Artificial Intelligence is one of the quickest growing fields in the tech world, and engineers are experimenting with different algorithms to showcase robot-learning boundaries.
The scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) just took this a step forward.
After Shelley and Deep Empathy, MIT scientists have come up with Norman, a new psychopathic AI, and well... it has managed to terrify us mortals.
Bred on supposedly ‘gruesome’ and ‘violent’ content from the darkest corners of Reddit, this AI sees only monstrosity through its eyes, but the good scientists over at MIT say that Norman isn’t dangerous at all (more on that below)!
Testing Testing...
Norman is named after the twisted villain of the 1960 movie Psycho and his skills include only image captioning at this stage.
The data on death that ‘he’ collected has been made to undergo the Rorschach Inkblot test, a visual medium of psychological testing. Here are the (slightly terrifying) results.
- 01/04A simple statement by Norman, but who else sees Santas dancing?(Photo Courtesy: Screenshot via MIT)
- 02/04A trend is born. This AI is an imaginative bugger.(Photo Courtesy: Screenshot via MIT)
- 03/04Ouch. No aesthetic sense, Bates. I would hang this in your Motel.(Photo Courtesy: Screenshot via MIT)
- 04/04At least he’s consistent in killing the man, and original in the way he does it.(Photo Courtesy: Screenshot via MIT)
Now let’s get back to the part about MIT trying (not) to scare the world. The researchers say that they have built this ‘bad boy’ to prove a point.
When people talk about AI algorithms being biased and unfair, the culprit is often not the algorithm itself, but the biased data that was fed to it.Norman’s Page at MIT
Thus, the team behind Norman seems to exonerate other AI programs going “aggressive” and verging out of control.
‘This Is How It Ends,” Say Tweeple
Despite the ‘reassurance’ given by MIT, Tweeple could not help losing their marbles over Norman.
Frankenstein reference anyone?
What Reddit data is really about...
Do you think Norman is a good idea? Tell us in the comments section.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)