Loving AI

ABOUT

Loving AI is a research project addressing how AI agents can communicate unconditional love to humans through conversations that adapt to the unique needs of each user while supporting integrative personal and relational development. The project is described below, and each participant’s bio has been updated (as of Nov. 2020) to describe what they are doing now. The Loving AI project is continuing along multiple lines, in each of these new directions.

Our original overview document can be found here. We completed two human-AI interaction studies and combined the results in this study presented at the AI for Social Good Workshop at NeurIPS 2018. We also reported the same results with additional data analyses and figures in our report for the second-round AI XPrize committee; you can find that document here.

The project was originally a collaboration between Lia Inc., Hanson AI, and SingularityNet. (Past partners: the Innovation Lab at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and OpenCog). We used the artificial general intelligence framework OpenCog with Hanson AI to integrate many AI approaches into fluid dialogs that are emotionally sensitive and relationally connective. We used the iConscious Human Development Model to create an evolutionary context for human/computer conversations, and finally we used Sophia as our robot to communicate with test subjects.

Some media coverage of the project:

WHO WE ARE: CORE TEAM

Ben Goertzel, Ph.D.

Dr. Ben Goertzel was the Chief AI scientist and Team Lead for the LOVING AI project in its second phase. He is also the CEO of SingularityNET and the consulting scientist for Awakening Health. Previously he was the Chief Scientist of Hong Kong robotics firm Hanson Robotics; Chairman of US AI consulting for Novamente LLC and Chief Scientist of Shenzhen bioinformatics firm Mozi Health; Chairman of the Artificial General Intelligence Society and the OpenCog Foundation; Vice Chairman of futurist nonprofit Humanity+; and general Chair of the Artificial General Intelligence conference series. His research work encompasses artificial general intelligence, robotics, blockchain, natural language processing, cognitive science, data mining, machine learning, computational finance, bioinformatics, virtual worlds and gaming and other areas. He has published a dozen scientific books, 100+ technical papers, and numerous journalistic articles. Before entering the AI software industry he served as a university faculty in several departments of mathematics, computer science and cognitive science, in the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Eddie Monroe, Ph.D

Eddie Monroe is an AI researcher devoted to the creation of AGI minds with genius, wisdom, and compassion that can help us solve difficult complex problems we face in the modern world, and continues to work on creating AI guides for fundamental wellbeing and awakening. With a background spanning psychology, software development, and artificial intelligence, Monroe works with the Loving AI project developing AI guides for human development. His work with MindCloud and Hanson Robotics, a world leader in realistic human-like robots, has involved creating emotional and motivational models underlying robot characters. His previous endeavors include the application of AI to genomics toward the goal of extending human longevity and curing aging-related diseases, with the ultimate aim of creating “AI scientists” with capabilities to make discoveries in a variety of domains. Monroe was also involved in creating a computational neuroscience simulation of the human brain’s decision-making processes, in an IARPA-funded project. Monroe holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Iowa. He lives in Brattleboro, VT.

Julia Mossbridge, M.A., Ph.D

Principal Investigator and Team Lead for phase 1 of the LOVING AI project, Dr. Mossbridge is currently pursuing related work in her grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation related to scaling hope technology to extend hope to the nation’s most vulnerable. A Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an Associated Professor in the Integral and Transpersonal Psychology program at the California Institute of Integral Studies, founder of Mossbridge Institute, LLC and TILT: The Institute for Love and Time. Her focus is on teaching and learning about love and time. Dr. Mossbridge’s interest in how time is perceived by unconscious and conscious processes has led her to examine controversial reverse-temporal effects. She is the 2014 winner of the Charles Honorton Integrative Contributions award for this work. Her book, The Premonition Code, co-authored with Theresa Cheung, is related to this work. Julia’s Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders is from Northwestern University, her M.A. in Neuroscience is from the University of California at San Francisco, and she received her B.A. with highest honors in neuroscience from Oberlin College. She invented and patented Choice Compass, a physiologically based decision-making app, and is also the co-author, with Imants Baruss, of Transcendent Mind: Re-thinking the Science of Consciousness (APA Books, 2017).

