A few moons ago someone wise said that ChatGPT is just the beginning and they couldn’t be more correct in their claim. Stanford University and Google Research recently presented their groundbreaking research. Since time immemorial, there have been countless works of literature, science fiction films, and shows that have spawned a future world of interactive simulation, precisely a world in which humans and humanoid robots can coexist with relative ease.
Well, new research from Stanford and Google seems to indicate that the days when humans and robots will be part of a larger simulation may not be far off after all. The revolutionary study “Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior” advances the concept of generative agents, which are essentially computational software agents. The study is considered a turning point in AI, as the generative agents are able to simulate “believable human behavior”.
What are Generative Agents?
Based on the study, generative agents are computer-based software agents that use artificial intelligence to simulate believable human behavior. These agents rely on generative models to mimic individual and group behavior. These behaviors are human-like and based on their “identity, environment, and changing experiences.”
As part of the study, researchers from Stanford and Google created an interactive environment inspired by the popular simulation video game The Sims. The sandbox environment was created to demonstrate the skills of these AI agents. Later, the researchers added 25 generative agents, or AI agents, to the environment. All of these agents have different personalities, skills, preferences, and goals. They also have memories of past experiences and can reflect on current situations. In addition, they are able to perform various tasks and react to events.
The generative agents follow the architecture, essentially a Large Language Model (LLM) composed of components such as observation, reflection, and planning. The architecture can also use natural language to store records of an agent’s experiences. Based on the research, users could interact with the agents using natural language. In addition, the generative agents were also endowed with the ability to initiate conversations based primarily on their observations, reasoning, and plans. According to the study, the ability to develop realistic and consistent behaviors that reflect their personality, skills and preferences is the yardstick to measure the credibility of these AI agents.
What do generative agents envision?
From movies like Ready Player One or the popular Westworld series, we’ve often wondered about worlds inhabited by virtual but realistic characters. These characters, although virtual, have piqued our interest and created in us a need to interact with and understand their everyday lives. Perhaps this is the basic idea of generative agents.
Based on the sandbox experiment, generative agents were found to make breakfast, commute to work, paint, form relationships, share opinions, initiate conversations, etc. They are uncannily similar to humans in that they can remember, recall, and reflect on the past and present.
What can Generative Agents do?
The sandbox environment allowed researchers to study the individual and social behavior of AI agents. Some of the agents exhibited human-like preferences and goals. For example, Agent Alice is a painter who loves art and strives to improve her skills. She works as a waitress at a diner and has a crush on another AI agent, Bob, who works as a writer at a bookstore. Alice spends her free time painting at home or visiting museums. To impress her crush, Alice visits Bob at work and shows him her pictures.
Another AI agent, Eve, is a journalist working for a local newspaper. She is adventurous and researching and enjoys writing stories. Eve is friends with photographer Frank, who is her colleague; The duo collaborate on several projects. Another agent, Charlie, is a personal trainer at a gym. He loves sports and likes to eat healthy. Charlie is shown to have a rivalry with Dave, another trainer at the gym.
The above are a handful of the agents out of the 25 living in the sandbox environment. Interestingly, each agent has their own personality and stories for users to discover and engage with.
What are the potential applications of generative agents?
Generative Agents are an innovative concept that combines the best of AI and interactive simulation. They have the ability to create realistic simulations of human behavior for users to explore.
Like any other technology, generative drugs must be carefully considered when considering their ethical implications. This is precisely because the whole idea of coexistence of people with virtual beings has a number of flaws. If we consider the narrative of the popular show Westworld, what started out as a harmless experiment quickly turns into a dystopian world. If the technology is released to the public sooner or later, it has the potential to shake people’s moral compass, as the distinction between real and simulated is likely to be largely blurred.
On the contrary, the potential applications of generative agents could also help to develop new ways of entertainment, especially creating immersive virtual worlds. They can also be used for education, especially for teaching social skills. In addition, they can help in the study of human behavior. Currently, generative agents are not perfect and have a number of limitations, for example, they are error-prone and inconsistent due to the limitations in the language model or in the simulation environment.
Despite the fact that they can raise numerous ethical and social issues, generative agents are seen as a step into the future of AI.
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First published on: 04/14/2023 at 11:27 AM IST
