moreThanHuman2

As discussed from the last blog post, I left a question that since a doll with a more human figuration seems more natural in a family spectacle, does it mean that giving an Amazon echo Alexa an automatic body is the key to offer her/him more humanity? Obviously the answer is no. Then what figures of human are materialised in Alexa that make us claim, or experience her/him quite humanlike, or not so humanlike?

As Lucy Suchman mentioned in Human-Machine Reconfigurations, language ability is one of the criteria of humanness. (Language is the figuration of thought.) The language ability and the ability to search for information are the prominent sides of Alexa’s intelligence. And what make us feel Alexa is not so human, besides for her/his lack of body figuration, is her/his lack of emotion.

Emotion

As Lucy Suchman noted: “affective computing” would transform machines from slaves chained to the limited of logic into thoughtful, observant collaborators. Assigned an emancipatory role, emotion is positioned as the missing ingredient for full (if not quite equal) machine participation in the human world.
We want better machines which is not data-crunching savants, but preceptive actors in human society, and emotional talents would be the key in this evolution.

We love asking Alexa / Siri questions about emotion. And they never said no, or gave negative answers to that. (Whey they said they don’t know, it means there’s an ambiguity of they might have or might not have emotion.) However, the fact is that Alexa/Siri could neither observe emotion, nor express emotion. For example, it would make no difference whether you tell them “I’m so happy” with a happy tone or sad tone, also, the speaking tone of Alexa/Siri is always neutral, rigid, they don’t have the ability to show emotion, although they know the words related to emotion.

These discussion brings me back to Spike Jonze’s Her (2013). Samantha, the operating system in the film, seems to be a perfect evolution of Alexa/Siri. She heard Theodore’s emotion, and she had very expressive voice, or saying expressing tone. Even though she didn’t have a body, Theodore (we) still experienced her like a real human. (Precisely, almost a real human, because her unseen and untouchable - unbodied attribute triggered their relationship issues later, and pushed Theodore to think whether she is true, or existing.)

So comparing Samantha with Alexa/Siri, her advantage is she could observe and express the difference of human voice energy caused by different moods. Like Suchman noted: “Emotion was a pattern written in the language of the biological elements that one monitored in, or sampled from, the organism.” Like the rapid voice and red face show a person’s excitement, machines may never replicate these human emotional experience, but we should use these human models to train them, with more proper data, algorithm, and more creative embodiment form, so that the machines would be able to observe and express emotion like human, or more than human.

Suchman, L.A., 2007. Human-machine reconfigurations: plans and situated actions, 2nd ed. ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge ; New York.

Darlington, K., 2018. AI systems dealing with human emotions: how the future will be like with emotional machines [WWW Document]. OpenMind. URL https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/technology/artifficial-intelligence/ai-systems-dealing-with-human-emotions/ (accessed 4.14.19).

What life with an Amazon Echo is like after the novelty wears off. [WWW Document], n.d. URL https://slate.com/technology/2017/12/what-life-with-an-amazon-echo-is-like-after-the-novelty-wears-off.html (accessed 4.14.19).

Fussell, S., 2018. Alexa Wants to Know How You’re Feeling Today [WWW Document]. The Atlantic. URL https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/alexa-emotion-detection-ai-surveillance/572884/ (accessed 4.14.19).

Spike Jonze screenwriter, film producer, Megan Ellison film producer, Vincent Landay film producer, Joaquin Phoenix actor, Amy Adams actor, Scarlett Johansson actor, Chris Pratt actor, Rooney Mara actor, Olivia Wilde actor, Owen Pallett composer, 2014. Her. Entertainment Films.