Researchers Teach Robots To Evolve Their Own LanguageResearchers Teach Robots To Evolve Their Own Language

Sony killed off its Aibo line of robotic dogs this year, but scientists with the consumer electronics giant are spinning off a litter with new brains. The research could ultimately produce far more advanced forms of artificial intelligence.

Researchers at Sony's computer science labs in France are working with the European Commission's Emerging Technologies Initiative and the Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology in Italy under a program called EC (embedded and communicating) Agents. Their mission: Give robots linguistic and cognitive skills that develop on their own over time, without communication rules from humans.

In one application of the technology, the researchers gave a pack of Aibos the ability to develop their own language. So, for instance, one dog can tell another the location of a ball and ask it to go fetch. It can also specify whether the ball is rolling.

Making sounds helps the super-Aibos fulfill a programmed requirement to learn more about what's around them. The canine cyborgs were placed in a room with other objects, some of which would respond to sounds. A stuffed elephant and other objects would not respond. The dogs ultimately spent more time "barking" at the responsive objects, and they learned that particular bark patterns elicited certain responses.

The researchers think such interactions are the beginnings of artificial intelligence with an innate language capability--one they hope to develop further. "The result is machines that evolve and develop by themselves without human intervention," Dr. Stefano Nolfi, the coordinator of the EC Agents project, says in a statement posted on the project's site.

Another participant in the project, Sweden's Viktoria Institute, is using EC agents to let mobile devices, such as MP3 players and cell phones, "talk" to each other. That way, a device belonging to, for example, a person who's part of an online social group would know what songs are played frequently by devices owned by other group members and could automatically push those tunes to the person.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is teaching hordes of small, wheeled robots embedded with EC agents to swarm over areas to help with search and rescue operations. "We've managed to ground AI in reality, in the real world," says Nolfi, "solving one of the crucial problems to creating truly intelligent and cooperative systems."