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  • Welcome to YouTube Original Stages,

  • once home to Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose assembly hangar,

  • and home to much of the first Iron Man,

  • filmed 12 years ago.

  • Many happy memories here.

  • And speaking of taking a look back...

  • Technology.

  • It's advancing faster

  • and taking less time to be widely adopted

  • than ever before,

  • like as in it took roughly 10,000 years

  • to go from writing to printing press,

  • but only about 500 more to get to email.

  • Now it seems we're at the dawn of a new age,

  • the age of A.I...

  • Artificial Intelligence.

  • Please define.

  • [automated voice speaking]

  • Uh-huh, okay. There you have it.

  • What does it mean? I don't know.

  • Tons of folks are working on it, right?

  • Most people don't know that much about it,

  • and of course, there's no shortage

  • of data or opinions.

  • Anyway, I've heard it said

  • that the best way to learn about a subject

  • is to teach it,

  • but to level with ya,

  • I have a wildly incomplete education...

  • Not in my day job,

  • where I've been A.I.-adjacent for over a decade.

  • Anyway, I figured now would be as good a time as any

  • to catch up on the state of things

  • regarding this emerging phenomenon.

  • My sense of it is it kind of feels like

  • Pandora's box, maybe... ish?

  • Much of my understanding on this topic

  • has come from sci-fi stories,

  • which usually depict us

  • heading toward Shangri-La or dystopia.

  • Like most things,

  • I suspect the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

  • Now, along the way,

  • we'll demystify some common misconceptions

  • about things we thought we understood, but probably don't,

  • terms such as

  • "machine learning," "algorithms,"

  • "computer vision" and "Big Data,"

  • they will be conveniently unpacked

  • to help us feel like we know what we're doing,

  • kinda.

  • By the way, Pandora's box...

  • wasn't a box.

  • It...

  • was a clay jar.

  • How about that?

  • Demystified.

  • A.I. is teaching the machine,

  • and the machine becoming smart.

  • Each time we create a more powerful technology,

  • we create a bigger lever for changing the world.

  • [computer] Autonomous driving started.

  • [Downey] It's an extraordinary time,

  • one of unprecedented change and possibility.

  • To help us understand what's happening,

  • this series will look at innovators

  • pushing the boundaries of A.I...

  • No, stop!

  • [Downey] ...and how their groundbreaking work

  • is profoundly impacting our lives...

  • Yay! [laughing]

  • [Downey] ...and the world around us.

  • In this episode, we'll meet two different visionaries

  • exploring identity, creativity,

  • and collaboration between humans and machines.

  • Intelligence used to be the province of only humans,

  • but it no longer is.

  • We don't program the machines. They learn by themselves.

  • Mm. Ah. That's good.

  • All right.

  • My background's always been a mixture of art and science.

  • I ended up doing a PhD in bioengineering,

  • then I ended up in the film industry,

  • working on King Kong to Avatar,

  • simulating faces.

  • I'd got to a point in my career

  • where I'd been, you know,

  • lucky enough to win a couple of Academy Awards,

  • so I thought, "Okay, what happens

  • if we actually tried to bring those characters to life,

  • that actually you could interact with?"

  • [toddler crying]

  • Baby... Ooh.

  • [toddler fusses]

  • What can you see?

  • So "Baby X" is a lifelike simulation of a toddler.

  • Hey. Are you excited to be here?

  • She's actually seeing me through the web camera,

  • she's listening through the microphone.

  • Woo... yeah.

  • Baby X is about exploring the nature

  • of how would we build a digital consciousness,

  • if it's possible?

  • We don't know if it's possible,

  • but we're chipping away at that problem.

  • Hey, Baby. Hey.

  • [Downey] "Problem" is an understatement

  • for what Mark's chipping away at.

  • His vision of the future

  • is one where human and machine cooperate,

  • and the best way to achieve that, he thinks,

  • is to make A.I. as life-like as possible.

  • Peek-a-boo!

  • [Baby X giggling]

  • [Downey] Which is why he began where most life begins...

  • a baby...

  • modeled after his own daughter.

