to communicate. Though the book infers that chimps can't communicate, with human language, I believe that all animal species can communicate with their own species. For example on the prairie when danger is coming gophers disappear. DO they all see or hear the danger. No. One sees it and lets the others know. This may not be "our" kind of conversation but the message is sent and recieved.
Is TIPS a good communicator? NO. Why? Because it does not understand the message being sent it simply resonds, and if you don't accomodate the statement in right way it does't make any sense. The computer program does't have the capability of comprehending, what is said. And that is what "conversation" is about. Understand to a statement and then reponding.
By Admin on Monday, September 28, 1998 - 09:30 am:
Connie
By Jene on Monday, September 28, 1998 - 12:52 pm:
The group seemed to agree that the computer was not a good communicator. Someone commented that the dialogue was pretty linear, the computer did not listen and it never asks questions in return. Sometimes the responses did not make sense. As well, it was discussed that the computer could not pick up the nuances in questions, but rather concentrated on one keyword. For example, the question was asked “Should abortion be used as a form of birth control?.” The computer responded by talking about birth control, with no mention of abortion.
Conversation was defined as an exchange of ideas that involves taking the whole sentence into context and responding to it. Someone else mentioned that conversation involves comprehending what is said.
Chimpanzees’ capabilities for language were discussed, as was those of the horse Clever Hans. It was mentioned that neither the chimpanzees nor the horse were conversing because they were taught how to respond, rather than thinking of the words themselves. TIPS was also not conversing, because it simply picked up keywords in a person’s sentence and responded in a pre-programmed way. Someone commented that it would be very difficult to program a computer with all the grammatical nuances of a particular language, plus provide it with the tremendous number of responses a given question could elicit. One person brought up the interesting point that animal species can “converse” with their own species, but not with humans.
The question was asked if TIPS might have some form of aphasia. If it did, it would be some form of Broca’s aphasia, where there is difficulty understanding grammatically complex sentences.
By Patricia on Tuesday, September 29, 1998 - 12:29 pm:
Grade = +2