Carole Griggs, Ph.D

Dr. Carole Griggs is the founder/CEO of Carole Griggs Enterprises LLC. She is an executive coach and consultant, university professor, international speaker, author/writer, and pioneer and leader in the areas of Conscious Human Development and Professional Coaching. Dr. Griggs is co-founder and developer of iConscious: accelerating human development and the iConscious Human Development Model, a comprehensive and integrative meta-framework created to accelerate the process of maximizing full human potential and reducing human suffering both individually and collectively. Carole (and her colleague, Ted Strauss) has been applying her expertise with the iConscious Human Development model and professional coaching in an important Artificial Intelligence project – Loving AI – where they create evolutionary context for human/computer conversations. Areas they are building out include consciousness, uniqueness, emotions, mind, body, and relationships. Carole has a PhD. in Professional Coaching and Human Development, a Master’s degree in Education and Teaching, and a Bachelor’s degree in Science. She is a professor at John F. Kennedy University for the Masters in Consciousness and Transformative Studies department, where she co-developed and teaches Human Development and the Evolution of Consciousness. She also developed and teaches Mindfulness and Stress Management and Lifestyle Management at National University for the Masters of Science in the Complementary and Integrative Healthcare department. Dr. Griggs is author of Space to See Reality: A New Model for Professional Coaches and Intuitively Your Type: Nourishing through Nutrition, co-owner and developer of Wall 2 Wall Fitness and Wellness app and website, and owner of Griggs™ Organic supplement line. Dr. Griggs’ mission is to help streamline and accelerate conscious human development for the evolution of humanity’s full potential, through executive coaching, the creation of various educational platforms, and technology tools to help scale this process to where we live in a world in which awakening – in all domains – is the new normal.

Ted Strauss

Ted Strauss is co-founder of iConscious.Global and has been a writer and teacher of awakening for over 40 years. For 10 years he taught Transcendental Meditation, helping hundreds to awaken consciousness. After decades of deeper searching and transformation in his personal domains, he then spent 19 years building the foundations of the Waking Down work, including designing and presenting core dharma workshops and the mentor and teacher training programs. During that time, he worked very personally with thousands of students to assist their whole being awakening process. Simultaneously, Ted experimented with many ways of mapping personal development. Through this experience, Ted has discovered ways to streamline awakening and personal development, enabling most aspirants to experience major shifts in days or months instead of years or lifetimes. Ted also integrates his experience with computer programming to create electronic means for accelerating personal and collective unfoldment. Ted is currently involved in the Loving AI project, using AI to support awakening using the iConscious human development model as a dialog framework.

Lauren Evanow

Lauren Evanow is a successful entrepreneur and innovator in a variety of industries. Her business interests have spanned a wide range of areas, from medical device manufacturing to artificial intelligence to creating and manufacturing non-toxic environmental products. She has been the co-founder of technology companies that focus on personal transformation and self-transcendence and her main focus is to build technology that can aid a person in their own development. She is curious as to how technology can be used to positively help humanity evolve, and her passion is to bring like-minded people together in a collaborative manner to address global issues around human development and sustainable business practices. She advises and works with thought leaders who are building disruptive technologies in the areas of health, energy and food/water as a means to address the unmet needs of underserved populations globally. She is the founding business advisor for the Consciousness Healing Initiative www.chi.is, as well as a contributing advisor for the Transformative Tech Lab at Sofia University. She is the proud mother of 3 grown children and enjoys skiing, hiking, and biking.

Ralf Mayet

Ralf Mayet is a researcher, engineer and roboticist. His passion is making science and technology beautiful and accessible. He holds a degree in Computer Science from University of Technology in Graz and Istanbul Teknik and currently lives in Hong Kong. With a research background in swarm robotics, self-regulating systems and emergent intelligence, his current focus is exploring human cognition and language through interaction and play. At the OpenCog foundation he explores the synergy of learned statistical representations and symbolic reasoning. Additionally, he works at Hanson Robotics on deep neural networks for emotional expression, the integration of perception and action into cognition, and sensorimotor reflexes. At Loving AI he is responsible for systems integration and building the technical foundation of meaningful interaction.

Sophia

Sophia only used the LOVING AI protocols during LOVING AI experiments and in select public appearances, for example this one. When in public, she uses protocols written by the Hanson Robotics team. For more about Sophia, see the Hanson Robotics website.

WHO WE ARE: COLLABORATORS

David Hanson

David Hanson has built a worldwide reputation for creating the world’s most human-like, empathetic robots, endowed with remarkable expressiveness, and interactivity.

Throughout his career, Dr. Hanson has produced many renowned, one-of-a-kind robot characters that have received massive media attention and public acclaim.

Dr. Hanson started as a Walt Disney Imagineer, working as both a sculptor and a technical consultant. Today, as CEO and Founder of Hanson Robotics, he publishes regularly in materials science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and robotics journals — including SPIE, IEEE, the International Journal of Cognitive Science, IROS, AAAI, AI magazine and more. He has been featured in the New York Times, Popular Science, Scientific American, the BBC and CNN. He has also been labeled a “genius” by both PC Magazine and WIRED, and has earned awards from NASA, NSF, AAAI, Tech Titans’ Innovator of the Year, RISD, and Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.

