Generalizing Agent Plans and Behaviors with Automated Staged Observation in The Real-Time Strategy Game Starcraft

In this thesis we investigate the processes involved in learning to play a game. It was inspired by two observations about how human players learn to play. First, learning the domain is intertwined with goal pursuit. Second, games are designed to ramp up in complexity, walking players through a gradual cycle of acquiring, refining, and generalizing knowledge about the domain. This approach does not rely on traces of expert play. We created an integrated planning, learning and execution system that uses StarCraft as its domain. The planning module creates command/event groupings based on the data received. Observations of unit behavior are collected during execution and returned to the learning module which tests the generalization hypothesizes. The planner uses those test results to generate events that will pursue the goal and facilitate learning the domain. We demonstrate that this approach can efficiently learn the subtle traits of commands through multiple scenarios

Developmental Bootstrapping of AIs

Although some current AIs surpass human abilities in closed artificial worlds such as board games, their abilities in the real world are limited. They make strange mistakes and do not notice them. They cannot be instructed easily, fail to use common sense, and lack curiosity. They do not make good collaborators. Mainstream approaches for creating AIs are the traditional manually-constructed symbolic AI approach and generative and deep learning AI approaches including large language models (LLMs). These systems are not well suited for creating robust and trustworthy AIs. Although it is outside of the mainstream, the developmental bootstrapping approach has more potential. In developmental bootstrapping, AIs develop competences like human children do. They start with innate competences. They interact with the environment and learn from their interactions. They incrementally extend their innate competences with self-developed competences. They interact and learn from people and establish perceptual, cognitive, and common grounding. They acquire the competences they need through bootstrapping. However, developmental robotics has not yet produced AIs with robust adult-level competences. Projects have typically stopped at the Toddler Barrier corresponding to human infant development at about two years of age, before their speech is fluent. They also do not bridge the Reading Barrier, to skillfully and skeptically draw on the socially developed information resources that power current LLMs. The next competences in human cognitive development involve intrinsic motivation, imitation learning, imagination, coordination, and communication. This position paper lays out the logic, prospects, gaps, and challenges for extending the practice of developmental bootstrapping to acquire further competences and create robust, resilient, and human-compatible AIs.Comment: 102 pages, 29 figure

Towards Practicality of Sketch-Based Visual Understanding

Sketches have been used to conceptualise and depict visual objects from pre-historic times. Sketch research has flourished in the past decade, particularly with the proliferation of touchscreen devices. Much of the utilisation of sketch has been anchored around the fact that it can be used to delineate visual concepts universally irrespective of age, race, language, or demography. The fine-grained interactive nature of sketches facilitates the application of sketches to various visual understanding tasks, like image retrieval, image-generation or editing, segmentation, 3D-shape modelling etc. However, sketches are highly abstract and subjective based on the perception of individuals. Although most agree that sketches provide fine-grained control to the user to depict a visual object, many consider sketching a tedious process due to their limited sketching skills compared to other query/support modalities like text/tags. Furthermore, collecting fine-grained sketch-photo association is a significant bottleneck to commercialising sketch applications. Therefore, this thesis aims to progress sketch-based visual understanding towards more practicality.Comment: PhD thesis successfully defended by Ayan Kumar Bhunia, Supervisor: Prof. Yi-Zhe Song, Thesis Examiners: Prof Stella Yu and Prof Adrian Hilto

The Irresistible Animacy of Lively Artefacts

This thesis explores the perception of ‘liveliness’, or ‘animacy’, in robotically driven artefacts. This perception is irresistible, pervasive, aesthetically potent and poorly understood. I argue that the Cartesian rationalist tendencies of robotic and artificial intelligence research cultures, and associated cognitivist theories of mind, fail to acknowledge the perceptual and instinctual emotional affects that lively artefacts elicit. The thesis examines how we see artefacts with particular qualities of motion to be alive, and asks what notions of cognition can explain these perceptions. ‘Irresistible Animacy’ is our human tendency to be drawn to the primitive and strangely thrilling nature of experiencing lively artefacts. I have two research methodologies; one is interdisciplinary scholarship and the other is my artistic practice of building lively artefacts. I have developed an approach that draws on first-order cybernetics’ central animating principle of feedback-control, and second-order cybernetics’ concerns with cognition. The foundations of this approach are based upon practices of machine making to embody and perform animate behaviour, both as scientific and artistic pursuits. These have inspired embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended notions of cognition. I have developed an understanding using a theoretical framework, drawing upon literature on visual perception, behavioural and social psychology, puppetry, animation, cybernetics, robotics, interaction and aesthetics. I take as a starting point, the understanding that the visual cortex of the vertebrate eye includes active feature-detection for animate agents in our environment, and actively constructs the causal and social structure of this environment. I suggest perceptual ambiguity is at the centre of all animated art forms. Ambiguity encourages natural curiosity and interactive participation. It also elicits complex visceral qualities of presence and the uncanny. In the making of my own Lively Artefacts, I demonstrate a series of different approaches including the use of abstraction, artificial life algorithms, and reactive techniques

