Exhibition at the Weston Library

On Saturday morning I met up with a friend at the Bodleian’s Weston Library in Oxford. On entering the building, we paid a quick visit to a small exhibition, Imagining AI, curated by Professor Ursula Martin, who has considerable knowledge of the history of computing, and has written and presented about Ada Lovelace’s significant contribution.

This exhibition had a strong literary theme as it drew mainly on the Bodleian’s special collections, putting on display rare books, manuscripts and other documents. The introductory panel invited us to “explore the boundary between humans and machines”. I found this an interesting, even provocative pitch, setting humans and machines on opposite sides, like adversaries. This was then extrapolated. To paraphrase: will machines foster some fantastic utopia or nightmarish dystopia and take over the world? Lest we dwell in happy reverie, the selections, just to the right of that panel included extracts from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

With the (surely, generally accepted) observation that machines are more than mere “number crunchers”, the exhibition developed the theme of computation, highlighting the work of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace on the Difference Engine (constructed) and Analytical Engine (conceived, never built). An underlying theme, supported by a quote from Lovelace, was human mimicry, especially of the brain’s thought processes. W. Stanley Jevons aimed to demonstrate rationality by his “logical piano”, on loan from the History of Science Museum. More subtle forms of human mental activity, considered by some to be among the first AI programs, were expressed in the simplistic love poetry generator of Christopher Strackey (as re-implemented (or re-enacted?) in modern code) – more than a decade before the more well-known Eliza. These developments were explored and brought up to date in an associated event (which I didn’t attend), evidencing how the complexity has increased exponentially and has become prominent in the arts, where there’s the ‘Wow!’ factor – picked up by a local paper, which invited readers to meet Ai-Da, a superstar robot artist.

Thus, with all these bells and whistles, there is a sense of awe, even reference around these “transformative technologies”. But who or what is being transformed and in what ways? Is our well-being transformed?

The exhibition begs so many unanswered questions. I join the many who have claimed the existential threat is real and urgent, but what is less said and which I feel is just as imperative, if not moreso, is that in order to address and properly evaluate AI, we need to balance the discussions of machine ability with human ability; we need to remind ourselves and explore further what makes human life so remarkable in terms of originality and creativity. Furthermore, we need to reflect on the qualities of human sentience – to be and know – and how the presence of machines impacts this.

Without such a perspective, it’s too easy to fall into the trap of making (belated) comparisons under a narrow instrumentalist framework. Especially when millions of pounds are invested to demonstrate measurable benefits. As the sophistication increases, the accompanying language sometimes becomes hyperbolic and even idolatrous. Whilst computation elicits a myriad of possibilities to excite, we should not lose focus on the nature of the human mind, of its often-sublime qualities such as autonomy, reflection, intuition, originality, purpose and perseverance. All of these contribute to human agency and hence human flourishing and happiness.

Ada Lovelace was quoted expressing the power of these machines, but I think she herself might have given greater prominence – particularly given the exhibition’s title – to what she herself had expressed about imagination:

Imagination is the Discovering Faculty, pre-eminently … It is that which feels & discovers what is, the REAL which we see not, which exists not for our senses… Mathematical science shows what is. It is the language of unseen relations between things… Imagination too shows what is … Hence she is or should be especially cultivated by the truly Scientific, those who wish to enter into the worlds around us!

Journal entry for 5 Jan 1841, Lovelace Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, 175, folio 199

It is the REAL, not the computational that Lovelace emphasizes that should be strived for.

A chatbot reactivates an expired SIM card – or does it?

On leaving the Weston, I popped next door to Blackwell’s to buy a couple of books. Only one was in stock so when I returned home I went to make a purchase online, using Paypal. Using the payment facility required two-factor authentication, which meant a text message to the SIM card in my trusty mini phone. But, on switching it on, it greeted me with the message that the card was non-operational. It turned out it had expired because I had not used any chargeable services during the past 3 months.

I logged onto the Vodafone site and proceeded to enter into ‘dialogue’ with its chatbot, an experience I had managed to avoid previously. Somewhat sceptical, I commenced the mission to reactivate the card with the help of TOBi, Vodafone’s ‘friendly digital assistant’, which has already been around for 5 years. It is mentioned that the service is powered by IBM Watson and LivePerson, which are well-established systems using advanced machine-learning.

Pedigree is all very well, but what about the user experience? My conversation proceeded, or sometimes stumbled along, as follows (note that I lost some formatting in my copy and paste, so there may be some errors and/or omissions):

[14:50] 
TOBi: I’m TOBi – Vodafone’s chatbot
Ask me anything, I’m here to help.