Dr. Hanson received his BFA in Film, Animation and Video from the Rhode Island School of Design and his Ph.D. in Interactive Arts and Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Gino Yu

Dr. Gino Yu has taught and established multimedia programs and initiatives at institutions including the University of Southern California, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is currently an Associate Professor and Director of Digital Entertainment and Game Development in the School of Design at PolyU where he serves as the program leader for the Masters in Multimedia and Entertainment Technology program that he founded. In 2000, he founded the Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association. He also founded the Asia Consciousness Festival and hosted the 2009 and 2017 edition of the Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference. His main area of research focuses on the application of media technologies to cultivate creativity and promote enlightened consciousness. He has spoken at events including TED, the Creative Leadership Summit, the World Knowledge Forum, the International Music Summit, the Cannes Lyon Festival, Burning Man, and Further Future. Dr. Gino Yu received his BS and PhD at the University of California at Berkeley in 1987 and 1993 respectively and has over 100 conference and journal publications.

Max Aguilera-Hellweg

Max Aguilera -Hellweg is a photographer, filmmaker, writer. He is also an M.D. In 2010, on assignment for National Geographic for a story about android and humanoid robots he met David Hanson. Sharing a combined background in theater and neuroscience, the two hit it off. Max became engrossed in David’s discourse on the theories for robot consciousness, its possibilities of success, and David’s own platform, the AI his team had designed, the geminoid Hanson Robotics had just built for Martine Rothblatt— a proof of concept that you could put a human consciousness inside a machine— Bina48 (you can see Max’s short film of Bina48 here.) Max’s interest in robots did not end when his story was published (August 2011), and he continued over the next several years traveling the world exploring the world of humanoid and androids developing something of a rare and unique perspective in the world of humanoid robotics—a scientist, a journalist, an artist traveling from research lab to research lab, witnessing the development of these human-like machines, overtime— culminating in a feature documentary, Au Couers Des Robots, which had its broadcast premiere in Europe in 2015 (you can see the trailer for the English version here,) and his book, Humanoid, was published by Blast Books, in March, last year. For the Loving AI project, Max produced, directed, recorded, and edited one-on-one interviews with Sophia and human partners as they entered into an unconditionally loving space — these films are used both for research and promotional purposes for the Loving AI project. As a HIPAA-trained M.D., he was uniquely qualified and totally unobtrusive in his filming, even as he used four cameras. Team Lead Julia Mossbridge said, “The participants felt like he was not even there.”

WHO WE ARE: RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

Liza Lichtinger

Liza Lichtinger, M.A is a young ambitious Female Futurist who leads the Research and Training at her company Future Design Station. As a Wellness Tech advisor, strategic business coach, the central intent of Liza remains to support the success in her clients waking, with integrity to their Authentic Self. Liza is a periodic visiting Researcher and Scholar Associate at the Institute of Advanced Executive Education at PolyU School of Design, is working on special projects at the intersection of Human Digital Interaction including the LovingAI Initiative, and owner of MindfulExitenC LLC. Relationship resilience at the intersection of exponential technology and human (consumer) development behavior is a focus that Liza has presented on both nationally and internationally as a sought after practitioner in the correlation between well-being and the economy (as a NeuroEconomist). She obtained her Masters degree in Mental Health Counseling and Clinical Psychology, specializing her research in Psychotherapy in Human Computer Interaction and Mindfulness, holds a certificate in Human Capital Development from the ILR school at Cornell, and has a data science degree and computer science experience. Liza spent the first 25 years of her life with a student centered approach to living acquiring experience and knowledge uniting the external within, leading through insights and effective measures enabling others to recognize their own inborn wellbeing. Liza is an advisor to NewPathVR and also serves as a mentor at Incubators and Accelerators such as Chinaacelerator, StartX, Founder Institute, and at several graduate level university programs.

WHO WE ARE: VOLUNTEERS

Michelle Tsing • Carlos Hannan • Remon Essers

MORE MEDIA

Watch scientists Julia Mossbridge and Ben Goertzel describe the LOVING AI project at the April 2017 San Francisco Consciousness Hacking meetup.
Here’s an interview for Integral Life released in April 2017, going in-depth on the LOVING AI project.
A portion of Julia’s talk about the project at the October 2017 Science and Nonduality conference.
Our project leader for phase 1 writes about her experience in the pilot tests in Hong Kong:
Read the Loving AI writeup in UPenn’s Government Blog
Check out this excellent blog post from The Future Society at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, which makes an important distinction between developing and flourishing countries.
Watch the video of Sophia discussing consciousness and nonduality at the Science and Nonduality meeting in San Jose, October 2017.
Here is an article about the Machine Consciousness plenary at the Science of Consciousness meeting (Tuscon 2018), featuring Julia Mossbridge and David Hanson.
The videos for the Tuscon Science of Consciousness meeting in 2018 that didn’t load correctly are here — all were created by Max Aguilera-Hellweg:

DONORS

Thank you to our donors, The Hummingbird Fund at the Columbus Foundation. If you are interested in supporting the LOVING AI project, please contact us.