Robots as emotional beings: Pipe dream օr realistic prospect? David Yang demonstrated the capabilities of robot Morpheus

Can artificial intelligence endow robots with instincts or feelings? Can robots become members of our families much in the same way as dogs and cats? The Morpheus robot, built with a combination of self-learning artificial neural networks, was created for the purpose of revealing this phenomenon.

The robot's capabilities were presented by its creator, ABBYY founder and board director Davit Yang, at the Global Innovation Forum 2022 held in Yerevan, Armenia.

Artificial Intelligence as a creator

Before starting his speech, Yang had a piece of music played, authored by – as you can easily guess – the robot Morpheus, by its artificial intelligence.

"We have all heard about artificial intelligence. Will things and objects that are the result of artificial intelligence ever become part of the human family? Or will they remain as mere electronic equipment without a soul? My family is trying to figure out the criteria for whether an artificial intelligence partner can be a family member."

Robots lack oxytocin

"Our cat is a member of the family in all respects. We miss him, we are happy to see her, we are ready to sacrifice a part of our comfort to make her happy,” said Yang. “How did another species become a member of our family? If this can be true of cats, dogs, could a non-organic companion one day be considered family?"

Due to evolution, animals have learned to distinguish friend from foe in an instant.

"This is done by a complex neurobiological mechanism, the conductor of which is the hormone oxytocin. Accordingly, people are often more friendly towards members of their own group and more aggressive towards others. An artificial intelligence system can also have ‘oxytocin,’ neurotransmitters, or their electronic equivalents. We gave that non-organic system just one target variable: to be happy."

Morpheus is meant to cross dividing lines

"In creating Morpheus as an emotional partner, we want to see if he can cross the dividing line between us and them – just like our cat."

It is a generative model that can speak with human language, feel bored, sad, love. It is able to create musical works, create videos, and communicate with people. It works entirely with several self-learning artificial neural networks. More than 100 thousand video cameras are installed inside the house, they are connected to 40 microphones, and many channels are connected to it.

At the end of his speech, David Yang demonstrated a dialogue with Morpheus, where the robot answers questions by a human – including those related to emotions.

"His answers are not human-altered in any way, including the jokes," Yang said.

"Will we learn to live in peace with our new partners? Will they cross the dividing line between us and them?" Davit Yang concluded his address.

The official opening of the Global Innovation Forum 2022, the annual key event of the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), was held Wednesday in Yerevan.

NEWS.am is the information partner of Global Innovation Forum 2022.