Common Sense Comes to Computers

https://www.quantamagazine.org/common-sense-comes-to-computers-20200430/

by elsewhen • 6 years ago

53 11 6 years ago

djokkataja• 6 years ago

Some researchers argue that in order to build real common sense into computers, we will need to make use of phenomena outside language itself, like visual perceptions or embodied sensations.

ding ding ding

Of course, once we start creating systems that perceive and sense and reason about their perceiving and sensing experiences, ethics starts to become a greater concern. An entirely synthetic living creature is still a living creature.

villgax• 6 years ago

I almost thought Gary Marcus unveiled something he kept babbling about adding to his robots....sigh

yvdriess• 6 years ago

Whenever this topic comes up, I simply have to point to the paper with the best title in history: Lieberman's "How to Wreck a Nice Beach You Sing Calm Incense"

https://agents.media.mit.edu/projects/voice/p4010-lieberman....

dreamcompiler• 6 years ago

In the early days of Cyc, Doug Lenat used to give talks where he would put up a slide titled "How to Wreck a Nice Beach" and then he'd remain silent for a few seconds. It was always amusing to watch the audience try to puzzle out the title, and finally there'd be this wash of amusement on their faces when it clicked.

Animats2• 6 years ago

You can try this system at https://mosaickg.apps.allenai.org/comet_atomic

After playing with it for a while, it's clear that it's a natural language interface to a classic database of common sense info. If there's no exact match in the database, you get nothing.

There's no inference, just connections. I've been trying variations on "PersonX gets in car, PersonY gets in car, PersonX drives to mall." to see if I can get it to deduce that PersonY is at the mall, but it can't take that leap. I tried "PersonX puts apple in box, PersonX takes apple out of box, PersonX looks in box.", which is rejected. So it doesn't understand conservation.

This is way too much like Cyc.

seph-reed• 6 years ago

Is there an AI out there that asks questions yet? You know, like a child? It seems like creating a massive database of all the "common sense" could be done fairly easily if the AI could just ask for help.

murftown• 6 years ago

I've long wondered about this as well. I think asking questions would be an important part of any self-editing process.

Animats2• 6 years ago

Just one that asks meaningful clarifying questions when faced with ambiguity would be helpful.

brundolf• 6 years ago

Cyc has taken a few different swings at this kind of thing throughout its history. Its current long-term plan, not mentioned in the article, is to reach a "critical mass" of common sense to where it can "question" the open-web and assimilate new information without help, which is along the same lines.

woodandsteel• 6 years ago

Some researchers argue that in order to build real common sense into computers, we will need to make use of phenomena outside language itself, like visual perceptions or embodied sensations.

As in Merleau-Ponty's lived experience, which I understand has been taken up more recently under the label of embodied cognition.

zshrdlu• 6 years ago

Isn't this what John McCarthy called "non-monotonic reasoning"? I wonder if they still call it that in the literature. It always seemed to me that semantic networks would solve this problem. "match", "wood" are not that far in the network from "fire". Anyway, I'm sure there's a reason this kind of GOFAI never worked.

Common Sense Comes to Computers

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