Hi.

My name is Dave Rolston and I’m the primary author for FakeFokes.

Thanks for visiting.

This post provides some information about my background, describes the intent and goals of the blog, and encourages your involvement in the future.

My Background:

I attended my first conference on Artificial Intelligence in San Francisco in the late 1960s when I was still in high school.  I was bitten by the AI bug at that conference and have been passionate about it ever since.

I eventually completed a PhD with an emphasis in AI and in 1988 published Principles of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems Development, one of the first best-selling books on AI.

I became the youngest fellow at Honeywell, Inc. and the first to be named in the AI domain.  In that and other roles I worked on several early research projects in natural language understanding, machine learning, robotics as well as other areas of AI.

I’ve been involved in AI programs ever since  but also developed a passion for 3D graphics, especially as it relates to creating avatars that reflect human emotions as well as other forms of “artificial people.”

The first half of my career was purely technical but along the way I discovered another passion-  a love  for creating businesses that apply technology in ways that helps people live richer and more interesting lives.

Over the last 20 years I’ve been CEO of four small tech companies and GM or three corporate divisions.  Most of my work during that time revolved around AI, 3D graphics, virtual and augmented reality, and robotics.

I’m currently CEO of Tirocorp where we’re working on a comprehensive intelligent personal assistant.

I lived in the Silicon Valley for about 30 years but these days I live near Austin, although I still spend much of my time in California.

You can check me out on Linkedin at: Dave Rolston

The following sections answer a few questions about the blog.

Why am I blogging?

I’ve written several blogs in the past.  I keep at it because I enjoy it.

I enjoy the opportunity to connect with people who have shared interests and I enjoy learning things from my interactions with readers.

I think of blogging as a deal between a writer and a group of readers.

My end of the deal is to work to provide information that is both interesting and useful, recognizing that different readers will have different views on what that means. My sense is that some readers will simply be looking for updates that keep them abreast of what’s happening in the target industries, those who are actually developing systems may be looking for pointers, and others will be looking for information that will help them understand how the target technology relates to business operations and profitability.

What I hope to receive from readers are comments, reactions, and input that will help me better understand each of these areas as well.

Which subject areas will be covered by this blog?

This blog focuses on artificial people, where that term is intended to describe mechanisms that simulate human forms or behaviors in one way or another.

We will be discussing several specific types of these synthetic mechanisms:

Chatbots / Intelligent Personal Assistants

Many different AI-based systems have been created that  strive for a human-level ability to engage in intelligent conversations.  Many of those systems are intended to assist their human users in one form or another.

One category of such systems, chatbots, includes assistants that are generally intended to help users with questions and requests that are related to a specific business topic.  Another category, intelligent personal assistants, include assistants that are usually targeted to provide information and help in a more general environment.

One key trend in this area is that the historical distinctions between these categories are beginning to fade.  That’s one of the trends that we will be discussing in this blog.

Digital humans / avatars

There are a number of different programs that are attempting to build graphic avatars that accurately represent human appearance, including detailed facial expressions and body movements.  These highly accurate avatars will be used to represent people in many different environments including social virtual reality, virtual worlds, etc.

Other programs are going beyond appearances and are creating digital human models the reflect not only human appearance and movement but also capture detailed information about the human systems.

Humanoid Robots

The ultimate goal for many synthetic human programs is to create a humanoid robot that is a physical entity that puts all the pieces together.  These programs envision a day when they can create robots that look like a human, move like a human, talk like a human, and think like a human.  Some of those programs are getting pretty close to doing just that.

Common Themes and Issues

Developers in each of these areas are dealing with very specific issues but there are also a number of themes and issues that cut across all the different categories.

For example, one such issue is the “uncanny valley” – the idea that entities that look almost human, but not exactly human, are creepy and scary and should be avoided.  The concept was first used in 1970 in regard to robots.

In reality there are now several different forms of the uncanny valley.  Almost-human avatars are still creepy but so are almost-human voices in chatbots, almost-human reasoning in digital assistants, and almost-human forms in robots

This blog will be looking at a number of these cross-discipline issues.

Who is the intended reader?

Of course I encourage anyone to read the blog and interact, I’m writing with three types of readers in mind:

1. General interest – those who are simply interested in the general topic and read for personal interest or to remain up-    to-date on the topic in general
2. Technical developers – those who are building artificial people
3. Business people – those who are interested in learning more about how these capabilities can be applied in a business setting.

What kinds of content will be included?

The plan to post about twice a week.  The blog posts will provide information and comments that are oriented to the groups noted above:

1. News and general developments– posts that focus on news items and developments  in the target industries.
2. Technical information – posts that will be useful to developers who are working to create synthetic humans and to business managers that are looking to engage with appropriate development resources.
3. Business applications – business-oriented posts that provide comments and information about how the target technologies can best be used in create business success.

What are the goals of this blog?

The long-term goal of the blog is to serve as a catalyst to help develop a community of people who are interested in this area and to give the members of that community a forum for exchanging ideas.

I have the following specific goals for the first year of this blog:

1. 100 posts
2. 500 regular readers
3. 100 reader comments

I’d love to get your help in achieving these goals.

How can I get involved?

I welcome interaction with anyone who is interested in this area and I encourage comments on every post.  I try to respond to every comment within a day.

I also encourage suggestions for post topics and suggestions for guest bloggers.

Please feel free to email me at david.rolston@fakefokes.com.

I look forward to exploring this area together.

Dave Rolston