[14:51]
Paul: my number has expired, but I would like it back

TOBi:
Let’s see if we can get your number reactivated. First, I need to know what kind of customer you are?
Pay monthly
Pay as you go

Paul: Pay as you go

TOBi:  To keep your Pay as you go number active, you need to use it for at least one chargeable activity – like sending a text or topping up – every 180 days.

If you don’t top up or use any credit for 90 days, we’ll send you a text explaining that your account will expire in the next 90 days.

To avoid this, simply use your phone for a chargeable activity after you receive the 90-day reminder text. This will let you carry on as normal with your current number.

However, if you don’t use your phone within that 90-day period, your mobile number will be disconnected and will no longer work.

If your Pay as you go number has been deactivated due to inactivity and you’d like to reactivate it, please speak to an adviser.

Read more in our Pay as you go terms and conditions

<hyperlinked option> speak to an adviser

TOBi:  Could you tell me your full name please?

Paul: <full name>

[14:52]
TOBi:  To help save you some time when speaking to an adviser, I’ll complete some quick security checks with you first.

For this security check, I’ll need to take your phone number to send you a security code by text. I’ll launch a secure pop-up for you to enter your number now.

<didn’t see any popup>

TOBi:  Thanks, that’s the security part completed.

TOBi:  Could you please tell me your phone number?

Paul: <entered the number associated with the expired SIM> 

[14:53]
TOBi:  hello

TOBi: I hope you are doing well today

TOBi: How can I help you today ?

Paul: i wish to reactivate my expired number

[14:54]
TOBi: I will try my best for you but it is difficult but still I will try my best

TOBi: Please help me with the sim serial number on the back side of the sim card

Paul: <removed case and battery, then SIM card, squinted and typed the 24 alphanumeric code>

[14:55]
TOBi: Thank you let me check and try

<no screen activity>

[15:00]
TOBi: We have not heard from you in quite some time. Seems like we have lost connection. I’ll give it a minute more before I end this chat session.

[15:01]
Paul: Hello, have you reactivated the sim card?

TOBi: Just doing the process for you and it is almost 90% done

[15:02]
Paul:  OK, thanks. I shall wait.  

[15:05]
TOBi: You will be very very good to know tat I have raised the order and your number will activated with in 2 to 24 hours

TOBi: I hope it is sorted for you all

Is there any thing else I can do for you please ?

[15:06]
TOBi: I am glad that have been resolved 

Paul: Thank you for your help. Much appreciated. Goodbye.

TOBi: I would request you to please end this chat by clicking on the X button on the top of the chat

Conversational Quirks

TOBi maintained a chirpy and seemingly cheerful disposition. The issue was correctly identified at the outset and after 15 minutes, it seemed it had been properly dealt with; we got there in the end. However, I found the process somewhat precarious and it was a quite disorientating experience. I felt uncertainty in several places, but whereas with a human service assistant I’d be confident in checking the status, here I was worried that I’d be misunderstood and then be back to square one. Altogether, there were several hiatuses which made the conversation feel like an obstacle course:

• At 14:52, TOBi mentioned speaking to an advisor, but I wasn’t sure of the implication – whether it meant in the event of the bot not being able to handle the request at some stage down the line or whether I would be transferred imminently. There was no preparatory statement along the lines of, “a (human) advisor will deal with the query … “
• The absence of the ‘secure’ pop-up and then the validation confirmation without my consciously doing anything was a bit unsettling and surely something that needs to be checked by technical staff. And only after passing the security check, was I asked for my phone number, which I would have thought would have been part of the check
• Next (at 14:53), it was bizarre to be greeted afresh. At that point I had no idea about the status of my request, so I simply repeated it, echoing back the give terminology, “i wish to reactivate my expired number” (humans can learn too!)
• From (14:54), the style of English became quite different, so perhaps at this stage I was dealing with a human? But the instructions were clear enough and so by 14:55 I had provided all the information needed.
• But time was ticking by and these chat systems have quite strict timeouts, so at 15:00 I was threatened with a disconnection, with no reference to the status of my request. I wanted to check the status, but didn’t want to interrupt anything, so I just asked about the reactivation of the SIM and after a moment I got the response that it was nearly done. A few minutes later I got confirmation that it was done and I could conclude the chat.

And, as promised, the card was reactivated and working later that afternoon, which was a positive outcome (and a relief).