  • So if we start revealing her layers,

  • she's driven by virtual muscles,

  • and the virtual muscles, in turn,

  • are driven by a virtual brain.

  • Now, these are radically simplified models

  • from the real thing,

  • but nevertheless,

  • they're models that we can explore how they work,

  • because we have a real template that exists,

  • the human brain.

  • So, these are all driven by neural networks.

  • [Downey] "Neural network"

  • is a virtual, much simpler version

  • of the human brain.

  • The brain is the most complex system in our body.

  • It's got 85 billion neurons, each of which fire non-stop,

  • receiving, processing, and sending information.

  • Baby X's brain is nowhere near as complex,

  • but that's the goal.

  • Instead of neurons, it's got nodes.

  • The more the nodes are exposed to,

  • the more they learn.

  • [Sagar] What we've learned is it's very hard to build a digital brain,

  • but where we want to go with it

  • is we're trying to build a human-like A.I.

  • which has a flexible intelligence

  • that can relate to people.

  • I think the best kind of systems

  • are when humans and A.I. work together.

  • One of the biggest misconceptions of A.I.

  • is that there is a super-intelligent being,

  • or what we call a generalized A.I.,

  • that knows all, can do all,

  • smarter than all of us put together.

  • That is a total misconception.

  • A.I. is built on us.

  • A.I. is mimicking our thought processes.

  • A.I. is basically an emulation of us.

  • [Downey] Like visionaries before him, Mark's a dreamer.

  • The current state of his moonshot, however,

  • is a little more earthbound.

  • [computer] Thank you for granting access

  • to your microphone. It's good to hear you.

  • [Downey] Today, most avatars

  • are basically glorified customer-service reps.

  • [service avatar] Rest assured,

  • your health is my primary concern.

  • [Downey] They can answer simple questions

  • and give scripted responses.

  • I love helping our customers,

  • so I'm keen to keep learning.

  • [Downey] Beats dealing with automated phonelines for sure,

  • but it's a far cry from Mark's ultimate vision...

  • [Sagar] Hey, Baby. Hey.

  • [Downey] ...to create avatars that can actually learn,

  • interpret, and interact with the world around them,

  • like a real human.

  • What's this?

  • Spider.

  • So we're starting to get a spider forming in her mind here,

  • she's starting to associate the word with the image.

  • So, Baby... spider.

  • Spider.

  • Spider...

  • Good! Okay, what's this?

  • [Baby] Spider.

  • No. This is a duck.

  • Look at the duck.

  • [Baby] Duck.

  • [Sagar] Yeah.

  • [Downey] Baby X uses a type of A.I. called "object recognition."

  • Basically, it's how a computer sees...

  • how it identifies an object, like a spider,

  • or tells the difference between a spider and a duck.

  • It's something that you and I do naturally...

  • ...but machines, like Baby X, need to learn from scratch,

  • by basically sifting through enormous piles of data

  • to search for patterns,

  • so that eventually, it can drive a car,

  • or pick out a criminal in a crowded photograph,

  • or tell the difference between me and... that guy.

  • [Sagar] But now I'm gonna tell her that spiders are scary.

  • Look out! Rawr! Scary spider! Rawr!

  • [crying]

  • Hey, hey. Don't cry. It's okay. Hey...

  • [Baby crying]

  • Hey, it's okay.

  • Now she's responding emotionally to me as well,

  • so we've gone all the way down

  • to virtual neurotransmitters, hormones, and so forth,

  • so Baby X has a stress system.

  • If I give her a fright...

  • Boo!

  • So we'll see basically

  • some noradrenaline was released then,

  • and she's gone into a much more vigilant state of mind.

  • [Downey] What Mark is working on

  • is known as "affective computing,"

  • A.I. that interprets and simulates human emotion.

  • I believe that machines are gonna interact with humans

  • just the way we interact with one another,

  • through perception, through conversation.

  • So as A.I. continues to become mainstream,

  • it needs to really understand humans,

  • and so we want to build emotion A.I.

  • that enables machines to have empathy.

  • Hello, Pepa.

  • -Hello. -[man] Hello.

  • -Hello. -Hello.

  • -Hello. -[laughing]

  • Oh, dear.

