Ustwo may be best known for developing the hugely successful Monument Valley series, but the Shoreditch-based company has branched out in countless other ways as well. With AI on the rise and permeating almost every industry, Ustwo has begun exploring its potential too.
The aim of the company’s AI development is to come up with ways that AI can work for people. It wants to build systems that users can trust and interact with on a human level.
Designing for Trust and Emotion
One of the issues with AI up to this point is that it interacts in a robotic way and doesn’t show any emotion. This is incongruent with the human psyche, which craves connection and empathy. That’s why Ustwo has been exploring the concept of emotive AI, which can communicate with people just as other humans would. According to the AI page on the Ustwo website, it wants its AI interfaces to engage with people with enthusiasm and intuitively.
Ustwo realises that there’s a lot of worry about the future of AI and how it could replace humans in a wide range of fields. Its aim is to remove this sense of dread and make people realise that the technology can work alongside them rather than replace them. One example of a project that Ustwo has worked on is Pi, an AI companion app designed by Inflection AI. It converses with users with warmth and emotional depth, which makes it easier for people to get on board with and trust.
People Will Still Crave Human Connections
AI chatbots with human warmth and emotional intelligence will be hugely important in the years ahead, as people still want to feel like they are connecting with a human when they chat online. Many sites have chatbots now, but the current state of these is cold and far from human-like.
No matter how far technology develops, there’s evidence that human interaction will still be desired. For example, streaming platforms and online casino sites have blown up in recent years, offering users countless different pieces of content that they can watch on demand. However, there’s still a lot of interest in live content which involves real people. This has been seen in particular in the UK casino market, where the live casino category is one of the most popular ways to play. The evidence for this is in the variety on offer, with plenty of new games like Family Feud Live From Vegas.
A More Positive Outlook for AI
There has been a lot of doom and gloom when it comes to AI, with various people predicting that the technology will wipe out people at some point. However, with companies like Ustwo working on ways to make the technology more like people, it could lead to more positive predictions about how it will evolve.
Perhaps, with more companies working on emotive AI, the technology will learn to have human emotions and this will lead it to have second thoughts about taking over the world. Humans and AI may be able to live harmoniously for many years to come.