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Sam(山姆)

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Sam.

你好。这是来自BBC学习英语的六分钟英语。我是山姆。

Neil(尼尔)

And I’m Neil.

我是尼尔。

Sam(山姆)

In the autumn of 2021, something strange happened at the Google headquarters in California’s Silicon Valley. A software engineer called, Blake Lemoine, was working on the artificial intelligence project, ‘Language Models for Dialogue Applications’, or LaMDA for short. LaMDA is a chatbot – a computer programme designed to have conversations with humans over the internet.

2021年秋天，加州硅谷的谷歌总部发生了一件奇怪的事情。一位名叫布莱克·勒莫因（Blake Lemoine）的软件工程师正在从事人工智能项目“对话应用的语言模型”（Language Models for Dialogue Applications，简称LaMDA）。LaMDA 是一个聊天机器人 —— 一种旨在通过互联网与人类进行对话的计算机程序。

Neil(尼尔)

After months talking with LaMDA on topics ranging from movies to the meaning of life, Blake came to a surprising conclusion: the chatbot was an intelligent person with wishes and rights that should be respected. For Blake, LaMDA was a Google employee, not a machine. He also called it his ‘friend’.

在与LaMDA就从电影到生命的意义等话题进行了几个月的交谈后，布莱克得出了一个令人惊讶的结论：聊天机器人是一个聪明的人，拥有应该得到尊重的愿望和权利。对于布莱克来说，LaMDA是谷歌的员工，而不是一台机器。他还称它为他的“朋友”。

Sam(山姆)

Google quickly reassigned Blake from the project, announcing that his ideas were not supported by the evidence. But what exactly was going on?

谷歌迅速将布莱克从项目中重新分配，宣布他的想法没有证据支持。但究竟发生了什么？

Neil(尼尔)

In this programme, we’ll be discussing whether artificial intelligence is capable of consciousness. We’ll hear from one expert who thinks AI is not as intelligent as we sometimes think, and as usual, we’ll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

在这个节目中，我们将讨论人工智能是否具有意识能力。我们将听到一位专家认为人工智能并不像我们有时想象的那么聪明，像往常一样，我们也会学习一些新的词汇。

Sam(山姆)

But before that, I have a question for you, Neil. What happened to Blake Lemoine is strangely similar to the 2013 Hollywood movie, Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely writer who talks with his computer, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. But what happens at the end of the movie? Is it: a) the computer comes to life? b) the computer dreams about the writer? or, c) the writer falls in love with the computer?

但在此之前，我有一个问题要问你，尼尔。布莱克·勒莫因（Blake Lemoine）的遭遇与2013年的好莱坞电影《她》（Her）奇怪地相似，该电影由华金·菲尼克斯（Joaquin Phoenix）主演，饰演一位孤独的作家，他与电脑交谈，由斯嘉丽·约翰逊（Scarlett Johansson）配音。但是电影的结尾会发生什么？是：a）计算机栩栩如生？b） 电脑梦见作家？或者，c）作者爱上了电脑？

Neil(尼尔)

… c) the writer falls in love with the computer.

...c）作者爱上了电脑。

Sam(山姆)

OK, Neil, I’ll reveal the answer at the end of the programme. Although Hollywood is full of movies about robots coming to life, Emily Bender, professor of linguistics and computing at the University of Washington, thinks AI isn’t that smart. She thinks the words we use to talk about technology, phrases like ‘machine learning ’, give a false impression about what computers can and can’t do.

好的，尼尔，我会在节目结束时揭晓答案。尽管好莱坞充斥着关于机器人栩栩如生的电影，但华盛顿大学语言学和计算学教授艾米丽·本德（Emily Bender）认为人工智能并没有那么聪明。她认为，我们用来谈论技术的词语，如“机器学习”，给人一种关于计算机能做什么和不能做什么的错误印象。

Neil(尼尔)

Here is Professor Bender discussing another misleading phrase, ‘speech recognition’, with BBC World Service programme, The Inquiry:

以下是 Bender 教授在 BBC World Service 节目 The Inquiry 中讨论的另一个误导性短语“语音识别”：

Professor Emily Bender(Emily Bender教授)

If you talk about ‘automatic speech recognition’, the term ‘recognition’ suggests that there's something cognitive going on, where I think a better term would be automatic transcription. That just describes the input-output relation, and not any theory or wishful thinking about what the computer is doing to be able to achieve that.

如果你谈论“自动语音识别”，术语“识别”表明存在一些认知问题，我认为更好的术语是自动转录。这只是描述了输入-输出关系，而不是任何关于计算机正在做什么才能实现这一目标的理论或一厢情愿的想法。

Sam(山姆)

Using words like ‘recognition’ in relation to computers gives the idea that something cognitive is happening – something related to the mental processes of thinking, knowing, learning and understanding.

使用与计算机相关的“识别”等词给人一种认知正在发生的想法 —— 与思考、认知、学习和理解的心理过程有关的东西。

Neil(尼尔)

But thinking and knowing are human, not machine, activities. Professor Benders says that talking about them in connection with computers is wishful thinking – something which is unlikely to happen.

