Title: Autonomous meaning creation. Can robots create their own language?

The talk will review and discuss recent research that tries to identify computational mechanisms and representations that allow embodied agents (robots) to autonomously develop meaning and communication systems. The autonomously developed communication systems share important properties of human language such as compositionality, open-endedness and the need for inference. Through experiments with robots in the real world and in simulation, we explore the role of embodiment in communication. We are particularly interested in mechanisms that allow agents to not only develop communication systems but allow robots to choose and develop the conceptualization strategies for developing communication systems - a key feature of Natural Language evolution. The talk will discuss both recent research trends, as well as attempts at artistic exploration of the subject of autonomous meaning creation.

Michael Spranger (DE) is a roboticist by training, with extensive experience in research on, and construction of, autonomous systems, including research on robot perception, world modelling and behaviour control. He currently is a researcher at the Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Tokyo), a small think tank on future technologies that challenges traditional boundaries in science, technology, and society. His work focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning, language learning, language evolution and developmental robotics. Michael Spranger has been involved in art projects at the border between science and technology for a long time. His artistic work spans from opera performances, to video and robot installations.