Observations

One of the disorientating aspects, possibly caused by my imagination, was my impression that in some places there was manual override that didn’t work well in concert with the basic chatbot workflow. Interleaving of processes requires some orchestration so that you don’t get disconnected whilst some useful process is happening … The chatbot seems to have been architected as essentially a sequential system, but this kind of troubleshooting is really a problem in parallel and distributed computing, especially if multiple agents (bot and humans) are involved.

I wonder to what extent the actions are being carried out by the bot and what by humans. I imagine that manual override is possible at any stage (as with a self-driving car). It probably occurred here as, surely, TOBi is not programmed to write, “You will be very very good to know tat I have raised the order and your number will activated with in 2 to 24 hours” (sic).
Or is that meant to be ultra-realistic human interaction, complete with typos?

As to the problem of SIM card expiring, the timescales have shortened – I originally bought the phone with the number more than 20 years ago and don’t recall any expiry at the time. Eventually, it was 12 months of inactivity. Now it has been reduced to 6 months, but I only received one reminder, in the middle, i.e. with 90 days remaining. This is a long notice period, easy to forget. It would be better to have received another reminder with 30 days to go.

Even with optimised machine-learning and having my problem solved, I somehow felt a lack of completion. Human communication is actually much more sophisticated and subtle in its interactions, with a remarkable amount being non-verbal and intuited. I am conscious that with bots, humans need to fit around the ‘thought processes’ of the machines – I found myself trying to work out what terminology to use, and wasn’t sure of it.

What about the staff that TOBi has replaced? Do they really have more interesting work to do? Do they still have jobs? Or is the situation like high street banks, which have reduced in number and where the role of many staff has become far narrower? Are human chatbot assistants like those who hover around to help people use ATMs and deposit points, answer a few general questions, before directing customers online? I.e. to adjust to the ways of the machines … ?

The subject of artificial intelligence is of ongoing interest in my research pages on mind.

How can we design technology in the way that is of most benefit to humanity in the long-term? Especially in terms of human agency? What to make of Artificial Intelligence? What is the nature of the human mind and can machines think in the same way? What criteria might be appropriate to evaluate AI? Where should we look for wise guidance?

Buddhism and Computing: How to Flourish in the Age of Algorithms, published by Mud Pie Books (2021), marks the culmination of investigations spanning more than a decade, focused on these kinds of questions. It encapsulates many of the ideas explored on this site. The enquiries have been primarily from the perspective of Buddhist ethics, but are substantially interdisciplinary, brought together in a way that I hope will foster much-needed dialogue involving everyone.

I very much welcome feedback – comments, reviews, emails, etc. Please spread the word!

Table of Contents

Chapters

Prologue

1. Numbers and Computation
2. Buddhist Ethics
3. Computers and Intelligence
4. Modelling Mind and Processes
5. Designing Sustainable Social Networks
6. Ensuring Online Safety
7. Are We Here Yet?

Epilogue
Notes
Acknowledgements
About the Author

Introductory Articles

I’m pleased to have shared a taste of the book in an introductory piece in the Daily Alternative, in which I try to bring attention to essential needs and from that basis assess technology. I’m also grateful for the publication of an article, Designing Software for the Present Moment, inspired by the late Ninian Smart, which seeks to broaden engagement. This appeared in Inter-religious Insight, the journal of the World Congress of Faiths, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 65–67, 2021

Ever since I was a child I have tried to explore mind in a subjective-objective manner, that is, in a way that feels right, helps me to really know what’s going on, not just having logical, rational consistency. So, I naturally became interested in meditation (or mental cultivation) quite early on whilst also studying formal methods in computer science. I have explored numerous avenues as a result, trying always to retain coherence of an overall picture. In some cases, I have not got very far.

Just a few glimpses on this page, with further reading in the respective sections.

Mind, Brain and Education

Advances in neuroscience, aided by ever-higher spec’ed imaging equipment, has led to ever-finer neural correlates being established between human behaviour and well-being and observable phenomena in the brain. In recent decades, a particular area of research has been emotional development, especially among children. It is an area that I first learnt about through the work of Antonio Damasio, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and colleagues at the University of Southern California, who observed in the context of online engagement that nobler instincts take time.

I then learnt about the International Mind, Brain and Education Society (IMBES) and was encouraged to submit a poster proposal for their 2018 annual conference, my first consideration of the use of cognitive interventions — in the form of thinking routines — in the design of systems. But whilst the selection panel found it interesting, they considered that it didn’t meet the conference remit. Nevertheless, I decided to continue the research and shortly after posted a couple of articles on my blog

• Blog post, 27 August 2018: Pause for Thought: The Use of Interventions in Social Networking Sites
• Blog post, 4 September 2018: Pause for Thought: The Use of Interventions in Social Networking Sites (Part 2)

There is a lot of talk in academic circles about interdisciplinary research, but based on my experiences at Oxford University, whilst there continue to be some wonderful discoveries across boundaries, it is more normal for activities to be specialist and compartmentalised, at the expense of being holistic.

