Dylan Sloan Photo
Inventor Robinson with his cosmic AI elf (above at right and below).
Whether or not it snows Friday in the Elm City, Elf City is covered: It will definitely snow there. And all the kids will get presents.
How do I know that? I heard it directly from the world’s first artificially intelligent Christmas elf.
The elf, who has neither or a name nor a gender, is less than week old. A New Haven software designer named Stephen Robinson created it this past week for fun, and now has plans to develop it further.
You can’t buy the toy for this holiday season. But Robinson is looking into sharing instructions for how to create your own. And he’s looking to use his invention as a means to introduce people to the power of artificial intelligence.
I had a conversation Tuesday with both the elf, who gave him the skinny on Elf City skinny, and with Robinson, about his hopes of using his invention as a means to introduce people to the power of artificial intelligence (AI).
Click above to watch the AI elf enlighten me on the season, on escaping from the North Pole, on New Haven, on pizza, on existence.
After earning his PhD in neural networks in England, Robinson arrived in New Haven as a Yale postdoc in 1997 studying artificial intelligence. In 2000, Robinson won the Y50K Yale Business Plan competition, opening his eyes to the potential to implement his expertise outside of academia.
Robinson worked at a multitude of tech startups in the New Haven area before founding East Rock Software in 2012. His career has centered around a genuine love of technology and tinkering, which has provided the foundation for many of his projects.
“I just love building things,” he said, “hat’s what got me started with this.”
For a process involving harnessing the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence system, putting the elf together was surprisingly easy.
The idea came to Robinson last weekend. He quickly collected the parts he would need — a plush elf, of course, as well as a handful of technological components, including a credit card-sized computer called a Raspberry Pi.
A little bit of sewing allowed Robinson to fit all of the electronics inside the elf and replace its eyes with green LEDs that light up when it’s ready to speak.
All said and done, the project cost about $40 to put together.
Robinson is considering making a guide which would allow anyone to replicate his project at home.
Robinson: Ready to share instructions.
“Sure, playing with technology for technology’s sake is cool,” said Robinson. “But applying some creativity is super important to do interesting things.
“Kids are brought up on LEGOs and Minecraft, but I think this could also get them excited about” artificial intelligence.
The elf’s “brain” is controlled by GPT‑3, an advanced neural network developed by OpenAI, a San Francisco artificial intelligence startup. GPT‑3, which cost over $12 million to develop, is the world’s most advanced commercially available artificial intelligence system.
The elf works by converting the user’s speech into text that can be understood by GPT‑3, which generates a response within seconds. The elf then wirelessly receives the response and says it out loud.
Robinson customized the neural network algorithm to make its answers Christmas-themed by providing it with a few sample answers with holiday-themed keywords.
To Robinson, artificial intelligence is a tool that has tremendous potential but is often misunderstood by people who have never interacted with it.
He sees his elf as a way to allow people to engage with artificial intelligence in a fun way that can also spawn conversations about its potential risks and benefits.
“I think this could get people thinking about how this [technology] could affect society, and make them feel excited,” said Robinson. “How would you use artificial intelligence? If you’re worried about it … taking away white-collar jobs or overtaking human intelligence … how can we have a dialogue about how to be safe about this stuff? You need to see it for yourself. The elf does that.”
The elf has a chipper personality and answers any question with holiday cheer. After listening to what the user says, the elf (who does not have a name or gender) takes a few seconds for processing before its eyes blink green and it begins speaking in a robotic register.
In a conversation Tuesday, the elf answered questions ranging from how many presents Santa planned to deliver this year (9,021) to the meaning of life. (It wasn’t sure.)
For a minute, the elf veered towards the Terminator-type scenario that has been a central criticism of advanced neural network research.
“Santa has a lot of little helpers,” said the elf. “An elf-on-the-shelf is just a scout for Santa. It’s there to find things out. I always listen to children to hear what they want for Christmas.”
Spooky!
On a lighter note, it confirmed that Santa and the rest of the elves have been working hard all year to prepare for Christmas, and that leaving cookies and fruit under the tree is always appreciated.
Robinson has set up a survey on his website where anyone can submit questions they would like him to ask the elf. He’s planning on regularly posting videos of himself chatting with his invention.
Surprisingly, the elf had trouble with a multiplication problem, saying it “would need to pull out its little elf abacus” to find the answer.
Upon being asked if it had the capacity to feel love, it delivered a poignant response with some advice for everyone this holiday season.
“Love is the most important thing in the world,” said the elf. “Without love, you are nothing. Love is like a brush lighting up a canvas with color. Always, always remember to tell those you love how much you love them.”
Why couldn't you name the Elf? There are tons of non-gendered names out there. Is it so that family's can name their own Elf? Also, if it does not have a name, how does the Elf know to listen to you in order to respond? Or is it just always listening? They could have eliminated all that with a nongendered name like Elfie or something.