What is BabyX? Scientists create AI with a baby-like face and manners to humanise robot interactions

A new artificial intelligence program that communicates with humans like a baby to the extent of cooing and giggling is intended to make interactions with AI more human, according to its developers.

Soul Machines, a tech company based out of Auckland, New Zealand has developed an AI that looks, talks, and interacts like a real baby, reports Futurism. Called BabyX, it reportedly evokes a genuine emotional response comparable with the feeling that one gets when a baby giggles at them, says the report.

BabyX learns more about human interaction and what it means to be human every time it triggers responses from people, it was reported.

Creator of BabyX, Mark Sagar is working towards the humanisation of AI and believes that it is an important step in instilling a working relationship between humans and machines in the future. The report also pointed out that one of the ways this can be achieved is to make robots, in this case AI, more human-like, not just in the way they look and are built, but rather in the way they operate– with memories and emotions directing their decisions.

Sagar's team has put together a detailed map of the human brain and is attempting to reverse- engineer the life of humans, says the report.

BabyX is reportedly vastly different from other facial recognition AI in a way that it not only smiles but can also responds based on specific predetermined conditions. The makers of BabyX have created something that works like a human nervous system, and can actually sense the need to smile. It even unloads "virtual endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin" into its simulated brain.

Layers of BabyX's visualised self, says the report, react by glowing in centres that are related to language and pleasure when it receive praise. Sagar, in an interview with Bloomberg, said, "Researchers have built lots of computational models of cognition and pieces of this, but no one has stuck them together," adding, "This is what we're trying to do: wire them together and put them in an animated body. We are trying to make a central nervous system for human computing."

Earlier this year, Soul Machines introduced an AI that is built to interact with customers of the National Disability Insurance Agency in Australia called Nadia, which speaks with Cate Blanchett's voice, it was reported.