Millennials and the Adoption of New Technologies in Libraries through the Diffusion of Innovations Process

Purpose – Literature on the features of new technology in libraries of every type and size is readily available, but looking at the factors playing a part in the process (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability) will bring an understanding of how Millennials integrate technology into libraries. This paper seeks to discuss some of the issues involved. Design/methodology/approach – This research focuses on Millennials and their adoption of new technologies in libraries through the process of diffusion and the stages of adoption as outlined by Everett Rogers: communication through certain channels; over time; and among members of a social system. Among these sections, Millennials as innovators and early adopters are explored, as well as the five stages of the innovation decision process. Findings – Libraries have increasingly seen technology become a quick candidate as a solution to nearly every problem existing in the field. Though rapidly suggested as an alternative, the new technology is not adopted as quickly as in other sectors. However, Millennials act as change agents and bring technology-driven attitudes to work, using specific communication channels to change employee attitudes towards adoption of the new tools. Originality/value – Although applied to different fields, few studies have been conducted using the theory of diffusion in library science with a focus on innovation; rather the focus has been on technology adoption. The paper highlights how looking at the overarching trend, instead of focusing on the specifics of one single technology tool, will help researchers, administrators and practitioners understand the paradigm shift in the rapid adoption of such tools overall. Keywords – Technology, Attitudes, Communication, Technological change, Organizational change, Libraries, Change management Paper type – General revie

In search of the ideal teacher: an analysis of the representation of a teacher within the book "Uma professora muito maluquinha"

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente.This work investigates the representation of the teacher portrayed in the book "Uma professora muito Maluquinha" written by Ziraldo. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) were the main guides for the study of this fictional teacher. From CDA comes the notion proposed by Fairclough (1992a, 2001) which asserts that our system of knowledge and beliefs, social relations, and social identities are constructed and deconstructed through the discourses we are exposed to. From SFL, the system of transitivity was used to investigate the propositions of the book "Uma professora muito Maluquinha" which allowed a careful interpretation of the data. The results showed that the teacher of the story, although being called 'Maluquinha' - term that suggests a controversial character - is only controversial in relation to traditional views of schooling, which the book criticizes. Regarding more current pedagogical approaches, her teaching and learning proposal approximates one or other aspect of different tendencies, showing that her practice is culturally situated, thus pertaining to the time and context in which she is inserted. Este trabalho investiga a representação do professor retratado no livro "Uma professora muito Maluquinha", escrito por Ziraldo. Análise Crítica do Discurso (ACD) e Lingüística Sistêmico-Funcional (LSF) foram os principais guias no estudo deste professor ficcional. Da ACD vem a noção proposta por Fairclough (1992a, 2001) que afirma que nosso sistema de conhecimento e crenças, relações sociais e identidades sociais são construídos e descontruídos por meio dos discursos aos quais estamos expostos. Da LSF, utilizamos o sistema de transitividade na investigação das proposições do livro "Uma professora muito Maluquinha", a qual permitiu uma interpretação cuidadosa dos dados. Os resultados mostraram que a professora da história, embora chamada de 'Maluquinha' - termo que sugere um personagem controverso - só é controversa em relação à visão tradicional de escola, a qual o livro critica. Em relação a propostas pedagógicas mais atuais, sua proposta de ensino apresenta aspectos de uma ou outra tendência, mostrando que sua prática está culturalmente situada, pertencendo, portanto, ao tempo e contexto no qual ela está inserida