Google Unveils Meena, an AI Chatbot That Mimics Human Conversation
Google introduces Meena, a highly advanced open-domain chatbot trained on billions of words to converse naturally on any topic. The new AI scores close to human levels on a proprietary conversation test, outperforming major competitors.
Google unveils Meena, a new open-domain chatbot that the company claims is the most advanced conversational AI ever built. Unlike standard voice assistants that rely on pre-programmed topics, Meena freely discusses any subject by leveraging 2.6 billion parameters and training on 40 billion words pulled from social media networks.
To measure Meena's conversational abilities, Google creates a new metric called the Sensibleness and Specificity Average (SSA). This test evaluates how comprehensible the chatbot is and how well it stays on topic, yielding an impressive 79% score for Meena compared to the 86% human baseline.
While Meena easily outperforms existing open-domain chatbots like Mitsuku and Cleverbot on the SSA test, its actual conversations feel somewhat mundane. Despite this lack of scintillating depth, developing a social AI capable of natural, open-ended dialogue remains a major priority for tech companies looking to make voice assistants a more integrated part of daily life.