Virtual Humans: Today and Tomorrow


Virtual Humans: Today and Tomorrow (2019) .. by David Burden & Maggi Savin-Baden


Contents

List of Figures, xxi
List of Tables, xxiii
Acknowledgements, xxv
Authors, xxvii

INTRODUCTION, XXIX

SECTION I The Landscape

CHAPTER 1 • What Are Virtual Humans? 3

INTRODUCTION 3
WHAT IS A VIRTUAL HUMAN 3
EXISTING DEFINITIONS OF VIRTUAL HUMAN 5
FROM SELF-DRIVING CAR TO VIRTUAL HUMAN 6
THE TRAITS OF A VIRTUAL HUMAN 6

Physical or Digital? 7
Visual, Auditory or Textual? 7
Embodied or Disembodied? 8
Humanoid or Non-Humanoid? 9
Natural Language or Command-Driven Communication? 9
Autonomous or Controlled? 9
Emotional or Unemotional? 10
Presence of a Personality? 10
Ability to Reason? 11
Can It Learn? 11
Is It Imaginative? 12
Sentient or Non-Sentient? 12

DEMONSTRATING INTELLIGENCE? 12
A VIRTUAL HUMAN PROFILE 13
VIRTUAL HUMANOIDS AND VIRTUAL SAPIENS 14
TOWARDS A WORKING DEFINITION 16
EXAMPLES OF VIRTUAL HUMANS 17

Chatbots 17
Autonomous Agents 18
Conversational Agents 19
Pedagogical Agents 20
Virtual Mentors 20

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, MACHINE LEARNING AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 21
CONCLUSION 21
REFERENCES 22

CHAPTER 2 . Virtual Humans and Artificial Intelligence 25

INTRODUCTION 25
AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LANDSCAPE 26

Complexity and Sophistication 26
Presentation and Humanness 28
Marketing AI versus Real AI 28

THE THREE BIG CHALLENGES IN Al DEVELOPMENT 30
THE TURING TEST AND UNCANNY VALLEY 31
VIRTUAL HUMANS LANDSCAPE 32
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE VERSUS AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE 33
VIRTUAL HUMANS IN SCIENCE FICTION 33

Film and Television 33
Radio 35
Drama 36
Literature 37
Games 38

CONCLUSION 42
REFERENCES 43

SECTION II Technology

CHAPTER 3 . Body and Senses 49

INTRODUCTION 49
WHAT MAKES AN AVATAR? 49
FACIAL RENDERING 51
FACIAL AND SPEECH ANIMATION 53
HAIR MODELLING 54

Hair Shape Modelling 54
Hair Dynamics 55
Hair Rendering 55

BODY RENDERING/MODELLING 55
BODY ANIMATION/MECHANICS 56
CLOTHES AND CLOTH MODELLING 57
BODY PHYSIOLOGICAL MODEL 58
SENSES 60

Sight 61
Hearing 62
Other Human Senses 63
Data as a Sense 63
Data from a Virtual World 63
Data from a Physical World 64
Data from the Cyber-World 64

CONCLUSION 64
REFERENCES 65

CHAPTER 4 • Mind 71

UNDERSTANDING WHAT CONSTITUTES THE MIND 71
PERCEPTION 72
ATTENTION 73
APPRAISAL, EMOTION AND MOOD 75
PERSONALITY 77
MOTIVATION, GOALS AND PLANNING 79
DECISION-MAKING, PROBLEM-SOLVING AND REASONING 81

World Models 82

MEMORY 84
LEARNING 85
IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY 87
META-MANAGEMENT AND SELF-MONITORING 89
CONCLUSION 90
REFERENCES 91

CHAPTER 5 • Communications 97

INTRODUCTION 97
COMMUNICATIONS: NON-LANGUAGE MODALITIES 97
COMMUNICATIONS: LANGUAGE-BASED MODALITIES 98

Speech Recognition 98
Speech Generation (Text to Speech) 101

NATURAL LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDING AND COMMUNICATION 103

Machine Learning 105
Conversation Management 105
Uses and Future Developments 106

NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATION 107
INTERNAL DIALOGUE 109
CONCLUSION 110
REFERENCES 110

CHAPTER 6 • Architecture 115

INTRODUCTION 115
BACKGROUND 115
THE SOAR MODEL 117
ACT-R 119
SLOMAN’S H-COGAFF MODEL 120
OPENCOG 122
RODRIGUEZ’S NEUROSCIENCE MODEL 125
LIN’S EMOCOG ARCHITECTURE 126
THE FEARNOT! AFFECTIVE MIND ARCHITECTURE AND PSI MODELS 128
BECKER-ASANO’S WASABI MODEL 130
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S VIRTUAL HUMAN TOOLKIT 132
OPENAI 134
INTEGRATION STANDARDS 135
CRITIQUE AND FUTURES 135
CONCLUSION 137
REFERENCES 138

CHAPTER 7 . Embodiment 143

INTRODUCTION 143
FROM SYMBOLIC TO EMBODIED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 144
EMBODIMENT AND COGNITION 144

Intelligence and Emergence 146
Situatedness 146
Embodiment 146

GROUNDING 147
ENACTIVE Al 149
CHALLENGES TO EMBODIED Al 150
VIRTUAL HUMANS AND VIRTUAL WORLDS 151

Assessing Virtual Worlds against Brooks’ Five Principles 153
Assessing Virtual Worlds against Other Embodied Models 155

