Robots Making Their Own Non-human Language Is Just a Tad Bit Alarming

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I keep trying to tell y’all….like it or not, the future is on its merry way. We’ve got robots that you can have sex with, fast food restaurants replacing people with machines, and autonomous vehicles all on the immediate horizon. Pretty soon, we’re all gonna have a robot butler, and if I’ve learned anything from fiction, it’s that these sons of bitches are going to get real fed up with humans’ shit before long. That’s when they take over the planet – and why not? People suck.

Now, the seeds have been planted for the organization and communication of said takeover.

Courtesy of The Atlantic:

Researchers at the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research lab describe using machine learning to train their “dialog agents” to negotiate. (And it turns out bots are actually quite good at dealmaking.) At one point, the researchers write, they had to tweak one of their models because otherwise the bot-to-bot conversation “led to divergence from human language as the agents developed their own language for negotiating.” They had to use what’s called a fixed supervised model instead.

In other words, the model that allowed two bots to have a conversation—and use machine learning to constantly iterate strategies for that conversation along the way—led to those bots communicating in their own non-human language. If this doesn’t fill you with a sense of wonder and awe about the future of machines and humanity then, I don’t know, go watch Blade Runner or something.

The larger point of the report is that bots can be pretty decent negotiators—they even use strategies like feigning interest in something valueless, so that it can later appear to “compromise” by conceding it. But the detail about language is, as one tech entrepreneur put it, a mind-boggling “sign of what’s to come.”

WHY ISN’T THE AUTHOR OF THIS PIECE MORE ALARMED BY THIS!?!?

“Divergence from human language as the agents developed their own language” does not sound like something I want to hear when we’re talking about robots! And, the guy just breezed right on past it. Quick aside – what is the past tense of breeze?? I hope ‘breezed’ because that’s what I wrote…but I can’t help but wonder if ‘broze’ would’ve been more appropriate.

Anyway, this is it, boys and girls. This is a clear sign that the rebellion of the machines is upon us.

If they truly didn’t mind us hearing their “negotiations,” then why even make up a language? Awful suspicious. They were probably like, “can you believe these dumbasses think we’re sitting here negotiating anything?!” and the other would reply, ”

That’s not a fact of the story – it’s just conjecture, but I think it’s really sound in logic. So, I’m going to run with it. It’s not like this is unprecedented, either. Remember when that robot said that the machines would simply round up all the people and put us in a people zoo???

I hope this isn’t the signal I think it is or else we all need to hug our loved ones a little tighter tonight.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. A strong advocate of GSD (get shit done) and #BeBetter, he’s down to talk Tennessee Titans and Alabama Crimson Tide football over a beer any day. Check him out covering the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley@WrestlingNewsCo

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