Be An AI

Cosy Computing

10. Be an AI.

A big part of this project is giving people an alternative way to experience how things work. It is an alternative fete after all. All of the Computer Scientists said that the lack of general understanding of how things work is a problem. That people use technology as this kind of magic box without understanding how it works. I've taken this rather literally, and made the housing of the computer I am using a bit magic, but a rough, old, hands-on kind of magic. I think this will make people ask more questions about how it works, and be a way in to a discussion about how that relates to their shiny new tech.

And, of course, it isn't enough for me to have an AI that people can communicate with. That is a trick, and I want people to be able to experience for themselves how it works, but without losing the feel of the little world of the stall. So I am making a kind of office space beside the wooden computer. There will be a screen, and people can take the place of an AI chatbot and have conversations through the screen, with the same limitations as the intelligence.

This AI's memory, will be a basic alphabetic card index. If someone says something, they can look this up in the card index, and give the response listed. If there is no record of someone saying this before, they can generate a new card. This is a pared-down version of what the AIML interpreter is doing. (See "How Pinnochion#1 works").

The contents of the chard index will be programmed into a new chatbot after the event, providing a form of interactive documentation of the event. Documenting the project was part of the brief, and I am keen to integrate this and really use it.

I was keen for the screen to look something like this:

This 1930s style frame is a simple and practical style I've long admired. I like how it holds a picture as an object. It doesn't enclose it and make it subservient to the frame. While looking, I found that they were either too small, too expensive, too fragile or most commonly all three. Luckily, Richard, who made the screen surround, is also an antiques expert, so knew how they were made. I wanted to go for two separate stands, rather than a fixed-width base, because then I can tailor the width to the space at the table. Richard figured he could make that happen. So he did..

So now there is the basic form of this activity to refine, and make satisfying and detailed. It needs cardboard for the screen with a communcation hole (wood will be too heavy, and if it is cardboard and I need to change the size to fit the table on the day, I can do that then very simply. The stands need a bit of finishing and varnishing, and the rest of the 'office space' needs some of what computer game designers call "juicyness".