  • -We can do this forever. -I know we could. [laughs]

  • [Howard] They've showed, for example,

  • older adults who have A.I. aides at their nursing homes,

  • they are happier

  • with a robot that emotes and is social

  • than having no one there.

  • That's really the enhancement of human relationships.

  • [Sagar] Hey... Hello.

  • You know, human cooperation

  • is the most powerful force in human history, right?

  • Human cooperation with intelligent machines

  • will define the next era of history.

  • Using a machine which is connected

  • with the rest of the world through the Internet,

  • that can work as a creative, collaborative partner?

  • That's unbelievable.

  • [will.i.am] Jessica. Jessica. One more time, one more time.

  • We're gonna go from just the first two verses,

  • and the first two verses

  • will take us to three minutes, okay?

  • I love music.

  • The whole concept of music is collaboration,

  • so if there are some people that see me as a musician,

  • that's awesome.

  • I first became interested in A.I.

  • because A.I. is a very fruitful place to create in.

  • It's a new tool for us.

  • I dream, and make my dreams reality,

  • whether the dream is a song

  • or the dream is an avatar of myself.

  • One time, a friend was like, "Well, you can't clone yourself.

  • You can't be in two places at once."

  • That's the promise of the avatar.

  • I left it over there.

  • All right, here we go.

  • [Sagar] So, you're about to enter the Matrix.

  • I'm gonna sort of direct you through just a bunch of poses.

  • [will.i.am] The team from Soul Machines

  • is here to create a digital avatar of myself.

  • They had to put me in this huge contraption

  • with these crazy lights.

  • What do you want me to do?

  • [Sagar] Your face is an instrument.

  • All the wrinkles on the face is like a signature,

  • so we want to get

  • the highest-quality digital model of you that we can.

  • Okay. [chuckles]

  • [Sagar] Yeah, that's perfect. Okay, go.

  • [rapid shutters snapping]

  • [Sagar] So we have to capture all the textures of their face.

  • The geometry of their face...

  • Big, gnashy teeth.

  • How their face deforms

  • to form the different facial expressions.

  • And how about a kiss?

  • You could do...

  • With my eyes closed?

  • 'Cause I don't kiss with my eyes open.

  • Every once in a while, I peek.

  • [cameras snapping]

  • I wanted to have

  • a digital avatar around the idea of Idatity,

  • and that's the marriage of my data and my identity.

  • Everyone's concerned about, like, identity theft.

  • Meanwhile, everybody's giving away all their data for free

  • on the Internet.

  • I'm what I like and what I don't like,

  • I'm where I go, I'm who I know.

  • I'm what I search. I am my thumbprint.

  • I am my data. That's who I am.

  • You pull your eyelids down like that.

  • We want to get that... yup.

  • [will.i.am] When I'm on Instagram and I'm on Google,

  • I'm actually programming those algorithms to better understand me.

  • Awesome.

  • In the future, my avatar's gonna be doing all that stuff,

  • because I'm gonna program it.

  • Get entertained through it, get information through it,

  • and you feel like

  • you're having a FaceTime with an intelligent entity.

  • [laughing] "Yo, check out this link."

  • "Oh, wow, that's crazy."

  • "Yo, can you post that on my Twitter?"

  • [laughter]

  • -Hey. -Hey.

  • All right, I'm the Soul Machines lead audio engineer.

  • Hopefully we'll be able to build an A.I. version of your voice.

  • After creating Will's look,

  • then we now have to create his voice.

  • For that, we actually have to capture a lot of samples

  • about how Will speaks,

  • and that's actually quite a challenging process.

  • -Shall we kick off? -Yeah, let's kick off.

  • -A'ight, boo, here we go. -Yeah.

  • I'm Will, and I'm happy to meet you.

  • I'm here to bring technology to life,

  • and let's talk about Artificial Intelligence.

  • Oops. Really? Whoa.

  • That's dope!

  • So there's so many ways of saying "dope," bro.

  • Yeah, yeah.

  • Now, how realistic is it going to be?

  • This will sound like you.

  • The sentences can be divided up into parts

  • so that we can create words

  • and build sentences, like LEGO blocks.

