Introduction by Yves Loiseau
The idea of conversational AI leads to 2 main questions:
- Do conversations make us smarter ?
- Is this the purpose of a conversation ?
On the 1st question, even if some episodes may lead to doubts, it seems reasonable to answer in the affirmative. On the one hand, conversation is an effective way to learn and obtain information. On the other hand, as soon as some hindsight and critical thinking are at work, we can consider that even the worst conversations can enrich us and make our mind become more refined through contact with others.
On the second question, we have to admit that our conversations are not always aimed at gaining cortical finesse, and that's good.
What would be the point of our long winter evenings, our short summer nights and our sessions at the shrink's if conversations did not also have a social, sensory, psychological and recreational role? In fact, conversation plays a role that goes far beyond its informational function. Also, conversation has taken on multiple forms and uses, from maieutic to digital chit chat, via the French literary art of the 17th and 18th centuries.
This being said, when it comes to conversations with or between machines, this preamble may seem far-fetched and one may see in conversational AI, an abuse of language. Yet, in reality, the combined progress of NLP and generative AI is amazing. Thus, robots like LaMDA are able to converse, interact and digress so well that most humans who experience it find their conversation more pleasant than that of their fellow humans.
The subject is therefore unavoidable to build a better tomorrow with machines.
In a long interview, Jakub Zavrel, entrepreneur, scientist, and connoisseur of the subject for more than 20 years, agrees to enlighten us on the strange technological path where algorithms confront us with a new otherness.
