The last couple of years have been very exciting when it comes to discussions of the uncanny valley.

The uncanny valley has been a topic of great discussion since the term was coined in 1970.  It has been described simply as “our strange revulsion toward things that appear nearly human, but not quite right.”

There has been a great deal of formal debate about why it occurs, how it affects different people, and about whether it actually exists. Regardless of that debate, it has been a very real topic for artists and visual developers for decades and has had an enormous influence on the visual representation of humans.

The Valley is to the visual word somewhat like the Turing test is to the world of AI.  It has stood as a great barrier that brought fear to the hearts of the creators who ventured too close to the edge.

Many Uncanny Valleys

Although the term is singular the reality is that there are many different valleys, or at least that the concept of the valley can appear in many different forms.  The original use of the term was in regard to robotics and it is still a hot topic in that arena.  The other prominent use of the term is in regard to visual humans – avatars, game characters, and CGI characters in film.

It is less common to hear about the valley as it relates to voice and audio but it still a very real and recognized effect.  Some have even suggested that the creepiness might be useful in works of horror.

Lastly, there are even cases where we see uncanny effects in real humans who have been altered to look like specific dolls and other characters.   For example, there are several people who have gone through extensive plastic surgeries to make them appear like the famous “Ken and Barbie” dolls.  For example, this image shows Rodrigo Alves who paid more than $500,000  with the goal of looking like the Ken doll.

The Creepy Valley

There is a lot of debate about the Valley but one thing is certain.  There is one word that is welded to the Valley.  That word is creepy.  Note that it is used in almost all articles that discuss the valley.  It has been used for decades to describe those unfortunate enough to reside there.  There are other words for sure.  Errie. Strange.  Bizzare.  But the word that comes back time after time is creepy.

All of which brings up a question:  what is the word the best describes the far side of the valley?

The Far Side of the Valley

There’s been an enormous amount of discussion about Google’s now-famous demo of a dead-on human voice calling to make a reservation at a hair salon.

Quite a bit of that discussion revolved around the question as to whether Google had demonstrated an AI application that actually passed the Turing test.  The chairman of Google’s parent company claims that it did, at least in a limited domain, but others say that it didn’t.  It may or may not have passed the Turing test but one thing is for sure:  it made the leap to the far side of the uncanny valley.  The voice and associated mannerisms were absolutely real; so real, in fact, that many writers are suggesting that it was faked.

It’s interesting to note how people reacted to hearing a voice from the far side.  There were some references to it being creepy, but that wasn’t the dominate reaction.  The dominate word for people’s reaction to this example was “scary,” or some variant of that word.  In fact, quite a few refered to it as horrifying.

There are a number of examples of things that are appearing on the far side of the valley. There are now super-realistic robots and avatars.  As people begin to become aware of the existence of these creations their initial reaction is often amazement – but over time the reaction that settles in is fear.

Many articles are appearing that express real concern about a future in which there are artificial people – in many different forms – that are indistinguishable from humans.   Of course much of this has been standard fodder for countless science fiction stories in the past.  A space alien lands on earth.  It is scary if he looks like some bizarre 12 headed hydra, and even scarier if he looks like The Terminator;  but what’s really horrifying is if he looks identical to a trusted friend and neighbor.

All of which seems to imply that the “standard valley claim”  may have been wrong all along.  For many years I – and many others – have been giving a standard pitch in which we describe the valley and then make the claim that, ‘It’s okay to be on the far side and produce characters that look fully human, and it is okay to be on the near side and produce characters that are clearly not human, but it is not okay to be in the valley between.”

But is it actually “okay” to be on the far side?

For many years when discussing the Valley we’ve warned people: “Thar be dragons there;”  but it now appears that the far side of the valley has it’s own dragons and they may be bigger and scarier than those in the valley.  It seems to be fine to produce fully realistic CGI characters in a film and perhaps even in a game.  The real fear arrises when the characters escape from the screen and begin to live among us.

We are entering an era where that scenario has the prospect of being real, albeit as a human-created character rather than an alien.   The google voice is horrifying.  Deep Fakes produces videos that are dead-on realistic fake videos. Projects like PAI are striving to produce highly realistic synthetic versions of people – including dead people.

These developments are fascinating but not necessarily benign.  It is probably time that as a society we begin to develop mechanisms that help us feel a bit more secure as we experience life on the far side of the valley.