  • It will sound exactly like you.

  • Well, maybe we don't want to have it too accurate.

  • So you don't freak people out, maybe I don't want it accurate.

  • Maybe, there should be some type of...

  • "That's the A.I.,"

  • 'cause this is all new ground.

  • -Yeah. -Like, we've...

  • we are in an intersection of a place

  • that we've never been in society,

  • where people have to determine

  • what's real and what's not.

  • [Downey] While Mark jets back to New Zealand

  • to try to create Will's digital doppelganger,

  • Will's left waiting, and wondering...

  • can Mark pull this off?

  • What does it mean

  • to have a lifelike avatar of you?

  • A digital replicant of yourself?

  • Is that a good idea?

  • How far is too far?

  • [Domingos] We've been collaborating with machines

  • since the dawn of technology.

  • I mean, even today,

  • in some sense, we are all cyborgs already.

  • For example,

  • you use OKCupid to find a date,

  • and then you use Yelp to decide where to go, you know,

  • what restaurant to go to,

  • and then you start driving your car,

  • but there's a GPS system that actually tells you where to go.

  • So the human and the machine decision-making

  • are very tightly interwoven,

  • and I think this will only increase as we go forward.

  • [Downey] Human collaboration with intelligent machines...

  • A different musician in a different town

  • with a different approach

  • is giving the same problem a shot.

  • [Gil Weinberg] People are concerned

  • about A.I. replacing humans,

  • and I think it is not only

  • not going to replace humans, it's going to enhance humans.

  • I'm Gil Weinberg. I'm the founding director

  • of Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology.

  • [plays piano]

  • Ready?

  • In my lab, we are trying to create the new technologies

  • that will explore new ways to be expressive...

  • to be creative...

  • Shimon, it's a marimba-playing robot.

  • [playing marimba]

  • What it does is listen to humans playing,

  • and it can improvise.

  • Shimon is our first robotic musician

  • that has the ability to find patterns,

  • so, machine learning.

  • Machine learning

  • is the ability to find patterns in data.

  • So, for example, if we feed Shimon Miles Davis,

  • it will try to see

  • what note is he likely to play after what note,

  • and once it finds its patterns, it can start to manipulate it,

  • and I can have the robot playing in a style

  • that maybe is 30% Miles Davis, 30% Bach,

  • 30% Madonna, and 10% my own,

  • and create morphing of music that humans would never create.

  • [band playing tune]

  • [Downey] Gil's groundbreaking work

  • in artificial creativity and musical expression

  • has been performed by symphonies around the world...

  • ...but his innovation

  • also caught the attention of another musician...

  • Okay.

  • [Downey] ...a guy who unexpectedly pushed Gil

  • beyond enhancing robots

  • to augmenting humans.

  • [Weinberg] I met Jason Barnes about six years ago,

  • when I was just about finishing one phase of developing Shimon,

  • and I was starting to think, "What's next?"

  • [Barnes] I got my first drum kit when I was 15, on Christmas,

  • and when I lost my limb, I was 22,

  • so I was kind of used to having two limbs.

  • I started trying to fabricate prosthetics

  • to try and get me back on the kit,

  • which eventually led me to working and collaborating with Georgia Tech.

  • [playing drums]

  • [Weinberg] He told me that he lost his arm,

  • he was devastated, he was depressed,

  • music was his life,

  • and he said, "I saw that you develop robotic musicians.

  • Can you use some of the technology that you have

  • in order to allow me to play again like I used to?"

  • So that's the prosthetic arm that we built for Jason.

  • When he came to us,

  • he just wanted to be able to use sensors here

  • so he can hold the stick tight or loose.

  • I suggested "Let's do that, but also,

  • let's have two sticks.

  • One stick can operate with a mind of its own,

  • understanding the music and improvising.

  • One stick can operate based on what you tell it with your muscle,

  • and also, each one of the sticks can play 20 hertz...

  • ...faster than any humans,

  • and together, they can create polyrhythm,

  • create all kind of textures that humans cannot create."

  • All right. I think we're ready to play.

  • [all playing tune]

  • [Downey] In some ways, the robotic drum arm

  • allows Jason to play better than he ever has,

  • but it still lacks the true function,

  • or feeling, of a human hand.

