Robots and Technology: Human Right and Wrong Could Be Book Learnings For Robots

As we move rapidly toward greater technology use, some are concerned that artificial intelligence (AI) will mean that robots eventually will harm humans.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have an idea that they think will combat this effect: Robots can be taught human ideas of right and wrong, they think, by being trained to read stories and learn how to behave in a human society. The scientists presented their technique, called "Quixote," at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's 2016 annual meeting, earlier this week. 

"The collected stories of different cultures teach children how to behave in socially acceptable ways with examples of proper and improper behavior in fables, novels, and other literature," Mark Riedl at Georgia Tech's Entertainment Intelligence Lab said in a release. 

This is not the first time reading has been said to improve human interactions. In 2013, a study found that readers of literary fiction were better prepared to feel empathy for others, for instance.

Indeed, said Riedl in the release, "We believe story comprehension in robots can eliminate psychotic-appearing behavior and reinforce choices that won't harm humans and still achieve the intended purpose."

The Quixote system builds on Riedl's research (called the Scheherazade system), which showed the way in which AI is capable of putting together a correct action sequence by crowdsourcing plotlines from the Internet.

Under the proposed system, Scheherazade would figure out what is a "correct" or normal sequence of actions, then send that data to Quixote. The latter would set up a reward system that shows the robot how to proceed, using positive reinforcement and by aligning values with an idea of normal action.

"We believe that AI has to be enculturated to adopt the values of a particular society, and in doing so, it will strive to avoid unacceptable behavior," Riedl said in the release. "Giving robots the ability to read and understand our stories may be the most expedient means in the absence of a human user manual."

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