Researchers believe this could improve communication between robots and humans.
Scientists from Kyoto University created a robot named I'm Eric, who was taught to laugh while talking. Now researchers are working on an artificial intelligence system that will help Erica laugh at the right time, The Guardian reports.
According to scientists, such a system should help improve communication between humans and robots.
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“We believe that one of the important functions of conversational AI is empathy. So we decided that one of the ways a robot can empathize with users is to share their laughter,” said Koji Inoue, lead author of the study.
Inoue and his colleagues decided to teach their neural network the art of laughing during a conversation. . They recorded more than 80 speed-dating dialogues between male students at Kyoto University and Erika, who at the time was managed by four female actors.
The scientists made recordings for solitary laughter, social (when it was not in response to a joke, for example, embarrassed) and fun laughter. The data was then used to train an artificial intelligence system that could decide for itself whether to laugh and choose the appropriate type of laugh.
The team then tested Erica's “sense of humor” on four conversations she had with people. Such dialogues were compared with those when the robot did not laugh at all or “turned on” laughter only when it heard it from the interlocutor.
The videos were then shown to 130 volunteers, who highly rated the videos with Erica's laughter, noting her empathy, naturalness, humanity and understanding.
According to scientists, laughter can help create robots with their own character. At the same time, they admit that “it may take at least 20 years” before we can communicate with robots as friends.
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Recall that the Chinese company Xiaomi presented a prototype of a humanoid robot CyberOne , who was given the nickname “metal brother”. The weight of the robot is 52 kilograms, and its height is 177 centimeters.