  • [Weinberg] They don't provide

  • the kind of dexterity and subtle control

  • that would really allow anything.

  • [Downey] This revelation

  • drove Gil to his next innovation...

  • the Skywalker Hand.

  • Inspired by Luke Skywalker from Star Wars,

  • and created in collaboration with Jason,

  • the revolutionary tech

  • brings what was once the realm of sci-fi

  • a little closer to our galaxy.

  • [Barnes] This is just like a 3D-printed hand

  • that you can, like, download the files online.

  • [Downey] Currently, most advanced prosthetic hands

  • can't even thumbs-up or flip you the bird.

  • They can only open or grip,

  • using all five fingers at once.

  • Most of the prosthetics that are available on the market nowadays,

  • um, actually use EMG technology,

  • which stands for "electromyography,"

  • and essentially what it does is there are two sensors

  • that make contact with my residual limb,

  • and they pick up electrical signals from the muscles...

  • So again, when I flex and extend my residual limb,

  • it will open and close the hand,

  • um, and I can rotate as well,

  • but the problem with EMG

  • is it's a very vague electrical signal, so zero to 100%.

  • It's not very accurate at all.

  • The Skywalker Hand actually uses ultrasound tech.

  • Ultrasound provides an image,

  • and you can see everything that's going on inside of the arm.

  • [Downey] Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves

  • to capture live images from inside the body.

  • As Jason flexes his muscles

  • to move each of his missing fingers,

  • ultrasound generates live images that visualize his intention.

  • The A.I. then uses machine learning

  • to predict patterns,

  • letting a man who's lost one of his hands

  • move all five of his fingers individually,

  • even if he's as unpredictable as Keith Moon.

  • [Howard] The work that Gil is doing

  • is really important.

  • Gil comes from a non-engineering background,

  • which means that his technology

  • and the way he thinks about robotics

  • is actually quite different

  • than, say, the way I would think about it,

  • since I come from an engineering background.

  • And the commonality is that we want to design robots

  • to really impact and make a difference in the world.

  • [Weinberg] We were able to create a proof of concept

  • with Jason Barnes.

  • Once we discovered that we can do this with ultrasound,

  • immediately I looked at,

  • "Hey, let's try to help more people."

  • [Jay Schneider] That's okay, just leave me hanging, holding it.

  • It's not heavy or anything.

  • [Barnes] It's safe, if you want to slide it back...

  • No, no. I'm messing with you.

  • So I met Jason Barnes

  • at an event called "Lucky Fin Weekend."

  • They're a foundation that deals with limb difference.

  • There we go.

  • -Ah, all right. -And it's out.

  • [Schneider] Do you ever work on your car

  • without the hook?

  • Not really. It's just way easier and efficient for me to...

  • The hook, the hook really trips me out, though, man.

  • [Schneider] When I lost my hand,

  • it was close to 30 years ago,

  • and prosthetics were kind of stuck in the Dark Ages.

  • [rock drums and bass playing]

  • In general, they didn't really do a whole lot,

  • and even if they moved,

  • they seemed to be more passive than actually worthwhile to use.

  • I don't like to talk about my accident,

  • because I don't feel it defines me.

  • The narrative on limb-different people

  • has been the accident.

  • "This is what happened, and these are these sad things,"

  • and it becomes inspiration porn.

  • For me, for example, right, if I do something,

  • I have to, like, smash it out of the park,

  • because otherwise I feel like there's gonna be this,

  • "Oh, well, he did it good enough because he's missing his hand."

  • -Yeah, yeah. -And I'm like, "F that!"

  • Like, I want to... I'm gonna be as good or better than somebody with two hands

  • doing whatever I'm doing, you know?

  • Prosthetics, at this point in my life,

  • don't really seem like something I would want or need.

  • [Weinberg] Manual robotic prosthetics

  • have not been adopted well.

  • Amputees try them,

  • and then they don't continue to use them.

  • [Barnes] Yeah, man, you stoked to check out the lab?

  • Yeah, yeah, for sure.

  • Right now, I'm the only amputee that's ever used

  • the Skywalker Arm before.

