CHATBOT WITH ITS OWN PERSONALITY

On December 1, 2020, the technology company Microsoft Technology Licensing was granted with the United States Patent number 10,853,717 B2 by inventors Dustin I. Abramson and Joseph Johnson, which was presented in 2017. Under the title “Creating a conversational chat bot of a specific person”, this patent has made a great impression in the media by presenting the possibility of being able to “chat” with a loved one who is no longer with us.

WHAT IS A CHAT BOT?

The technology proposed by Microsoft is based on the artificial intelligence behind a chat bot.

Basically, a chat bot is a computer program that simulates human conversation using text and/or audio input channels. Through this chat you get an answer to certain questions that are already in the chat bot code.

Today, chat bots are widely used for specific tasks like customer service. In this area, it represents a generic version of personalities, their characteristics and qualities, that is why they can only answer specific questions according to the information in a memory.

WHAT IS NEW IN THE MICROSOFT CHAT BOT?

With this patent application, Microsoft intends to improve the artificial intelligence behind a chat bot and make the answers non-generic and based on the personality of someone specific.

To do this, artificial intelligence will collect all the information that the person in question has uploaded to the internet over the years and will learn from all this data. For example, images, audio files, social media posts, electronic messages, written documents, etc. With all this personal data, a chat bot would be created that would be able to reflect the thoughts of this person.

In addition, to make it more realistic, Microsoft proposes to replicate the voice of the person through the collected audio and/or video recordings, as well as a 2D/3D model that imitates the gestures of this person using photos and/or videos. It even proposes to simulate the aging physical appearance to mark the passage of time.

In the examples set forth in the patent document, the specific person may correspond to a present or past entity, such as oneself, a friend, family member, celebrity, fictional character, historical figure, etc.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES BEHIND THE INVENTION

This is an issue with important ethical connotations that relate to the security, privacy and use of personal information. In this regard, Tim O'Brien, head of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft, explained in a tweet that the patent application is from 2017, when Microsoft did not make ethical reviews for artificial intelligence issues, which it does. now, he added that he has no record of any plans to develop or launch it.

However, it is a technology that already exists and is patented, which makes it possible to use it in the future.

Author: O. Concepción (Ph.D. in Nanoscience)