In the case of mind and education, the assumptions about mind are objective/materialist. From this the research inevitably becomes heavily dependent on machinery and thereby prevents a vital broadening of inter-disciplinary dialogue to encompass other methods in cognitive science. There are indeed many approaches to study the mind, and their proper appraisal should lead to a fuller, more holistic understanding its nature.

Mapping Mental Processes

The Buddhist approach to studying mind is epitomised in Abhidhamma, an exceedingly detailed and systematic analysis of the processes in which our minds are caught up. The technical term is citta and it may be broken down into many kinds of cetasikas (thought moments). I believe it is useful to study Abhidhamma to create mind maps and thereby learn more about how processes become variously wholesome and unwholesome. It helps to establish the right basis on which to introduce cognitive interventions, but the study is not for beginners — a general understanding of basic teachings is a prerequisite.

Mind and Artificial Intelligence

How do humans think? And what about machines? We may approach this from an orientation of cultivating more discerning awareness, as intimated above. There are many useful applications of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in the field of education and personalised learning. However, unrestrained development is likely to be disastrous and where it is used there needs to be transparency in the methods and processes.

We may also gain clues by studying historical figures who displayed extraordinary creativity, particularly in the field of mathematics. One such figure was Srinivasa Ramanujan, a mathematical genius, who displayed extraordinary intuition. I have spent some time exploring his approach by reference to recollections from contemporaries. He features prominently in my book, Buddhism and Computing: How to Flourish in the Age of Algorithms.

Personalised Learning

My interest in personalised learning developed whilst carrying out research into mobile and ubiquitous computing. A great deal of attention, with substantial Government funding, was provided for a few years from the mid-2000s. It generated considerable optimism that the quality of learner support would be transformed, that learning would become a more relevant and meaningful experience. It was a period of notable innovation; in 2004-5, the RAMBLE project established a viable linkage between personal reflective spaces and institutional learning environments.

Reference: PLE Position Paper: PLEs as Environments for Personal and Personalised Learning

A few years later, elements of personalisation were being considered in making e-maths portable. By that time, priorities changed and these hopes of transformation faded in the subsequent decade. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the limitations of existing educational structures centred on the national curriculum and a classroom-based didactic model. Many reports indicate that it has proven inflexible and many learners have not fared well. It has opened up renewed attention in personalised learning and so this is an area to which I returned to in 2021, when for a few months I was a core team member in a collaboration to produce a novel recommender system.

KEPLAIR Project

KEPLAIR (Knowledge-based Environment for Personalised Learning using an Artificial Intelligence Recommender) is a project that squarely places the responsibility of learning on the individual, providing them with a far-reaching companion for lifelong learning.

In the early stages of a start-up, my role was varied from some research of e-learning systems to day-to-day project support, including the establishment of Zotero as the shared reference management system (from which, incidentally, the items in the publications page is generated).

Project site: http://keplair.info/
EDULEARN21 paper: Introducing KEPLAIR: A Platform for Independent Learners

E-Learning and Virtual Learning Environments

For almost a decade, I specialised in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), also known as Learning Management Systems (LMS). Most of my experiences was gained at Oxford University Computing Services (see below), after which I was able to have a good overview of both the technology, including the integration of corporates systems such as student records, and more general organisational issues. I have expressed some of these experiences in a co-authored paper, An Introduction to Virtual Learning Environments (PDF) by P.Trafford and Y. Shirota, Gakushuin Economic Papers, October 2011.

I have also been engaged more specifically in mathematics e-learning systems, particularly for undergraduates in business and management who haven’t studied much advanced maths in secondary school. Some notes below. My current interest in the architecture of social networking sites would also merit study with some particular facets in the context of learning that could be developed as its own branch.

Mathematics e-Learning

I have undertaken some joint research with Professor Yukari Shirota at the Faculty of Economics, Gakushuin University, in Tokyo. Prof. Shirota has been deploying computer algebra systems aided by Web-based visualization tools to help students’ problem-solving ability. My input concerns the presentation of mathematical materials for the Web, especially with a view to targeting mobile devices, which students can use to review multimedia feedback. This led to a research visit in July 2011. Whilst in Gakushuin University, I gave a class on Game Theory.