  • Did you have... were you right-handed?

  • No, I was born left-handed, actually.

  • Oh, you lucky bastard.

  • -Yeah, I know, right? -I was right-handed.

  • [Barnes] It was extremely important

  • to get as many different people as we can in there,

  • including other amputees.

  • It's hard to find people that are amputees in general,

  • and then, like, upper-extremity amputees is the next thing,

  • and then finding people who are willing,

  • to step out of their comfort zone

  • -and then do this. -Right.

  • [Schneider] When I met Jason,

  • I found it really interesting that we had a lot in common,

  • because we were both into cars, we were both into music.

  • -Hi, Gil. -Hey. What's up?

  • -Jason. Nice to meet ya. -Nice meeting you.

  • He's a step or two ahead of me with the technology stuff.

  • [Barnes] The way this hand works is it essentially picks up

  • the ultrasound signals from my residual limb,

  • so when I move my index finger,

  • it'll move my index...

  • ring...

  • [Schneider] Wow, for the first time,

  • prosthetics are finally getting to the point

  • where they're getting pretty close

  • to actual human hand.

  • You know, it got me excited. I was like,

  • "This is the type of thing that I've been waiting for."

  • If I was ever going to try one again,

  • this would be the type of stuff that I would want to check out.

  • When I move my thumb...

  • [laughter]

  • I know from experience

  • that it's not always working perfectly.

  • It's very interesting for me to have someone else

  • who comes and tries our technology

  • to see if it can be generalized.

  • Is my arm getting warmer because you're wrapping it,

  • or does that have heat in it?

  • -It does have heat in it. -Oh, okay.

  • First thing we need, if we're gonna get Jay to try the hand,

  • is we need to get a custom-fit socket to his arm

  • that's comfortable and fits nice and snug.

  • You comfortable when they do this?

  • This is the most awkward part for me.

  • -Nah, it was kinda weird. -Ah, yeah. Yeah.

  • I was 12 years old when I lost my hand

  • and had a prosthetic for six months,

  • and pretty much ever since then, I haven't used it,

  • and it's been close to 30 years now.

  • And there's the impression of your arm.

  • That's way easier than I thought it was gonna be.

  • That's wild, yeah!

  • It may not be right for me, but this is something

  • that could really, really help people's lives.

  • It would be really cool

  • to have a hand in helping to develop the technology.

  • All right.

  • All right, ready?

  • Just slide it in.

  • Turn this... tighten.

  • [knob ratcheting]

  • How tight?

  • As tight as you can before it really hurts...

  • -Oh, really? -...because the tighter it is,

  • -the better reading we'll see. -Okay.

  • -Now we apply the probe... -Okay.

  • ...so it can read your movements.

  • Now we also

  • have to work on the algorithm and the machine learning,

  • and for this, we will need you to train.

  • Okay.

  • An able-bodied person, when you move your finger,

  • you're not thinking about moving your finger,

  • you just do it, because that's how we're hardwired,

  • but, honestly, I don't really remember

  • what it was like to even have that hand.

  • [Weinberg] Even though an amputee doesn't have a thumb,

  • they still have the muscle.

  • You still have some kind of memory

  • of how you moved your fingers,

  • and you can think about moving your phantom fingers,

  • and the muscles would move accordingly,

  • and that's exactly what we use in order to, uh,

  • recreate the motion and put it in a prosthetic arm.

  • But does Jay still remember how to move fingers

  • that he didn't have for, I believe, 30 years ago?

  • Now we'll run the model,

  • and you'll be able to control the hand.

  • [chuckles] You're optimistic. I'm crossing fingers.

  • Can I cross these fingers? [laughs]

  • Is that... is that an option yet?

  • Having Jay here for a day

  • and hoping to get him to a point

  • that he controls finger by finger,

  • I'm a little concerned that it will not work

  • in such a short period of time.

  • Okay. And...

  • -Ready? -Yeah. You should try each of the fingers.

  • All right, that's the thumb...

  • -Oh, shit! -Unbelievable.

  • All right, index...

  • Yay!

  • Wow, I'm surprised.

  • Middle...

