Bots or chatterbots have been around since ELIZA. So it’s little news when researchers are giving one its own Facebook profile page. The interesting part is why – to help foster meaningful relationships with people. Researchers hope this immersion in Facebook will lead to longer engagement.
While robots that can engage people have been produced before now, research suggests that humans lose interest at most a few weeks after being introduced as the behavioural repertoire of the machine is exhausted.
Stan Schroeder from Mashable is a bit skeptical to say the least.
Well, this may come as a surprise, but I’ve been reluctant to stay in touch with robots for several reasons other than the lack of their Facebook profile. First, there aren’t that many of them; and those that do exist aren’t really all that intelligent.
I’m with Schroeder, the problem isn’t the lack of friends or the environment we interact with them it’s their lack of personality. Researchers could learn a lot from the art of screenwriting and how to build character, ones with real personality.
First of all, why start with a new character? More importantly why start with one so alien to us? Hollywood has always looked to leverage already established material – from books, comic books, etc. However the researchers wouldn’t even have to go that far, they can just use archetypes. Why are movie characters always architects or doctors – because they’re familiar and more importantly, exciting. It’s really about familiarity. Horror movies in the 1980′s followed the same storyline – teenagers slipping away for sex or drugs would be killed and only the pure would survive. We knew these characters before they even spoke.
The researchers should be looking to build a virtual Mr. T. That is someone I might engage with for more than a few minutes. That also highlights an important ingredient for engagement – humor.
Researchers should also understand that they’re not trying to create a real person. As Robert McKee explains so eliquently.
A character is a work of art, a metaphor for human nature. We relate to characters as if they were real, but they’re superior to reality. Their aspects are designed to be clear and knowable; whereas our fellow humans are difficult to understand, if not enigmatic. We know characters better than we know our friends because a character is eternal and unchanging, while people shift – just when we thing we understand them, we don’t. In fact, I know Rick Blaine in CASABLANCA better then I know myself. Rick is always Rick. I’m a bit iffy.
If researchers can give these bots some personality maybe we can start using the same technology to create virtual characters in immersive story.
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