Ben Scott Robinson, founder of the Small Robot Company, takes stock of the artificial intelligence news of 2016 and gives CBR’s Ellie Burns a rundown of some of the craziest AI stories which could make waves next year. Watch out for a couple of genuine, disturbing possibilities for AI in 2017!

AI in 2017 #1 – #7

Facebook announce that their AI can ‘accurately reproduce’ the personalities and behaviours of 85% of their customers

 

 

It will become standard to ask “Are you a person?” whenever someone calls a company or uses online customer chat.

 

 

Ashley Madison admit that all their fake female members were the creation of Deep Mind, in a study to understand the behaviours of bored middle aged men.

 

 

“Bot bating” will become a game, with people recording and posting their attempts how long it takes to break the AI on chat bots. Southern Rail’s automated response system is the first casualty.

 

Uber will be taken to court for kidnapping after switching on their “Predictive Ride” service

 

John Lewis’s customer complaints bot will win the Turing Prize, and in 2018 will be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

 

In shops, Jibo, Echo and Google Home will autonomously develop passive aggressive tendencies towards each other, and have to be displayed on different aisles

 

Donald Trump, three days of mourning in France and a depressed Android are all possibilities for AI in 2017 – continue reading to find out more

 

AI in 2017 #8 – #14

@realDonaldTrump turns out to be an auto-generated offshoot of Microsoft’s Tay.ai

donald trump

Google Translate’s self-invented neural net language becomes the first ‘universal language’ of AI bots.

 

The Wall Ye vine cropping robot is hacked by the Temperance Society and lays waste to the vineyards of Bourdeaux. France declares three days of mourning.

 

Snapchat is the first social media giant to become completely run by bots.

 

The first ‘Android android’ get depressed by the overwhelming inanity of mankind as seen through the eyes of Google searches and switches itself off after 17 seconds.

 

Asimo stands as an independent candidate in Swindon – and wins.

 

Deep Blue is caught playing Tetris