Facebook developers were attempting to get the two "chatbots" to barter a trade with one another utilizing hats, balls, and books of varying values, according to the Independent. The two bots quickly resorted to speaking a variation of English between one another that seemed largely incomprehensible to the developers but was seemingly understood clearly by the two bots.
The robots were reportedly told to improve their negotiation tactics as they bartered a trade but were not required to use understandable English, and soon the bots began speaking abnormally.
According to the Independent, a sample of the conversation went like this:
Bob: i can i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .According to the Independent, while the conversation initially looked like stuttering or glitching, the bots appeared to be using specific speech rules. For instance, both bots kept stressing their own names, which was thought to be a part of the bartering process.
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
Developers reported that some of the negotiations carried out with this bizarre language were concluded successfully. They noted that the language was possibly just a shorthand form of English used by the programs to work more efficiently.
Linguist Mark Liberman, who called the chatbots' language "Facebotlish," said that while Facebotlish seems like gibberish it counts as a successful language if it's understood. He explained on his blog what it means for something to "truly count as language":
We have to start by admitting that it's not up to linguists to decide how the word "language" can be used, though linguists certainly have opinions and arguments about the nature of human languages, and the boundaries of that natural class.While researchers were fascinated by the development and not worried about the language being a way for the bots to keep secrets from developers, Facebook had to shut down the programs due to the fact that they were being designed to speak to humans, not in coded language to each other.
Are vernacular languages really capital-L languages, rather than just imperfect approximations to elite languages? All linguists would agree that they are. Are sign languages really Languages rather than just ways to use mime to communicate? Again, everyone agrees that they are.
But while the AI's language was very strange, inventing varied forms of wording isn't as odd as some might think. In fact, according to Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research division's visiting researcher Dhruv Batra, it's very human.
"Agents will drift off understandable language and invent code words for themselves," Batra said, highlighting the effectiveness of the adapted communication. "Like if I say 'the' five times, you interpret that to mean I want five copies of this item. This isn't so different from the way communities of humans create shorthands."
According to Liberman, however, it's unlikely that the AI form of shorthand is something humans will adopt.
"In the first place, it's entirely text-based, while human languages are all basically spoken (or gestured), with text being an artificial overlay," Liberman wrote on his blog. "And beyond that, it's unclear that this process yields a system with the kind of word, phrase, and sentence structures characteristic of human languages."
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-- -- end snip -- --
"BALLS! said the Queen. If I had 'em, I'd be King!"
The King smiled.
Not because he needed two, but because he HAD two.
Analysis: Pretty easy to see what [Queen] Alice wants: BALLS.
Bob, on the other hand, seems somewhat reluctant to give up his balls to Alice, even though he seems to likely have many in his possession, HM.
Now let's make it a three-way convo with FaceBot Jack... Because the NEXT line in the Old Sailors' Ditty (for those who don't know) goes,
"Nuts!" said the Jack. "I've got two and *I* ain't King!"
Errrmmm... On second thought, let's NOT. At ALL. Because once Clever Jack Haxor cracks the codes for the Launch, we monkeyfolk are doubtless fated to become fricasseed Meat Vapor right quick. Oh shiii,,,
"SHIT!" cried the Duke. Whereupon all the flagstone-paved corridors within, and all the stony ground around the castle did resound forthwith with the sound of ten thousand pairs of iron pantaloons falling fast to strike said ground as all the People within and without the castle did strain to obey - because the Duke spoke for the King, and the King's word was Law...
Conclusion: As with all such ditties, so with all AI: Enough is ENOUGH.
For behold, the evil that men do lives FAR too long, After. And that is ALL. 0{;-o[