"I think personality is much more important than intelligence, don't you?"
The speaker is Galatea – a robot imbued with feminine attributes and personality in the 1999 sci-fi comedy-drama movie Bicentennial Man.
Starring Robin Williams, the movie is one of the few (Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence is another) where artificial intelligence beings sometimes come across as having more moral fibre than many of their human counterparts. Often, as with movies like the Terminator series, I Robot and Blade Runner, the AI figures carry much more of a threat to humankind.
But whereas movies and most fictional works portraying AI are set in the faraway future (A.I. Artificial Intelligence is set in the 22nd century), artificial intelligence is already part of our everyday lives and is set to play an even greater role as technology advances rapidly.
Like Toyota's YUI, a highly intelligent operating system that Toyota describes as the "soul" of the artificially intelligent car; a driving force (no pun intended) behind the coming and much-heralded era of autonomous vehicles.
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And, to trump Galatea's opinion, Toyota is developing YUI to have both intelligence and personality.
Born at Toyota's Calty Design, YUI was created around the philosophy of "kinetic warmth", a belief that technology should be warm, welcoming and, above all, fun. Toyota say YUI's energy (to be seen in 2020 on Japanese roads) pulses through the car, making itself known and using light, sound and touch to communicate with the driver.
Sound familiar? It should. That same AI-developing-human-characteristics theme is what powered most of the above movies and many others.
Artificial intelligence mimics the cognitive functions of a human – such as the ability to learn, reason and solve problems. AI becomes smarter over time as they build up a bank of knowledge, gathering information from various sources, through tracking behaviours, data input, speech or facial recognition.
Right now, in New Zealand, AI is largely undetected in our daily routines. We're most likely to encounter it in mobile phones, computers, banking systems and personalised voice assistants like Amazon's Echo.
AI is the nerve centre of the fully autonomous vehicles which we'll see on our roads in the near future and it's already present in many of the newer cars we drive today – in features like collision detection and navigation systems.
But as AI capabilities and applications race forward, one of the most difficult tasks is how to make artificial intelligence more human. To graduate to the next level of ability, these artificial agents need to acquire qualities such as emotion, empathy, warmth – essentially humanity.
Emotion and more human skills are important, because by understanding emotional states and drivers, the AI can better interpret the information given to it and make a more informed decision. The ability to display emotion (whether or not they actually experience it), also allows them to forge a better relationship with the user, further improving the quality of the information they receive, making them smarter over time.
While most of the artificially intelligent devices we connect with today are relatively emotionless, instilling humanity into its artificially intelligent concept vehicle range has been a core focus for Toyota.
Rather than simply focusing on the technical capabilities of the technology, the entire YUI experience is built around the person that sits within it. The Toyota range of intelligent cars is intended to become much more than just a vehicle – a partner, forming a relationship with driver and passengers that grows stronger over time, fusing human with machine.
However Toyota says it is important to realise the technology is not trying to re-create humans; instead by creating 'human-centred' technology it becomes a tool to serve our needs - and keeps people firmly in control.
International Data Corporation predicted last year that, by 2021, global spending on cognitive and artificial intelligence systems could reach $57.6 billion.
Just as in the movies, there are humans with divergent opinions – Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently said AI could have a more profound impact than electricity or fire.
"Thanks to Concept-i and the power of artificial intelligence, we think the future is a vehicle that can engage with people," says Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations. The AI system in the Concept-i car interacts with the driver in a "relationship that is meaningful and human.