  • [Barnes] Dude.

  • Five for five?

  • -[all cheering] -All five of them!

  • -Whoa. -That's wild.

  • All right, let me do it again.

  • You're a natural, man.

  • Doesn't that feel crazy?

  • -Yeah! -Feels wild.

  • -I didn't think it'd be as good. -I didn't either.

  • He hit me in the back after it worked, so...

  • That's the first time.

  • [Schneider] It's like a game-changer, even in its infancy,

  • which is kind of insane,

  • because it can only get better from there.

  • And it's really cool to play a small part in that.

  • [Weinberg] Now we have two main goals.

  • First, you need to move your muscle or your phantom finger,

  • and immediately see response, so this is one direction of research.

  • The other direction is to make it more accurate.

  • Being able to type on a keyboard,

  • use a computer mouse, uh, open a water bottle,

  • things like that that most people take for granted.

  • It's kind of like a... you know, sci-fi movie, soon to be written.

  • -[laughter] -Give us five, right?

  • That's awkward... oh, robot to robot hand.

  • Nice!

  • -That's... that was real, right? -Yeah.

  • If I find out you guys had a button under that desk...

  • No, nah, I promise. I promise.

  • [Downey] What began as one man's pursuit

  • to innovate music through A.I. and robotics

  • unexpectedly became something much greater.

  • A human body cooperating with a bionic hand

  • is one thing...

  • but is it possible to humanize a machine

  • to the point that it truly seems lifelike?

  • Or is that still sci-fi, and far, far away?

  • [Greg] How did things go with Will?

  • [Sagar] You know, one of the real challenges there

  • was just getting enough material

  • that we could actually come back with.

  • We can't possibly capture somebody's real personality,

  • you know, that's impossible,

  • but in order for it to really work,

  • it's really important to capture a feeling of Will.

  • Right, so...

  • [Downey] Will's avatar is actually Mark's first go

  • at creating a digital copy of a real person.

  • Wow, that's looking pretty good.

  • [Downey] He's not just trying to clone a human,

  • by any stretch,

  • but trying to create an artificial stand-in

  • that's somewhat believable.

  • Still, like most firsts, it's bumpy,

  • and it's a cautious road into the unknown.

  • [tech] A big challenge that I've found

  • while I've been looking through a lot of the images

  • is it seems that Will was moving a lot during the shots.

  • [Colin Hodges] Okay. When we're building digital Will,

  • we have about eight artists on our team

  • that come together

  • and pull all of the different components

  • to bring together this real-time character

  • that's driven by the artificial intelligence

  • to behave like Will behaves.

  • Big challenges we've got

  • is how we create Will's personality.

  • Yeah. Like, the liveliness

  • and the energy that he generates,

  • and the excitement.

  • The facial hair was a challenge.

  • Because it's so sparse, it's quite tricky to get

  • the hair separated from the skin.

  • [Sagar] We have to be able to synthesize

  • the sort of feel that you're interacting with Will.

  • So, Teah, I've got some stuff to hear.

  • We've got 16 variations.

  • -16 variations? -Yeah.

  • [Sagar] We take the voice data that we've got,

  • and then we can enable the digital version of Will

  • to say all kinds of different things.

  • [digital Will] Here's the forecast.

  • Yo, check out the forecast.

  • Yo, check out the weather and shit.

  • Here's the weather. Check out the weather.

  • Yah, 'bout to make it rain!

  • Kinda.

  • [Sagar] That's fantastic... the words,

  • the delivery, emphasis...

  • Shows you just how complex people react.

  • [will.i.am] It's awesome where we are in the world of tech.

  • Scary where we are, as well.

  • My mind started thinking, like, "Wait a second here.

  • Why am I doing this?

  • What's the endgame?"

  • Because, eventually, I won't be around,

  • but it would.

  • [Downey] Will's endgame is more modest than Mark's:

  • a beefed-up Instagram following, a virtual assistant,

  • anything that might help him expand his creative outlets

  • or free up time for more creative or philanthropic pursuits.

  • Okay, so, here we go.

  • That's looking really different.

  • It's gonna be really interesting,

  • because, you know, it's not every day

  • you get confronted with your virtual self.

