An AI Landscape — What Do You Mean by AI?

 

I've updated my AI Landscape piece as I find myself using it a lot and posted it to Medium at  

https://davidjhburden.medium.com/an-ai-landscape-what-do-you-mean-by-ai-b338908cce99

I think I'll post all my long form pieces to Medium as its quite a nice platform to write and read things in, and probably gets more reach than the blog! But I'll always post links here as things get published.

David speaking at CogX on Virtual Humans and Digital Immortality

 

Somehow forgot to blog this when I did the talk at CogX back in 2019 but still highly relevant and been linking to it from the updated website so I thought I might as well post it up here as well.

Virtual Humans interview on the 1202 Podcast

Daden MD David Burden is interviewed on the 1202 Human Factors podcast about our work on Virtual Humans. You can listen to it at:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/virtual-humans-should-we-be-concerned-an-interview/id1478605029?i=1000538768732

Virtual Humans - Out in Paperback!

 

David's book on Virtual Humans is now out in Paperback. Buy now at Amazon and all good (open) bookstores!

Video: David's talk on Virtual Personas at AI Tech North

David's talk at AI Tech North on "Enriching Virtual Humans through the Semantic Web and Knowledge Graphs" is now available on video:

It's a 20min watch, and followed by another interesting session on analysis of language in social media use.

AI Survey

In our MD's book on Virtual Humans there is an "AI Landscape" diagram, first shown on this blog, mapping a variety of systems against how "sophisticated" they are, and how "human" they seem.

We plotted a variety of real and imagined computer systems, robots and AI on the diagram, but that was just our assessment (and deliberately not shown above!).

Now we're giving YOU a chance to tell us where you think these systems should be on the chart, as well as how much they reflect your idea of what AI is, and what elements are important in a virtual human.

Just fill out the survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/W6XM537

AND there's a chance to win a copy of the book if you leave us your email at the end of the survey.

The survey is open until 31st March, and we'll be publishing results here in mid 2020.

We look forward to hearing your views.

David speaking at the BrumAI Meetup in September

David will be speaking at the BrumAI Meetup in September. Details are:

Tuesday, 24 September 2019
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Aston University Lecture Theatre MB419
Aston University Main Building · Birmingham

Register at https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/brum-ai/events/263802176/

David will speak about the work that his company Daden has done with Chatbots since the early 2000s, and where he sees chatbots fitting into a bigger picture of virtual humans and artificial intelligence. In particular David will talk about Daden's work on virtual personas and semantic knowledge graphs the role they could play in corporate knowledge management, and the ethical issues they raise as pre-cursors to a form of digital immortality.

Virtual Humans: Today and Tomorrow

Daden MD David Burden, writing with one of our long time collaborators Prof. Maggi-Savin Baden from the University of Worcester, has just produced a new book on Virtual Humans. The book has been published by Taylor & Francis in New York and covers the technical, social and ethical elements of what makes a virtual human, and how these technologies might develop in the future.

There is more information one the book, and updated content since this is a fast moving sector, at www.virtualhumans.ai, along with links to Amazon if you want to purchase a copy.

A few choice reviews so far:

"If you have little knowledge of what a virtual human is, but want to find out, then this is the book for you. For researchers in the virtual human field this is a definite must.” - Prof. Kevin Warwick

"A thorough, research-based treatment of how digital entities with human-like features and capabilities have left the domain of science fiction and are rapidly becoming a major aspect of human culture. Significantly, the authors recognize and discuss the great ethical, moral and social implications of these technological developments which makes their work relevant and important for the social sciences and humanities as well as the domains of computing and information sciences. I certainly intend to use Virtual Humans as an assigned reading in the interdisciplinary courses I teach on the personal and social impact of leading-edge digital technologies." - Professor Richard Gilbert

"Intelligent, pragmatic and insightful, Virtual Humans is an essential guide for those who want to understand the complex landscape of today’s technology when thinking about designing and building a virtual human. Helpfully, it clearly deploys a wealth of supporting analysis, case studies, research, ethical questions, and moral dilemmas and adds a refreshing dose of healthy common sense along the way." - Nicola Strong, Strong Enterprises