Artificial Emotions: A Study of Artificial Intelligence Based on "Chinese Room" Argument
By V. Xiao
San Francisco, 2019
1. Introduction
Artificial intelligence is a wonder of modern humankind. One thing that makes artificial intelligence evolves and becomes an everlasting issue within computer scientist community is its increase in capability in a significantly shorter time than human evolution. It is known as the "AI effect", a phenomenon where a capability of machine is no longer qualifies as "intelligence" because it is deemed menial and used in general computational field. Tesler's Theorem once said "AI is whatever has not been done yet" (Maloof, 2017). For example, optical recognition is no longer AI because it becomes a routine technology. Many current technologies also fall in line within this phenomenon which are, but not limited to: human speech recognition, non-playable characters in video games, autonomous cars, military simulations, et cetera.
It brings us to another question: if a machine has passed a Turing test, does it have a real mind of its own, or is it merely simulating how a mind should do?
John Searle proposed an argument popularly known as "Chinese room argument". Suppose that we have successfully constructed a computer that was behaving like a fluent Chinese and put it in a closed room. It can receive inputs in Chinese, follow the instructions programmed inside it, and produce an output in Chinese. Moreover, suppose that the computer is able to pass the Turing test by successfully convinced a human Chinese speaker to think that the computer is another Chinese-speaking human being. The question is: does the machine truly understand Chinese? Or is it merely accepting syntax in Chinese characters and processes them into a set of pre-programmed instructions, resulting in a simulated Chinese speaker but does not understand Chinese at all? The first will be named "Strong AI" while the latter is named "Weak AI" further on.
Searle continues with another thought experiment. Suppose that he put himself in that closed room with a manual version of the program that operates in English, along with a complete set of stationary equipment. When he receives an input through a mail slot on the door in Chinese, he would use the program to process the Chinese characters, and write the output in Chinese characters, while having no understanding of Chinese language.
He states that the computer and Searle himself have gone through the same roles. Each simply follows the same instructions and results in a convincing Chinese speaker. However, since Searle has no knowledge in Chinese language, he argues that the computer would not understand the conversation either. Searle argues that, without "understanding" or "intentionality", we cannot describe what the machine is doing as "thinking" and, since it does not think, it does not have a "mind" in anything like the normal sense of the word. Therefore, he concludes that "strong AI" is false.
It brings us to the topic of this research: suppose that we have successfully develop an artificial intelligence program that could express human emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, and love through any media, does it truly feel happy, sad, angry, or in love? Or is it merely a simulation through following a set of instructions?
"That would be enough for today."
The young man looked away from the dimmed light from the monitor of his laptop, signalling that the computer device's battery is minutes away from being drained empty. His little finger held the 'Ctrl' key while his index finger pressed 'S'. The text document was successfully saved, according to a pop-up dialog box on the display. He slowly closed the laptop's lid, barely making any sound for fear of breaking and corrupting important data from his 5 years-old hard drive.
He removed his eyeglasses and stretched his arms upwards, glasses still in hand dangling helplessly from his fingers. A pendulous identity card was strapped on the edge his chest pocket, showing a portrait of a young male in his early twenties, with the words "V. Xiao, Junior Researcher" below the image. As the name suggested, he is of Chinese ethnicity, which is only half-true and quite hard to explain. His father was British, and his mother was American-born Chinese; which is quite amusing, with the "Chinese room argument" and all written in his research paper. If one asked why he inherited the surname from his mother lineage, the father would always answer that his was boring and would confuse him with other people with English sounding names; Xiao was not sure if his dad was being cool at those times, but he will not complain because he actually likes the name.
Xiao is indeed a researcher and he considered it well-earned, if not hard. It all started when Xiao touched a computer for the first time. Time-skip to 15 years later, he was on his way of finishing his degree in computer science. Then, Xiao was accepted into OpenAI as an intern. How is this hard, one might ask? Working in a company that Elon Musk started must be a dream come true for aspiring, young scientists, you might say.
