Toward Representing Emotions in the TalaMind Architecture

I skimmed the paper by Dr. Phil. Jackson on the topic of representing emotions in the TalaMind Architecture (accepted as a poster paper at the 2025 Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems) 

Toward Representing Emotions in the TalaMind Architecture | Request PDF

It triggered several ideas in my mind.  

Rather than trying to formulate and to construct a Human-like AI capable of comprehending and responding to Human Emotions, perhaps it would be more productive to concentrate on representing the Emotional Experience of a Dog - a much simpler animal; after all, the Metaphysical World of dogs, one would hope, is much simpler than that of men.

In regard to AI, I was wondering if an alteration in perspective could be more useful; viz. in thinking of (Artificial) Intelligence not as a composition or combination of various components and subsystems but as a whole, in a manner identical to our experience of Music - be it the music of songbirds or the music of humans.  Music is experienced in its totality, and it is not a collection of notes - the sheets of music are not music.

That is one thing.

The other thought that was triggered in my mind by this paper was whether a Musical approach could be used to represent Emotions in AI system, viz. via musical constructs. 

(I do not know anything about Music Theory but was recently granted a GM Patent on using music to convey environmental information (please see: U.S. Patent for Environment awareness system for experiencing an environment through music Patent (Patent # 11,929,051 issued March 12, 2024) - Justia Patents Search ) and my sense is that at the hands of a bona-fide Music Theorist, much more could be accomplished.)

There is a famous book on the subject of Emotion in Music: Emotion and Meaning in Music as well as another interesting book: Music and Embodied Cognition: Listening, Moving, Feeling, and Thinking (Musical Meaning and Interpretation): Cox, Arnie: 9780253032317: Amazon.com: Books

The paper "The Mahler Moment: How does Music Elicit Emotions?" gives a pedestrian perspective (specific to the emotional content of the music of Gustav Mahler) on the topic of Emotion and Music.

AI Articles @ the National Interest

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Archives - The National Interest

When Science Fiction Collides: Building the Future of Autonomous Systems & AI

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/when-science-fiction-collides-building-the-future-of-autonomous-systems-and-ai

AI in the News: Know Your Place, Clanker!

Thaddeus Claggett wants to prevent property from being treated as a person. “As the computer systems improve in their capacity to act more like humans, we want to be sure we have prohibitions in our law that prohibit those systems from ever being human in their agency,” says the Republican state legislator from Licking County, Ohio. 

He’s proposed a bill to ensure that A.I.s can’t be corporate officers, landowners, or spouses — even to other A.I.s. A survey of A.I. users showed that 3 percent thought an artificial intelligence was a romantic partner, and 16 percent have entertained the possibility that one was sentient. 

Claggett acknowledges that A.I. is “better at certain tasks” than a human, but he wants to keep it out of certain roles. Under his proposal, A.I.s would be declared “nonsentient entities.” (AC/WCMH Columbus) ...Even if, someday, they are sentient.

AI & Smutty Spaces [Brave New World]

 From the BBC

"Thank you for using Amazon Prime. Your AI sex doll, called Scarlett, will be delivered tomorrow before 11.00 am. As one reviewer has said: 'I've decided to divorce my wife. Scarlett, who is 24 and has a PhD in psychology and sexology, is far better for me, and she does all I ask her to do without ever arguing. Besides, she only talks if talked to, which is an amazing experience in itself.' Enjoy!" 

Inevitably, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is - also - moving into porn and sex - coyly called 'erotica', here. Apparently, Grok, Elon Musk's AI bot, already offers sexual services, along the lines of: "Tell me an erotic story, please!" (All based on Elon Musk's own sexual fantasies, presumably.) 

The next step - being cobbled together in a lab in China or somewhere in the USA - would be to fit an AI 'brain' into a humanoid robot in the shape of an attractive young woman who looks like, say, Scarlett Johansson. 

All of this is going to make people - men, mostly, I suppose - very happy, obviously.  And all the data relating to these products and services will be logged, recorded, stored and filed on various servers, from Manila and Bombay to Los Angeles and Moscow, and re-used to further enhance and improve the companies' 'offerings'. ("Trevor, we've noticed you like S&M stories. You should meet Arabella, our new leather-clad Femme Fatale who likes to whip and spank her adoring fans! Only $3,524.65 + VAT and postage.") 

There would be a flood of child pornography, explicit rape as well as sex & violence fantasies etc. with AI-generated images and actors....

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OpenAI plans to allow a wider range of content, including erotica, on its popular chatbot ChatGPT as part of its push to "treat adult users like adults", says its boss Sam Altman.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Mr Altman said upcoming versions of the popular chatbot would enable it to behave in a more human-like way - "but only if you want it, not because we are usage maxxing".

The move, reminiscent of Elon Musk's xAI's recent introduction of two sexually explicit chatbots to Grok, could help OpenAI attract more paying subscribers. [...] 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpd2qv58yl5o

Effort.jl

Effort.jl is a fast and differentiable emulator for the Effective Field Theory of the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe.

It is described here: 

Effort.jl: a fast and differentiable emulator for the Effective Field Theory of the Large Scale Structure of the Universe - IOPscience

The (Julia language) Repo is here: 

GitHub - CosmologicalEmulators/Effort.jl: Repository containing the EFfective Field theORy surrogaTe

Effort.jl Home:

Home · Effort.jl

Microsoft & Gaza Genocide

Microsoft engineer quits after 13 years; sends resignation email to thousands of employees: I can no longer work for a company that is… - The Times of India

AI in the News: Driverless Car

 

Zelda Williams on Abuse of AI Technology

“AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume.”

 

She has a very pertinent insight: that generative AI, including ChatGPT as well as those that generate new content based on previous contents - are, in fact, consuming the Past; that which has been produced and shared by all who had lived earlier - a form of Ghoulish Consumption.

Per a theorem in Information Theory, a message that is copied many many times, eventually will get corrupted due to the intrinsic noise (error rates) of the transmission channel.  I expect an analogous phenomenon here: the initial work (opus) is consumed by the Generative AI, the secondary work (opus prime) is consumed in turn by yet another Generative AI tool, and so on. Each iteration of this process produces an inferior product, until it is just noise/garbage - unfit for human consumption.

Also, the issue, on an emotional level, is closure: if you keep the person 'alive' in that artificial way, to an extent, they are not dead, or no longer dead. Psychologically, I think it could be damaging for the living. They need to get on with their lives. They cannot 'spend time' with an AI avatar of a loved one who died, say, 15 years earlier. This is morbid. It may end up creating new forms of neurosis. To be added to neuroses linked to gender confusion (trans issues), sexual confusion (LGBT hysteria), and so on. 

I find these AI Generated images and voices rather creepy; I certainly do not wish to be sent such videos of the dead; especially those to whom I was close.  I think, in her case, it would be specially upsetting.

A few years ago, I saw an AI Generated video of a few famous deceased Iranian singers; I found it rather creepy.

 

AI-generated Actress

From Grauniad of the UK

See the video-clip. I felt, watching it, that the AI-generated 'actors', somehow, articulated their lines too well and too clearly, and their mouths moved in odd ways - in somewhat exaggerated fashion. See what you think. 

Next week: Many people are asking: "Is Prime Minister Keir Starmer a real person, or is he an AI-generated character, which would explain his wooden and robotic delivery?" 

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https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/30/tilly-norwood-ai-actor-hollywood

Tilly Norwood: how scared should we be of the viral AI ‘actor’? A bunch of code is being pushed as the next Scarlett Johansson, a creation that is already causing pushback from real human actors