Line up now to talk to Google’s definitely not sentient chatbot
Big tech companies like Google and Microsoft are at the forefront of efforts to make human-computer interactions consumer-ready using technologies like natural language processing (NLP). One of Google’smost promising NLP modelscalled LaMDA was recently in the news when a company researcher allegedthe AI is sentient. If you’ve been curious what drove him to make such a bold claim, Google is now accepting registrations where you can sign up to interact with LaMDA yourself, through the AI Test Kitchen app announced earlier this year.
Google’s now-fired engineerBlake Lemoine made headlines with claims that LaMDA exhibits signs of human intelligence. The company swiftly pushed back against that theory. After all, LaMDA 2 is Google’s pride and joy, so much so thatAI had a dedicated segmentat Google I/O 2022. At the event, Google announced you couldhelp improve the conversational AItechnology, and the opportunity is here now.
The AI Test Kitchen app will allow beta testers tointeract with the NLP modelin limited capacity. Google is granting access to a handful of Android users in the US now, and will welcome Apple users on board in the coming weeks. The three guided demonstrations available from the get-go are named Imagine It, List It, and Talk About It (Dogs Edition). Google’s accompanying descriptions are rather ambiguous, though. The first demo will “offer paths to explore your imagination” and List It will break a goal or topic down into relevant subsets.
The Dogs Edition demo, which sounds like maybe the most fun one here, will give you a chance to strike up a conversation about man’s best friend with LaMDA. You would think Google added this demo for comic value, but the company explains that it tests the AI’s ability to maintain conversations about a theme and keep your interested if you try deviating.
Google will ask participants to rate LaMDA’s responses as nice, offensive, off-topic, or untrue. The data won’t link to your Google account, but will gradually improve the AI and other products the company manages.
Following Microsoft’s unforgettable foot-in-mouth experience with asuddenly racist chatbot, Google sure understands its responsibility to keep LaMDA’s interactions civil — it remains one of LaMDA’s test parameters during this beta. So, if you’re interested in getting a taste of advanced conversational AI before others, you can register your interest onGoogle’s AI Test Kitchen page.
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