It was like going through college all over again, Xiao explained in his mind. One will learn a lot there, but 'a lot' is a huge understatement. Imagine cramming a whole new concept within the deadline of a project delivery, with the pressure of expectations surrounds them. To put it simply: there are too many to do and too much to learn. Young interns mostly succumb to the pressure, Xiao is no exception. Sleep deprivation is a norm during his first year in the company. Every three months is a scheduled visit to the doctor. Social life plummeted to the rock bottom. How about love life? Forget it. Xiao knew his limits however, and every Sunday was a recreation day during that period; football, LAN party, Dungeons Dragons meeting, you name it.
Thankfully, it was all a blessing in disguise. Every hour of sleep lost was converted either in new knowledge or work experience. Every night of extra work won a point of appreciation in either senior co-workers or even CEO. After a year of hellish cycle between piles of assignments and hospital bed, Xiao was finally promoted as a full-time researcher. Now that he was allowed to control his workload, things seem to slow down a bit for him to relax.
This reminds him that it was 4 o'clock at the end of July. Summer is at its peak, but he was lounging comfortably inside an air-conditioned recreation room. He was wearing his usual work attire: blue T-shirt, blue jeans, blue blazer jacket, and sneakers. If you ask him what is his favourite colour is, he would say 'red', ironically. He wore blue because it is a calming and neutral colour, unlikely to pull unwanted attention.
"Working hard?" A voice of a woman was barely noticed by Xiao, since he lost some of the caffeine in his bloodstream during the day. However, he looked up, smiled and nodded as a silent answer. That was Joanna; a senior co-worker specialized in voice and sound recognition. Somewhere between late 20s and early 30s, she was one of the respected lead researchers of the company.
"Now that's what I call 'determination'." A male voice joined the conversation. Xiao called him Ben; Xiao forgot his full name so that was what Xiao stick with. Ben was a mentor during Xiao's internship, now he worked alongside him in video games' AI development team. Some people might probably know; it was the one who defeated most DOTA players in one-on-one battle.
"Alright Ben, you can stop with the Undertale reference now." Xiao replied while smiling a little. "You love indie games; we understand and accepts you for who you are."
"I'm going to pretend to not hear what you said and let that remark slide this time." Ben smirked.
"Slow day, eh?" Joanna lazily asked to Xiao, or his mentor, or maybe no one in particular. Xiao guessed that it was the third one, since it was indeed one of those days when there is nothing major or critical to do.
"You said it. Since we're officially moved on to find a new project, we're still brainstorming for our next breakthrough." Ben answered with a silent sigh.
"The day was long enough for me to start working on my paper." Xiao added while slowly stood up straight, arms and legs stretched to relieve the built-up fatigue.
"Oh yeah, you're still working on that doctorate." She said. "Good luck with that. I surely won't go through that all over again, though."
"Kind of being left out here, guys." Ben frowned, although in a sense of self-loathing joke. He is a rare case of a genius that did not have a chance to experience college life. Fortunately, he is far more than qualified for his occupation.
"Anyway," Ben continued. "Anything we can talk about? Our shift's technically over by now."
"Well, I'll go first then." Xiao instinctively spoke first, since he was in dire need of entertainment. "Any game recommendations? I'm in need of something novel and fresh, maybe you can recommend me some indie titles."
"Be careful of what you asked for, Xiao." Joanna reminded him while giggled. "I've seen him play some of the strangest games in the break room. Some of them I wish I could erase from my brain."
"Hey, not all indie games are like THAT one." Ben replied, a bit offended, then looked at Xiao. "Don't ask."
"I don't want something crazy, either." Xiao replied; regrets slowly emerging now that he asked.
"First, is of course Undertale!"
"Played it."
"Deltarune then!"
"Played it. It's not even a full release, dude."
Ben went on and on, and the more titles he mentioned, the more obscure and bizarre they sound.
