2003

Chat-robot available online, two photographs

Create your own artificially-intelligent chat partner for long talks and quiet evenings, with possibility of LTR to follow.

When you first speak to a new autobot, it knows nothing; it is an electronic idiot. Over time, as you converse with it, the bot will learn to communicate with you. Your autobot can be your best friend, your worst enemy; or whatever you desire. You can feed him every line from ‘The Goonies’ or teach her the finer points of wine tasting.

You can create your own log-in to begin training your autobot, or chat with the highly evolved Spookybots.

It’s the year 2003, and on screens all over the world, John Conner is being pursued by the most advanced terminator ever built:

Terminatrix. Recent technological advances have sparked environmentalists’ warnings that microscopic, self-duplicating robots will one day take over the planet, transforming the biosphere into grey goo. Meanwhile, researchers continue to make advances in designing computers that think in a humanlike way. Recently, the US Defense Department announced the launch of its Real-World Reasoning project, an initiative that will design computers to think and problem-solve more flexibly.

Following these developments, worldwide anti-robot sentiment has reached a critical /eve/. We humans like to think of robots as electronic idiots, friendly helpers around the house, washers of dishes, mowers of lawns, but throughout science fiction, there is also a fear that when they become too powerful or intelligent, they will rebel against their human creators.

Bulgarian artist Boryana Rossa’s Spookybots is a project on the guardrails of reality and science fiction. Rossa works with specially-designed ‘chat bot’ software, which imitates a human online chat partner. The software, which was created by programmer Dmitry Zhuravlev, is self-educational. When it is first installed, it knows nothing; it is an electronic idiot. Through use, the bot’s personality develops and it can begin to have conversations on a wide variety of topics.

Rossa is working with a handful of local people who have committed to a long-term relationship with a bot. Some of the trainers are creating their ideal romantic partner; one is creating his long-lost twin brother; for others, the bot will be a friend. The opening of this exhibition comes near the beginning of this training process. The bots have very little information in their databases, but this will grow as they converse with the public and with their human trainers. As this happens. they will become more human-like.

The relationship between trainer and bot is the main concern of this project. She believes that the robot-human relationship is like any relationship between the ever-changing categories of ‘margins’ and ‘main’, oppressed and oppressor. ‘If a man can love a bot,’ she says, ‘he is capable of loving anything.’