CONCLUSION 155
REFERENCES 156

CHAPTER 8 . Assembling and Assemblages 159

BUILDING A VIRTUAL HUMAN 159

The Natural Language Core 160
Memory and Knowledge 160
Problem-Solving and Decision-Making 161
Representation 161
Emotions and Motivation 162
Embodiment 162
Meta-Management and Personality 163
Its Own Life 163

HALO — A CASE STUDY 164
THE ROLES OF VIRTUAL HUMANS 166

Intelligent Speaker 167
Customer Service Chatbot 167
Personal Virtual Assistant 168
Virtual Tutor 168
Virtual Non-Player Character 168
Virtual Life Coach 169
Virtual Expert 169
Virtual Persona 170
Virtual Person 171
Digital Immortal 171
And Sentience, 171
Transhuman Space Revisited 171

VIRTUAL HUMANS THROUGH DIFFERENT LENSES 172

The Lens of Trust in Technology 173
The Species Lens 174
The Lens of Personhood 175

MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS? 176
REFERENCES 177

Section III Issues and Futures

CHAPTER 9 . Digital Ethics 181

INTRODUCTION 181
RECENT CONSIDERATIONS OF ETHICS AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 181

Robotics Ethics 181
Machine Morality and Intimacy Ethics 182
Technical and Design Ethics 184
Legal Issues 184

ETHICAL STANDPOINTS AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 185

Utilitarian 186
Deontological 186
Virtue Ethics 186 Situational Ethics 186
Discourse Ethics 186

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS 188
ETHICAL GUIDELINES AND RESEARCH 188

Ethical Behaviour 189
Ethical Practice 190
Anonymity 190
Confidentiality 190
Informed Consent 190
Minimal Risk 191
Honesty 191
Privacy 191
Plausibility 192
Research Governance 192
Disclosure 193

THE ‘HUMAN SUBJECT’ AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 193
CONCLUSION 195
REFERENCES 195

CHAPTER 10 • Identity and Agency 197

INTRODUCTION 197
RETHINKING IDENTITY 197

Dimension One: Dislocated Avatars 198
Dimension Two: Representative Avatars 198
Dimension Three: Avatars as Toys and Tools 198
Dimension Four: Avatars as Extensions of Self 199
Dimension Five: Avatars as Identity Extensions 199

FORMATIONS AND FORMULATIONS OF IDENTITY 200

Spatial Identities 200
Networked Identities 201
Bridged Identities 201
Discarded or Left-Behind Identities 202
Cyberspace and Virtual Humans 203

UNDERSTANDING AGENCY 203

Phenomenological Agency 204
Neurocognitive Agency 205
Attributed Agency 205

AGENCY AND AFFORDANCES 206
PROXEMICS 207
AGENCY AND IDENTITY 209
CONCLUSION 210
REFERENCES 210

CHAPTER 11 . Virtual Humans for Education 213

INTRODUCTION 213
LEARNING 213
NETWORKED LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING: SOME DEBATES 215

Networked Learning 215
Technology-Enhanced Learning 216
Online Learning 216
Blended Learning 216
Digital Education 217

VIRTUAL HUMANS AS INTERRUPTION AND CHANGE TO CURRENT PEDAGOGIC PRACTICES 218
USING VIRTUAL HUMANS IN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS 220

Virtual Humans as Teachable Agents 220
Virtual Humans as Teaching Assistants 220
Virtual Humans for Motivating Learning 223

LEARNING, IMMERSION AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 224
DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 224
CONCLUSION 227
REFERENCES 227

CHAPTER 12 • Digital Immortality 231

INTRODUCTION 231
BACKGROUND 231
RESEARCH AND LITERATURE 233
MODELS, CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES 233

Models of Grief 234
Digital Grief Concepts 234
Digital Grief Practices 235

FORMS OF DIGITAL IMMORTALITY 236

Digital Immortality Creators 236
Digital Immortality Recipients 236

DIGITAL LEGACY 236
DIGITAL IMMORTALITY AND VIRTUAL HUMANS 237
CREATING DIGITAL IMMORTALITY 239

Passive Updating 241
Interacting with Systems 241
Interacting with People 242
Interacting with the Physical World 242

CONSENT AND DIGITAL IMMORTALITY 242
CONCLUSION 243
REFERENCES 243

CHAPTER 13 • Futures and Possibilities 247

INTRODUCTION 247
FUTURE CAUTION 248

The Gartner Hype-Cycle 248
McLuhan’s Tetrad 249

FUTURE SCENARIOS 251

Taking Stock: Virtual Humans 2018-2030 251
Developments 2030-2050: Routes to an Artificial Mind 253
Uploading the Brain 253
The Technological Singularity 254
Developments 2050-2100 255

THE THREE CHALLENGES 257

Challenge 1: Improving Humanness 258
Challenge 2: Artificial General Intelligence 258
Challenge 3: 2100 and Onwards – Artificial Sentience and Virtual Sapiens 260

THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC CHALLENGE 263
VIRTUAL SAPIENS: THE FUTURE? 264
REFERENCES 267

GLOSSARY, 271
INDEX, 279