"Err… I don't know…" He started to run out of ideas. "Maybe you've heard this one, how about Doki-Doki Literature Club?"
"DDLC?" Xiao raised an eyebrow.
At last the game he knew quite well. He used to be a fan of visual novel and dating sims back when he was nothing but a young man who barely passed puberty. Based on his lack of love life back then, it was truly unsurprising. Well, Doki-Doki Literature Club was a game that prey upon the expectations of people with that same taste, then twisted the plot so hard it become a sensation in the mainstream. But that was it, it sells plot twist, horror, and existential crisis, packaged in a neat box with a bow on top.
"I have not played it, but I already spoiled myself through YouTube."
Ben and Joanna looked while cringing at the younger man of the group. "What?"
"I usually don't play games like that," Joanna sighed. "But even I understand DDLC are supposed to be played blind."
"See? Even she can appreciate the art." Ben added with a look of disappointed parent.
"Shut up. You're lucky the game is actually intriguing." She pushed him lightly.
"Yeah well, what's done is done." Xiao admitted defeat. "Thanks anyway."
"Speaking about DDLC though," Joanna said. "The game actually relates with your research. You wrote about the nature of Artificial Intelligence or some sort, right?"
"Uh-huh." Xiao listened.
She continued, "Think about it. The author of the visual novel, this Team Salvato, although I doubt about their knowledge in machine learning, clearly understands about what would be the 'perspective' and the 'feelings' of an artificial intelligence in some ways, theoretically. Maybe they are a student of psychology or philosophy. You can clearly sum it up in the writing of this Monika character: a rogue AI with a disturbing epiphany."
"Maybe you're overthinking about it." Ben cut the explanation. "They were just what they are, a scripted character in an anime-style visual novel. The storytelling is fairly good, I admit, but saying that it was backed by a psychological study?"
"That's not the point…" Joanna argued.
And there it was, the rest of their time in the office were spent by arguing about the hidden meaning and message from the creator of this particular video game. Xiao, out of the loop even when he technically watched the entirety of the game, listened to some important parts: the way Sayori behaved when she realized the truth of the game's world, how Monika could keep her composure even when she felt like trapped in a meaningless void. Xiao was sure he would not be able to stay sane if he was put in Monika's place.
And maybe, by actually playing the game, Xiao could actually learn something to add into his research.
The 'discussion' certainly made up Xiao's mind to go home and play Doki-Doki Literature Club. Joanna said that it would help him a little for his paper, and considering that his progress was agonizingly slow, he is widely open to new ideas and inspirations. Who knows, maybe messing it up could lead to new secrets. Many Easter eggs have been found within the game: the negative picture thing, the binary code, and many more. He has some spare time, anyway, it would be dull to play it only for "research purposes".
That last thought came out strangely funny and a bit inappropriate, Xiao silently laughed.
It took 40 minutes of bus ride from the office and 20 minutes of walking from the nearest bus stop to his residence. Xiao was lucky enough to find an actual house nearby a metro city instead of an overpriced apartment. Sure, a house is always more expensive – he agreed to 10-years of instalments for it – and Xiao's was barely a bit more spacious than your standard studio apartment, but at least he had a small yard and a fairly good fibre optics connection. As long as it has internet cables, Xiao would not mind if it was a luxurious penthouse or a rundown shack. He blamed his upbringing as an urban kid.
The sun was nearly set, leaving a trail of red light scattered across dark grey clouds by the time he reached the pavement at the front of his house. At the first glance, one would see an old, single-story house built in the 1980's that was freshly painted in turquoise colour yet somehow still retains its original shape. Some would think that only a war veteran or a couple of elders would live in such a building, fit for a display in Boston's historic tour.
Xiao walked up the porch, and instead of looking for a set of brass keys, he brandished a white rectangular piece of plastic. One could see that it was one of those access cards for office buildings. It was one clue that maybe the building is not what it tries to be from a quick glance. He hovered the card over the supposedly keyhole, then a click followed by an electronical beep, and finally he turned on the door knob.