• Trafford P. and Shirota Y. 2011. Requirements for Business Mathematics e-Learning System “How2SolveIt”, presented at Japan Society of Business Mathematics annual conference, June 2011.
• Trafford P. and Shirota Y. 2011. Ubiquitous e-Learning: Designing Web Systems for Economics and Business Mathematics, Gakushuin Economic papers, Vol.48, No.2, pp. 111-128. It is available in HTML and PDF formats.
• A class in Game Theory for Management students — a blog post sharing what was for me a rare teaching experience!

VLE work at OUCS

I worked at Oxford University Computing Services (OUCS) between 2000 and 2008; the VLE was a recurrent theme from the interview until I left. When I arrived (at the then Humanities Computing Unit) I was asked to research and review various options for a departmental system, thereby introducing myself to some educational background, characteristics of tools and some of the intricacies of Oxford’s educational structures!

At OUCS I was based in the Learning Technologies Group — generally found in the North end of the building. The main themes concern e-learning, virtual learning environments, Web development, handheld and mobile computing. The photo above is from a large Education/IT conference called Educause (it dwarfs any other HEI conference I’ve attended!)

Between December 2002 and August 2008, I acted as ‘VLE Administrator’, looking after the day-to-day running of WebLearn, a centrally hosted service available to staff and students here, myself included. At that time it was using as its underlying framework the Bodington open source software. Since then a new system has been adopted called Sakai, which has been augmented with some of the key architectural features of Bodington, and the VLE have since been engaged in the migration process.

The range of responsibilities covered Linux system administration, VLE administration (mainly data mining of the database through Perl/SQL), Web-based admin of the VLE, support for more than 100 other Admins of the VLE, help desk, marketing, training, presentations. My Educause Connect blog (plus earlier entries) [archive] contains some brief reports on aspects of my work, which could cover anything from routine tasks to brief investigations of particular technologies and services.

In parallel to the VLE work, I investigated other complementary tools and services such as blogs and wikis, driven in large part by experiences from the RAMBLE project. This led on to consideration of ‘PLEs’ – which can be taken to stand for ‘Personal Learning Environments.’ It’s a contentious area! Generally, I’ve been quite active in promoting open ways of working, a natural part of which is open source software. I’m hoping that this can pervade more my interest in mobile learning.

Open Courseware and Open Educational Resources

The Bodington software provides considerable flexibility, with a particular strength being its devolved hierarchy and access rights system. These have since been incorporated into Sakai, so I expect that many of WebLearn’s resources continue to remain freely available and indexed by Google – no login required. At the same time, WebLearn provides for each user a personal space in which almost all the tools can be used. This prompted me to consider Open courseware, the original conception of which was MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW). Since my initial forways, there has been considerable interest at large in the general subject of open educational resources, which have focused in particular on multimedia.

However, OCW is known to be expensive. After some reflection, it occurred to me that many aspects of Bodington show an organic way towards solving the problem. The following order is deliberate (not chronological)

• From Personalized Learning to Open Courseware: VLEs and Access Rights. This authorisation infrastructure, which has been recognised by others (see e.g. Michael Feldstein’s posts reviewing Bodington – Part 1, Part 2). This granularity in design is, I think, key to the technical facilitation, with wider implications in Web2.0.
• Open Courseware in a few clicks — illustrating the mechanism that Bodington offers to very quickly release something to the open. However, it doesn’t address the licensing issue!.
• Post poster reflections: openness and open courseware — in which I identify some barriers to broad adoption of open courseware
• The quest for sustainability in open courseware — seeks a bottom-up organic approach, but still operating within the institutional domain.

Web2.0-related articles

• PLEs meeting: Questions, many more questions, and a little more focus. Notes from a JISC CETIS meeting on PLEs
• PLEs as Environments for Personal and Personalised Learning (mini position paper) – I argue for letting ‘PLE’ retain a meaning independent of systems and technology.
• All aboard? Reflections on the 7th Sakai conference, Amsterdam — Sakai is gradually shedding its image as a developer-led alternative to Blackboard; I felt a sense of a growing and more widely participative community. I still have my doubts over its design w.r.t. Oxford’s needs, but strong progress is definitely being made.
• The End of the LMS? Web 2.0: Preparing for a New Focus in E-Learning. [Slides are available (probably too many!)]. Paul Davis and I delivered this preconference seminar at EDUCAUSE 2007. We’ve identified some recurrrent themes, key questions, and a flexible process to evaluate blogs, wikis etc. There’s no magic wand, though.