  • Right.

  • Does he feel that this is like him?

  • If it's not representative of him

  • or if he doesn't think it's authentic,

  • then he won't want to support it.

  • -What up, Mark? -Oh, hey, how are you?

  • -You can see me, right? -Yes.

  • Yo, wassup? This is will.i.am.

  • [laughing]

  • [Sagar] This is the new version of you.

  • We can give him glasses there.

  • [will.i.am laughs] That's awesome.

  • I remember I had a pimple on my face that day. You captured it.

  • The good thing is, it's digital,

  • and we can remove it really easily.

  • How come you didn't remove that? [laughs]

  • [Sagar] You can make him do a variety of things.

  • Let's play "Simon Says."

  • Say, "I sound like a girl."

  • I sound like a girl.

  • Say that with a higher pitch.

  • [high voice] I sound like a girl.

  • Raise your eyebrows.

  • Poke out your tongue.

  • [Will laughs]

  • [will.i.am] Tell me about growing up in Los Angeles.

  • I was born and raised in Boyle Heights,

  • which is west of east Los Angeles,

  • which is east of Hollywood.

  • Just east of downtown.

  • [will.i.am] Should it sound exactly like me?

  • Nope.

  • Should it sound a little bit robotic?

  • Yes. It should.

  • For my mom.

  • My mom should not be confused.

  • What's your name?

  • [in Spanish] Mi nombre es Will.

  • [in English] You speak Spanish?

  • I don't know.

  • [laughing]

  • I know it needs some fine-tuning,

  • but the way it's looking so far

  • is mind-blowing.

  • Thanks, Mark.

  • Yeah, no worries.

  • [Sagar] How far do you go down that path

  • until you can label it a living...

  • a digital living character?

  • This raises some of the deepest questions

  • in science and philosophy, actually,

  • you know, the nature of free will.

  • How do you actually

  • build a character which is truly autonomous?

  • Peek-a-boo!

  • [Baby X giggles]

  • What is free will? What does it take to do that?

  • [Weinberg] Artificial Intelligence

  • is crucial to the work we are doing,

  • to inspire, to surprise,

  • to push human creativity and abilities

  • to uncharted domains.

  • [all cheering]

  • Unbelievable.

  • [playing drums]

  • [Downey] Free will...

  • ...it's something we've been grappling with

  • for thousands of years, from Aristotle to Descartes,

  • and will continue to grapple with for a thousand more.

  • Will we ever be able to make an A.I.

  • that can think on its own?

  • A second, artificial version of me

  • that is truly autonomous?

  • A Robert that can actually think and feel on his own,

  • while this Robert here takes a nap?

  • [engines roaring]

  • Impossible?

  • Well, when you consider

  • what human cooperation has already accomplished...

  • a man on the moon...

  • decoding the human genome...

  • discovering faraway galaxies...

  • I'd put my money on dreamers like Mark and Gil

  • over the "Earth is flat" folks any day.

  • Until then... nap time.

  • [man 1] Look at our world today.

  • Look at everything we've created.

  • Artificial Intelligence is gonna be

  • the technology that takes that to the next level.

  • [man 2] Artificial Intelligence can help us

  • to feed the world's population.

  • [man 3] The fact that we can find where famine might happen,

  • it's mind-blowing.

  • These are conflict areas,

  • this is an area that we need to look at protecting.

  • Then launch A.I.

  • [man 4] We are going to release the speed limit on your car.

  • Tim, can you hear me?

  • [man 5] With A.I.,

  • ideas are easy, execution is hard.

  • [Domingos] What excites me the most about where we might be going

  • is having more super-powers...

  • [firefighter] I got him!

  • [Domingos] ...and A.I. is super-powers for our mind.

  • [man 6] Even though the limb is synthetic materials,

  • it moves as if it's flesh and bone.

  • [woman 1] You start to think about a world

  • where you can prevent disease before it happens.

  • [man 7] A.I. can give us that answer

  • that we've been seeking all along...

  • "Are we alone?"

  • Bah!

  • [man 8] I love the idea that there are passionate people

  • dedicating their time and energy

  • to making these things happen.

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