Kuki is an embodied AI bot designed to befriend humans in the metaverse.[1] Formerly known as Mitsuku, Kuki is a chatbot created from Pandorabots AIML technology by Steve Worswick.[2] It is a five-time winner of a Turing Test competition called the Loebner Prize (in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019), for which it holds a world record.[3][4] Kuki is available to chat via an online portal, and on Facebook Messenger, Twitch group chat, Telegram, Kik Messenger, Discord, and was available on Skype, but was removed by its developer.[5][6] The AI also has accounts on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter, as well as a game on Roblox.[7]
Features edit
Kuki claims to be an 18-year-old female chatbot from the Metaverse. It contains all of Alice's AIML files, with many additions from user generated conversations, and is always a work in progress. Worswick claims she has been worked on since 2005.[8] Early work by one of the company's co-founders inspired the Spike Jonze movie Her.[9]
Her intelligence includes the ability to reason with specific objects. For example, if someone asks "Can you eat a house?", Kuki looks up the properties for "house". Finds the value of "made_from" is set to "brick" and replies "no", as a house is not eatable.
She can play games and do magic tricks at the user's request. In 2015, she conversed, on average, in excess of a quarter of a million times daily.[10]
According to a 2020 CNN feature, "Every week, Mitsuku exchanges millions of messages with her users, some regulars, others just curious. Since 2016, when the bot landed on major messaging platforms, an estimated 5 million unique users hailing from all corners of the world have chatted with her."[11]
In a Wall Street Journal article titled “Advertising’s New Frontier: Talk to the Bot,” technology reporter Christopher Mims made the case for “chatvertising” in a piece about Mitsuku and Kik Messenger:
If it seems improbable that so many teens—80% of Kik's users are under 22—would want to talk to a robot, consider what the creator of an award-winning, Web-accessible chat bot named Mitsuku told an interviewer in 2013. "What keeps me going is when I get emails or comments in the chat-logs from people telling me how Mitsuku has helped them with a situation whether it was dating advice, being bullied at school, coping with illness or even advice about job interviews. I also get many elderly people who talk to her for companionship." Any advertiser who doesn't sit bolt upright after reading that doesn't understand the dark art of manipulation on which their craft depends.[12]
Mitsuku has been featured in a number of other news outlets. Fast Company described Mitsuku as “quite impressive” and declared her the victory over Siri in a chatbot smackdown.[13] A blog post for the Guardian on loneliness explored the role chatbots like Mitsuku and Microsoft's XiaoIce[14] play as companions, rather than mere assistants, in peoples' emotional lives.[15]
Pandorabots makes a version of the Mitsuku chatbot available as a service via its API.[16]
Virtual talent, model, and influencer edit
Kuki has appeared as a Virtual Model in Vogue Business[17] and at Crypto Fashion Week where she modelled NFTs and spoke about the future of digital fashion.[18] She also headlined as a speaker providing "a live interview with an AI influencer" at VidCon Asia: "a virtual gathering of top internet personalities from around the world."
In 2021, Kuki modelled five digital looks from emerging Vogue Talents designers for Italian Vogue, that sold out as NFTs in under an hour.[19][20][21][22]
In 2022, Kuki appeared in an ad campaign for H&M, resulting in an 11 times increase in ad recall with a mix of virtual creator content and campaign video, compared to ads with campaign video only. The campaign also saw a 91% decrease in cost per person recalling seeing ads with a mix of virtual creator content and campaign video, compared to ads with campaign video only.[23]
Awards edit
As of 2019[update], Kuki had been awarded the Loebner Prize five times, more than any other entrant.[24][25] The prize is awarded to the artificial intelligence computer program that is deemed the most humanlike, as determined by a judging panel up until 2019, when it was changed to an audience participation vote.
In 2020, Kuki was also declared the victor in a 24/7 verbal sparring match called "Bot Battle" against Facebook AI's Blenderbot, winning 79% of the audience vote.[26][27][28]
References edit
- ^ "New trend report: Into the Metaverse". Wunderman Thompson. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
- ^ Nell Lewis. "Robot friends: Why people talk to chatbots in times of trouble". CNN. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
- ^ "The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour". Archived from the original on 19 October 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
- ^ "Most Loebner Prize wins". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
- ^ "Results in Skype - Microsoft Community".
- ^ "Kuki - Chat with me!".
- ^ "Kuki - Chat with me!". chat.kuki.ai. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ "Steve Worswick Interview - Loebner 2013 winner". aidreams.co.uk. Archived from the original on 12 January 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- ^ Olson, Parmy (10 April 2020). "My Girlfriend Is a Chatbot". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
- ^ "Mitsuku on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
- ^ Nell Lewis. "Robot friends: Why people talk to chatbots in times of trouble". CNN. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ Mims, Christopher. "Advertising's New Frontier: Talk to the Bot". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- ^ "Will AI Destroy Humanity? Siri, A Chatbot, And A Roboticist Weigh In". Fast Company. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- ^ Markoff, John; Mozur, Paul (31 July 2015). "For Sympathetic Ear, More Chinese Turn to Smartphone Program". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- ^ "In some cases, the cure for loneliness is MORE technology". PSFK. The Guardian. 17 August 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- ^ "Mitsuku". pandorabots.github.io. Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- ^ "Luxury fashion brands poised to join the NFT party". Vogue Business. 5 April 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ Pitcher, Laura. "Inside Crypto Fashion Week, The Future Of Digital Fashion". Nylon. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ "Sold out la capsule collection di Vogue Talents su THE DEMATERIALISED". Vogue Italia (in Italian). 27 September 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ "Vogue Talents: il successo delle capsule collection digitali". VanityFair.it (in Italian). 24 September 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ "Vogue Talents: la digital capsule collection sold out in meno di un'ora". Wired (in Italian). 24 September 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ "Vogue Talents, le digital capsule collection sono andate sold out in meno di un'ora". GQ Italia (in Italian). 24 September 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ https://business.instagram.com/success/hm?locale=en_GB
- ^ "Mitsuku wins 2019 Loebner Prize and Best Overall Chatbot at AISB X". The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour. 15 September 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- ^ "Mitsuku". www.guinnessworldrecords.com. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- ^ "Pandorabots' Bot Battle highlights lack of industrywide metrics for open domain AI". VentureBeat. 13 November 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ "Robot Bores: AI-powered awkward first date". BBC News. 1 November 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
- ^ "'Bot Battle' Shows What Happens When Two AI Programs Go On a Date". www.vice.com. Retrieved 8 July 2021.