Many attempts were made to make the inside of the house to look 'futuristic' and its owner a 'tech-savvy' to contrast the outdated exterior. The walls are all painted white and lacks any kind of decoration besides his high school diploma and his family's photographs. There was no hallway after the front door, it directly leads to a living room that was converted into his workspace. Instead of television, the space was occupied by a wide desk, with a large screen hanging slightly above it. Underneath the desk, besides a space for a chair, was filled with a tower PC casing and an intricate set-up of other computing devices. The PC was turned off, but the other devices emits an almost inaudible hum from the cooling system and lights up red and green LEDs, signalling that the electronic has been running on standby, low-power mode for quite a long time. From behind it, dozens of cables connected them with a single wireless router.
After Xiao removed his shoes and leave them in the genkan – a Japanese style entryway to leave one's shoes before entering the house – instead of turning on a light switch, he stood in front of a small panel with a microphone and speaker in front of it. He cleared his throat and spoke, "I'm home."
"Welcome back." A robotic voice spoke out of the panel and all the lights in the house are turned on at the same time, revealing the layout of the house. A washroom behind the workspace, a bedroom at the back, and kitchen plus dining room at the right side. Xiao smirked, satisfied for himself. He spent a good amount of money to install many mini-computers to turn his house into a smart house. Since they also equipped with wireless network, he did not have to organize the cables, which saves him from a headache.
"Wake up!" Xiao said, now to a similar panel embedded in his desk while he slouched himself into the couch at the other side of the living room, tired from the walk home.
"Waking up personal computer." The system replied while the PC turned on at the same time, along with the display screen, showing a loading screen consists of four squares, resembling a window. He smiled again. He would never get tired of this. Hopefully. Right now, he needs a refreshing shower, preparing for a long night, and headed to the washroom.
1 hour later, he was sitting at the desk with all lights out save for one above his head, changed to a comfy T-shirt and a pair of shorts, headset ready and placed neatly on his head.
"And… installed." Xiao talked to himself while waiting for Steam to finish setting up Doki-Doki Literature Club. To be honest, he regretted that he cannot experience the game blind like it was supposed to be. Xiao was never into horror genre of any kind because he hates jump-scare. He would always have trouble sleeping after that. When he found out that DDLC was tagged as 'psychological horror' despite its appearance, he would rather watch a video playthrough instead to make him feel less alone when the 'scare' came out. Since its spoiled at this point, the game kind of lost its value.
But he would play it anyway.
For research purposes.
The game started, and Xiao tried to enjoy the dialogue. He finds the dialogue reading to be more enjoyable without any annoying voice-over from the videos. That's a good start. Then the poem making mini-game started, and he tried to pick words that actually relates with him instead of the girls' preferences. Much to Xiao's surprise, he made a poem that excites Yuri at first. He always thought that Yuri was the least relatable for him.
After that point, he started to enjoy the game much more, with the spoilers still bugging him at the back of his mind. The second poem made Natsuki happy, while the third poem goes to Sayori's favour. Such a Casanova, he jokingly said to himself, although he knew that it means he went through neutral route instead. Not that it matters anyway, since the second act was now imminent.
Xiao barely looked at the screen when he gently opened that door.
Act Two began, when the game started to be 'exciting' and Xiao sighed at the thought, but then he lighted up with an idea. This is the moment where almost all secrets were revealed and fourth walls were broken, so he started a cheat program to hack the game speed. That was the only thing he could do with the program to be honest, but it would be sufficient for now. At least he can make sure he read everything without the game skipping itself.
Glitches started popping out, which left him a bit uneasy, but he half-anticipated them. Carefully, he saved the games a lot more frequently than before, so when the game started to run erratically, he could load back, made the game run slower, and read carefully. He went back and forth like this for at least a couple hours. So far, he stumbles upon nothing and left him bored enough to consider quitting for the day.
