Introduction

Are you interested in artificial intelligence? What do you understand with this notion? There are many types of artificial intelligence, they can be seen in movies, you can read about them in the internet or in scientific literature books etc. Everyone has an own theory or understanding of it. We are now creating our artificial intelligence and we called it V.A.I.C™ - Virtual Artificial Intelligence Character. It is a computer program which is getting information from a person in a dialogue. Based on the analysis of this information, the program can answer to the person by using the needed communicational means, which enable the possibility of this conversation (e. g., chat programs or graphic interface). The main goal of the program is to learn all the possible information from a person and to create its personality based on the acquired information.

 

Theory

While the information technologies in the world are continuing to develop, also the human life style is getting significantly dependent of them. People use the computer not only for the work but also for the entertainment and in mutual contacts. Most people use chat or e-mail for these purposes. If a person is looking for new contacts or just wants to have some fun, he or she usually is using chat. Of course, people are very different in chat! Some of them can fix your mood and entertain you, another don’t live up to expectations. If you’re lucky, you find someone who fits to your mood and wishes, or you have to find a particularly educated (universal) person with a broad range of interests with whom it is possible to talk about everything. However, there are not that many universal people, especially in the virtual world. Besides, we often need to find another kind of information in the internet which would help us to answer specific questions, and this person could not give answers because of the lack of knowledge. We launched this project with the goal to invent a computer program which would be equal to this universally knowledgeable type of person. The program has to be publicly available in the internet so people using chat or another way of communication would be able to engage in conversation with the program. It would also be possible to create a virtual psychologist from the program and to adapt it so it would be able to perform specific diagnostic tests. Basically, the program should carry on positive dialogues with people and give the required educational information.

 

Project contributions and facts

The current project V.A.I.C™ will help to understand options of the artificial intelligence. V.A.I.C™ Artificial Intelligence kernel has to be able of communicating with people and analyze their personalities. The program has to create its own personality by combining these personalities. Of course, there is a lot of work to be done in order to create such program. Every new algorithm has to be embedded in the program and tested. When the algorithm is introduced, the program should be published in the internet in order to teach it and contact with it. It is important that the instruction process of the program would be carried out by people who belong to different groups: philosophers, psychologists, poets, otherwise-minded people etc. Also you have the opportunity to take part in program training and to express your own ideas, thoughts and suggestions. All the shortcomings of the program can be discovered only in a longer period of time. No doubt that with every algorithm the program gets, the required testing time for every new algorithm becomes longer. First, the program is being tested in the workgroup between the programmers and only afterwards it is published. Also it has to know at least 10 000 reactions (questions and answers) before it can be published. If the program already knows 100 000 reactions, it is harder to discover that it is a program so this is the most appropriate moment for its publishing.

 

Functional basics of V.A.I.C™

V.A.I.C™ consists of two parts – the client console and the global server. The client is the Artificial Intelligence which carries out different logical and interactive actions with information. It has an individual knowledge database which is adequate to the virtual personality. Exactly this is the part of the program one person or several people simultaneously can dialogue with. The program remembers every person it has had a dialogue with and keeps records in its memory about every one of them. It enables a continuing conversation with the same person also after a longer period of time. The server receives all the information processed and received by the client. It analyzes the incoming information and creates the knowledge base. Afterwards the clients are able to receive this information as feedback, thus creating a united knowledge base in all clients. The program is divided in two parts so that every program would not need a supercomputer. Every client uses resources of its computer. As a result the V.A.I.C™ system has a high efficiency level. Moreover, V.A.I.C™ works with the “MySQL” database server which is one of the most popular database servers in the world and provides high-speed data exchange. It would not be possible to accomplish this program without this type of server.

 

Current client program (V.A.I.C™ Codename Revolution™)

Meanwhile we have created a program which will help to analyze the dialogue between the program and a person, its options and potential errors. In the course of time it will become possible to determine which algorithms should be continued and complemented and what algorithms would be necessary to make the conversation equal to a dialogue between two persons. The console is able to run on all “Microsoft Windows” platforms and it uses as little system resources as possible. Current client “Codename Revolution™” can work (can be linked to) with IRC (Internet Relay Chat) server which enables chat (correspondence) between people and program. This type of chat can be integrated in every internet homepage and there a lot of freeware programs enabling it. It means that you can use the IRC client of our homepage or other chat clients to correspond with V.A.I.C™. In our conceit it is meanwhile the best way of introducing the program to the people. It is possible to specify all needed parameters in the client console so V.A.I.C™ could take part in chat. You can configure the most important basic functions in the console, but on the whole the program can run automatically. There are control buttons in the client console which enable the starting, temporary stopping and full shutdown of the program. The program can answer questions and react to several chat users questions (sentences) together. It is also possible to teach the program to answer questions (to program the dialogue) using simple commands, or to make the program do it all alone. The program can automatically send the information to the V.A.I.C™ Global Server after learning it and the server can teach it to other V.A.I.C™ clients as a feedback.

 

Current server program (V.A.I.C™ Global Server™)

Current V.A.I.C™ Global Server program can receive queries about V.A.I.C™ client updating and to create these updates. The server program can also receive the newly acquired information from every client which has the server address in its parameters. Server administrator is able to create new updates and to choose when the new information has to be made public to all clients. All these functions can be carried out also by the server alone.

 

Summary

Our goal is to develop an interesting and smart information database which would be controlled by artificial intelligence. This program would be able to virtually dialogue with every person and in such a way it would develop its own personality. Full and test versions of V.A.I.C™ are free to download from our homepage. Currently we are working on the version “Codename Revolution™” which is going to get improved and complemented constantly. We have our own IRC server where we are testing our programs. Also you can take part in program testing and teaching. The teaching instruction can be read in the forum. This is the only project in Latvia of this type (however, this branch is known abroad long ago). We would be glad if you could support our project in every possible way.