Thanks for the references... I found this paper
Kaplan, F., Oudeyer, P-Y., Kubinyi, E. and Miklosi, A. (2002) Robotic clicker training, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 38(3-4), pp. 197--206. at (near the bottom) http://www.csl.sony.fr/~py/clickerTraining.htm interesting in terms of highlighting the difference btw virtual-world and physical-robotics teaching of agents, as well as the basic difference between Novamente's Virtual Animal Brain system and real dog brains... They point out that imitation learning is rarely used for teaching animals, both because animals are bad at imitation, and because of differences between human and animal anatomy. However, Novamente is good at imitation, and in a virtual-world context the differences between human and animal anatomy can be finessed pretty easily (via simply supplying the virtual animal with suggestions about how to map specific human-avatar animations into specific animal-avatar animations). What they advocate in the paper, for teaching robots, is "clicker training" which is basically Skinnerian reinforcement learning with a judicious, time-variant sequence of partial rewards. At first you reward the animal for doing 1/10 of the behavior right, then after it can do that, you reward it for doing 2/10 of the behavior right, etc. In their work on language learning http://www.csl.sony.fr/~py/languageAcquisition.htm I see nothing coming remotely close to a discussion of the learning of syntax or complex semantics ... what I see is some experiments in which robots learned, through spontaneous exploration and reinforcement, the simple fact that vocalizing toward other agents is a useful thing to do. Which is certainly interesting ... but it's really just a matter of "learning THAT vocal communication exists", in a setting where not that many other possibilities exist... -- Ben G On Feb 3, 2008 7:08 AM, Mike Tintner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Jeez there's always something new. Anyone know about this (which seems at a > glance loosely relevant to Ben's approach) ? > > http://www.emergent-languages.org/ > > Overview > > This site provides an introduction to the research on emergent and > evolutionary languages as conducted at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory > in Paris and the AI-Lab at the VUB in Brussels. One of the principle > objectives of this research is to identify the cognitive capabilities that > artificial agents must posses to enable, in a population of such agents, the > emergence and evolution of a language that exhibits characteristic features > identified in natural languages. > > Looks like Sony- Aibo- financed. Luc Steels seems to be a principal figure. > This is quite fun: > > http://www.csl.sony.fr/~py/clickerTraining.htm > > Here he explains/justifies his approach: > > http://www.csl.sony.fr/downloads/papers/2006/steels-06a.pdf > > And how did I get to all this? From, tangentially, Construction Grammar, > which is yet another interesting aspect of cognitive linguistics: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construction_grammar > > > ----- > This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email > To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: > http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; > -- Ben Goertzel, PhD CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC Director of Research, SIAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] "If men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms." -- Henry Miller ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=93159821-0ce2a9
