Google wants its artificial intelligence engine, otherwise known as a neural network, smarter and chatty by feeding it an array of romance novels, reports BuzzFeed News.
Over the past months, Google's AI has been consuming 2,865 bodice-ripping tales, such as Jacked Up, Ignited, Fatal Desire and Unconditional Love.
Yes, the AI has managed to read them all as the researchers developing the technology believe that this is an effective way of beefing up the engine's conversational skills and personality that it previously lacked.
"In the Google app, the responses are very factual," Google software engineer Andrew Dai told BuzzFeed News. "Hopefully with this work, and future work, it can be more conversational, or can have a more varied tone, or style, or register."
Dai leads the team that oversees this Google project along with Oriol Vinyals.
What makes the AI engine more interesting now is its ability to come up with a romance novel of its own. Dai said that theoretically, this neural network could actually pen its own sentences. In fact, the technology was able to compose sentences that resemble passages in the novels during a few tests.
While the AI has now become a romance novel writer, the main goal of the researchers behind the project is to make it even more conversational.
"It would be much more satisfying to ask Google questions if it really understood the nuances of what you were asking for, and could reply in a more natural and familiar way," Dai told The Verge in an email. "It's like how you'd rather ask a friend about what to do in a vacation spot instead of calling their visitor center."
Then why did the researchers choose erotic romance novels? Dai said these tales come with typically similar stories. They contain sentences that are alike, but written in different ways, which can help big in enriching the neural network's vocabulary. This can also make the network comprehend how the English language works as a whole.
On top of that, this very same system could likewise be used in improving Google's "Smart Reply" functionality. The feature could use the AI engine in reading blocks of text in a particular email and give out more chatty responses. The Mountain View-based company reveals that 10 percent of replies within Inbox's mobile app are using the Smart Reply feature.
In any case, the enhanced AI engine is a welcome treat for users as it should provide them a better experience down the road.
