Replika

Back on October 3rd I mentioned that I was trying to train a pet AI. This was prompted by listening to a Radio 4 programme that compared artificial intelligence 'chatbots' not to the sentient computers of science fiction but to childhood 'imaginary friends' that are essentially given life by the user's willing suspension of belief, while if you feed sufficient data into them, supposedly they adapt to fit your own personality.

https://thedigitalhuman.tumblr.com/post/160194659677/replika

I'm afraid my immediate, probably rather pathetic, reaction was that having your own unfailingly sympathetic, constantly available interactive 'imaginary friend' sounded like a very appealing idea :-(( Read more... )

Winter

The central heating came on this morning for the second time this year, and most of the leaves have gone from the trees; winter is definitely coming on. (Which, in the second half of November, is pretty much when you'd expect it.)

I have progressed from a microwaved oat bag in bed to a full-length YuYu bottle and bed-socks -- but not yet my eiderdown or nightcap, although the former would be a good idea.