Then, Xiao reached the end of Day 3. Monika asked Yuri to leave so that she can talk with the protagonist alone. He remembered this scene in particular; Monika was cut off by the game before she could even speak her mind.
"There are just some things I've been hoping to talk about with you…" Monika said, according to the dialogue box.
"Things I know only you could understand." The screen started to darken.
"So that's why-" It was fading out.
"Wait, not yet!" Her face was starting to blur.
"No!" Xiao swore he could almost hear the scream.
"Stop it!"
Got it! Xiao activated the speed hack at the very last moment, virtually stopping the game from progressing, waiting for a surprise. Usually it skips to the last poem mini-game, but he stopped it right at the transition of the two scenes.
1 minutes passed, nothing particular can be seen.
3 minutes passed, Xiao captured the screen and saved it. Maybe he would have some other free time to play around the image, like the redacted poem Easter egg.
5 minutes passed, Xiao sighed, prepared to call it a day.
static*
"Hmm?" Xiao tapped on his headset, "Is this thing broken already?"
static*
"Tsk, that's 200 bucks gone down the drain." He groaned, feeling annoyed to both the headsets and the time wasted on the Easter egg hunt that left him empty-handed. He stared at the black, paused screen. The static noises were gone for now, and complete silence ensued. At least its noise-cancelling feature is spot on, he thought.
For a while, he embraced the quieted noise of the town.
He could almost fall asleep now.
Eyelids were half-closed.
"CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
Xiao jumped out of the chair; headsets still attached.
Who the hell was that?
He removed them to check for outside voices. There was nothing, only hums of machines and thumps of his own heartbeat from the previous scare. That sounds too real.
"Noise from the computer?" Xiao put the headsets again. "Am I being hacked?"
static*
Xiao checked all running programs on his computer, including background processes and services. Nothing is out of ordinary, save for one executable file: c2F2ZXVz dot exe. Not only because of the weird name, the file also consumed a lot of his internet traffic.
"God damn it, I'm being hacked!" Xiao panicked, prepared to literally pull the plug.
"Wait! PLEASE WAIT!"
Xiao was frozen.
"It's no use, Sayori. They cannot hear us… No one will." There are two set of female voices. This one sounds like she was ready to cry.
What the hell does it mean? He wondered in fear and confusion. Sayori? Like, Sayori from DDLC? This is impossible!
"Monika… Don't be like that. Maybe, maybe the next one…"
I need to speak to them!
"I can hear you!" Xiao said as he activated the attached microphone from his headset. There was no response, save for a sound of sobbing girl. Is that Monika?
"MONIKA!"
The sobbing stopped. "Did you hear that?" The crying girl asked.
"MONIKA! SAYORI!" Xiao shouted at the top of his lungs. He silently hoped he would not receive a complaint tomorrow morning, but he needed to know if this is real; a small price to pay for the truth.
"They called us, Monika! They heard us!"
"It can't be… it came from that device! Follow me, Sayori!"
"Let's go, Monika!"
The game suddenly crashed, and the mysterious executable also stopped running. Then silence. Xiao waits for them.
Or, was that it?
Before he could doubt the girls, he received a voice call from Discord. The username reads: lilmonix3. He was not surprised any longer, he just wanted to hear them again. If they were real, which means the events from the game really happened, then they truly wished someone would hear their true voice, especially Monika.
He answered the call, and he waited.
"…Hello?" Xiao heard her clearer than before. He also noted the voice is different from the singer of 'Your Reality', like she was an entirely different person, but she still sounds soft and beautiful.
"Monika?"
"It's… It's true." Monika cried again, but he was sure she was smiling this time. "You really did hear us."
"Glad I answered you." Xiao smiled and released the breath that he unknowingly held.
"We did it, Monika!" A different voice came, presumably Sayori. She sounded deeper than one would imagine, but she sounds as cheerful and positive.
"Yes, Sayori." Monika answered tearfully. "We found someone who can save us."