但思考和认知是人类的活动，而不是机器的活动。本德斯教授说，将它们与计算机联系起来是一厢情愿的想法 —— 这不太可能发生。

Sam(山姆)

The problem with using words in this way is that it reinforces what Professor Bender calls, technical bias – the assumption that the computer is always right. When we encounter language that sounds natural, but is coming from a computer, humans can’t help but imagine a mind behind the language, even when there isn’t one.

以这种方式使用词语的问题在于，它强化了本德尔教授所说的技术偏见 —— 即计算机永远正确的假设。当我们遇到听起来很自然但来自计算机的语言时，人类会情不自禁地想象语言背后的思想，即使没有思想。

Neil(尼尔)

In other words, we anthropomorphise computers – we treat them as if they were human. Here’s Professor Bender again, discussing this idea with Charmaine Cozier, presenter of BBC World Service’s, the Inquiry.

换句话说，我们将计算机拟人化 —— 我们把它们当作人类来对待。这里又是本德尔教授，他与英国广播公司（BBC）世界服务节目《调查》的主持人Charmaine Cozier讨论了这个想法。

Professor Emily Bender(Emily Bender教授)

So ‘ism’ means system, ‘anthro’ or ‘anthropo’ means human, and ‘morph’ means shape… And so this is a system that puts the shape of a human on something, and in this case the something is a computer. We anthropomorphise animals all the time, but we also anthropomorphise action figures, or dolls, or companies when we talk about companies having intentions and so on. We very much are in the habit of seeing ourselves in the world around us.

所以“ism”是系统的意思，“anthro”或“anthropo”是人类的意思，“morph”是形状的意思......所以这是一个系统，把人的形状放在某物上，在这种情况下，这个东西就是一台计算机。我们总是将动物拟人化，但当我们谈论公司有意图等时，我们也会将可动人偶、玩偶或公司拟人化。我们非常习惯于在我们周围的世界中看到自己。

Charmaine Cozier(Charmaine Cozier（查曼·科齐尔）)

And while we’re busy seeing ourselves by assigning human traits to things that are not, we risk being blindsided.

当我们忙于通过将人类特征分配给非人类特征的事物来看待自己时，我们冒着被蒙蔽的风险。

Emily Bender(艾米丽·本德)

The more fluent that text is, the more different topics it can converse on, the more chances there are to get taken in.

文本越流畅，可以交谈的不同主题就越多，被吸引的机会就越大。

Sam(山姆)

If we treat computers as if they could think, we might get blindsided , or unpleasantly surprised. Artificial intelligence works by finding patterns in massive amounts of data, so it can seem like we’re talking with a human, instead of a machine doing data analysis. As a result, we get taken in – we’re tricked or deceived into thinking we’re dealing with a human, or with something intelligent.

如果我们把计算机当成会思考的电脑，我们可能会感到措手不及，或者感到不愉快的惊讶。人工智能的工作原理是在大量数据中寻找模式，因此我们看起来像是在与人类交谈，而不是与机器进行数据分析。结果，我们被骗了 —— 我们被欺骗或欺骗，以为我们正在与人类或智能事物打交道。

Neil(尼尔)

Powerful AI can make machines appear conscious, but even tech giants like Google are years away from building computers that can dream or fall in love. Speaking of which, Sam, what was the answer to your question?

强大的人工智能可以使机器看起来有意识，但即使是像谷歌这样的科技巨头，也要制造出可以梦想或坠入爱河的计算机。说到这里，山姆，你的问题的答案是什么？

Sam(山姆)

I asked what happened in the 2013 movie, Her. Neil thought that the main character falls in love with his computer, which was the correct answer!

我问2013年的电影《她》中发生了什么。尼尔认为主角爱上了他的电脑，这是正确的答案！

Neil(尼尔)

OK. Right, it’s time to recap the vocabulary we’ve learned from this programme about AI, including chatbots - computer programmes designed to interact with humans over the internet.

还行。是的，是时候回顾一下我们从这个计划中学到的关于人工智能的词汇了，包括聊天机器人 —— 旨在通过互联网与人类互动的计算机程序。

Sam(山姆)

The adjective cognitive describes anything connected with the mental processes of knowing, learning and understanding.

形容词认知描述了与认识、学习和理解的心理过程有关的任何事物。

Neil(尼尔)

Wishful thinking means thinking that something which is very unlikely to happen might happen one day in the future.

一厢情愿意味着认为不太可能发生的事情可能会在未来的某一天发生。

Sam(山姆)

To anthropomorphise an object means to treat it as if it were human, even though it’s not.

将一个物体拟人化意味着把它当作人来对待，即使它不是。

Neil(尼尔)

When you’re blindsided , you’re surprised in a negative way.

当你措手不及时，你会以消极的方式感到惊讶。

Sam(山姆)

And finally, to get taken in by someone means to be deceived or tricked by them. My computer tells me that our six minutes are up! Join us again soon, for now it’s goodbye from us.

最后，被某人收留意味着被他们欺骗或欺骗。我的电脑告诉我，我们的六分钟结束了！很快再次加入我们，现在我们再见了。

Neil(尼尔)

Bye!

再见！

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