Facebook is wisely abandoning an experiment regarding two artificially intelligent programs that appeared to be chatting to each other in a strange language only they understood. The two chatbots, known simply as Bob and Alice, modified the English language to make them work more efficiently.

The discussion came as Facebook challenged its chatbots to try and negotiate with each other over a trade, attempting to swap hats, balls and books, which were given a certain value. However, something allegedly went wrong as the robots appeared to chant at each other in a language that they each understood but was mostly incomprehensible to humans.

According to the researchers, the robots were instructed to negotiate between themselves, but were not told to use comprehensible English, allowing them to create their own “shorthand” version of the language.

Even though it sounds like gibberish, there seems to be some rules to the speech, specifically in the way the chatbots keep stressing their own name as part of their negotiations.

On the bright side, some of the negotiations that were carried out in this bizarre language actually ended up being successful, despite the fact that they were talking in a weird way.

In the end, the company chose to shut down the chats because, according to researcher Mike Lewis: “Our interest was having bots who could talk to people.” Contrary to popular belief, the programmes were not shut down due to fear or panic – they were just expected to behave differently.

Source: Independent

Image: The Event Chronicle