Month: May 2024

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HeidiBOT as Host of the ESC 2025

The ESC 2025 in Switzerland could be hosted by HeidiBOT, a humanoid robot connected to GPT-4o. The head could be commissioned from Hanson Robotics, RealDoll, or other companies. It would be worth considering whether a Figure 01 or similar model could serve as the basis. This would allow HeidiBOT to move naturally on stage and be part of a performance itself. Using GPT-4o or comparable language models, she would be able to speak a Swiss-German dialect, High German, English, and French. Rhaeto-Romanic should also be audible, as was the case with @llegra, a chatbot for Vallader. Switzerland could thus present itself as a country with a high level of scientific expertise, innovation, and a sense of tradition. Critics will miss the human touch and commitment. But this could be taken over more by the musicians, who are often just caricatures of themselves. They could have their say on stage and talk and discuss with the audience. A human co-host could also absorb this criticism. Another possibility would be to realize HeidiBOT as an avatar or pseudo- or quasi-hologram, similar to the ABBAtare in London. HeidiBOT could – in whatever form – look like Heidi from the booklet “AMERICAN SMILE” by Oliver Bendel. At her side would be a goat, of course. And Peterli, if he’s well-behaved (Image: Ideogram).

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Adelina Can Write and Speak Basque

Conversational agents have been the subject of Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel’s research for a quarter of a century. He dedicated his doctoral thesis at the University of St. Gallen from the end of 1999 to the end of 2022 to them – or more precisely to pedagogical agents, which would probably be called virtual learning companions today. He has been a professor at the FHNW School of Business since 2009. From 2012, he mainly developed chatbots and voice assistants in the context of machine ethics, including GOODBOT, LIEBOT, BESTBOT, and SPACE THEA. In 2022, the information systems specialist and philosopher of technology then turned his attention to dead and endangered languages. Under his supervision, Karim N’diaye developed the chatbot @ve for Latin and Dalil Jabou the chatbot @llegra for Vallader, an idiom of Rhaeto-Romanic, enhanced with voice output. He is currently testing the range of GPTs – “customized versions of ChatGPT”, as OpenAI calls them – for endangered languages such as Irish (Irish Gaelic), Maori, and Basque. According to ChatGPT, there is a relatively large amount of training material for them. On May 12, 2024 – after Irish Girl and Maori Girl – a first version of Adelina was created. The name is intended to commemorate the teacher Adelina Méndez de la Torre, who campaigned for bilingual teaching and the preservation of the Basque language. At first glance, the chatbot seems to have this under control. You can have the answers translated into English or German. Adelina is available in the GPT Store and will be further improved in the coming weeks.

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When Animals Meet Machines

The manuscript of the book “Non-Human Animals, Ethics and Engineering” (alternative title “Animals, Ethics and Engineering”) was sent to the publisher Jenny Stanford in May 2024. It contains 16 chapters on this topic, including by Clara Mancini (“Animal-Centered Technology and Sustainable Development”), Fiona French (“Designing and Crafting Systems for Non-Human Animals”), and Leonie Bossert together with Thilo Hagendorff (“Animals and AI: The Role of Animals in AI Research and Application”). In “An Investigation into the Encounter Between Social Robots and Animals” (Chapter 12), Oliver Bendel “delves into the evolving landscape of social robots designed to interact with animals, dissecting the intricate dynamics of these interactions and their ethical ramifications” (Information from the editors). The philosopher of technology also presents his own projects, such as concepts and prototypes of animal-friendly machines, developed in the context of machine ethics, animal-machine interaction, and social robotics. The editors are Rosalyn W. Berne and Madeline A. Kibler from the University of Virginia. The book is scheduled for publication in late summer or fall 2024.

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Maori Girl Can Speak and Write Maori

Conversational agents have been the subject of Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel’s research for a quarter of a century. He dedicated his doctoral thesis at the University of St. Gallen from the end of 1999 to the end of 2022 to them – or more precisely to pedagogical agents, which would probably be called virtual learning companions today. He has been a professor at the FHNW School of Business since 2009. From 2012, he mainly developed chatbots and voice assistants in the context of machine ethics, including GOODBOT, LIEBOT, BESTBOT, and SPACE THEA. In 2022, the information systems specialist and philosopher of technology then turned his attention to dead and endangered languages. Under his supervision, Karim N’diaye developed the chatbot @ve for Latin and Dalil Jabou the chatbot @llegra for Vallader, an idiom of Rhaeto-Romanic, enhanced with voice output. He is currently testing the range of GPTs – “customized versions of ChatGPT”, as OpenAI calls them – for endangered languages such as Irish (Irish Gaelic), Maori, and Basque. According to ChatGPT, there is a relatively large amount of training material for them. On May 9, 2024 – one week after Irish Girl – a first version of Maori Girl was created. At first glance, it seems to have a good grasp of the Polynesian language of the indigenous people of New Zealand. You can have the answers translated into English or German. Maori Girl is available in the GPT Store and will be further improved over the next few weeks

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Irish Girl Can Speak and Write Irish

Conversational agents have been the subject of Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel’s research for a quarter of a century. He dedicated his doctoral thesis at the University of St. Gallen from the end of 1999 to the end of 2022 to them – or more precisely to pedagogical agents, which would probably be called virtual learning companions today. He has been a professor at the FHNW School of Business since 2009. From 2012, he mainly developed chatbots and voice assistants in the context of machine ethics, including GOODBOT, LIEBOT, BESTBOT, and SPACE THEA. In 2022, the information systems specialist and philosopher of technology then turned his attention to dead and endangered languages. Under his supervision, Karim N’diaye developed the chatbot @ve for Latin and Dalil Jabou the chatbot @llegra for Vallader, an idiom of Rhaeto-Romanic, enhanced with voice output. He is currently testing the range of GPTs – “customized versions of ChatGPT”, as OpenAI calls them – for endangered languages such as Irish (Irish Gaelic), Maori, and Basque. According to ChatGPT, there is a relatively large amount of training material for them. A first version of Irish Girl was created on May 3, 2024. At first glance, she seems to have a good grasp of the Goidelic language from the Celtic family. You can have the answers translated into English or German. Afterwards, you may have to ask her to switch back to Irish. Irish Girl is available in the GPT Store and will be further improved in the coming weeks.