Iconary: A pictionary-like game to improve the communication skills of AI agents

While artificial intelligence (AI) agents have become increasingly skilled at communicating with humans, they still struggle with several aspects of language, including complex semantics. The term semantics refers to the area of linguistics that relates to the meaning associated with specific words or logical connections between different concepts. A few years ago, researchers at Allen Institute for AI developed a game called Iconary, which is designed to improve the ability of AI techniques to communicate and make connections between different objects. In a recent paper pre-published on arXiv and presented at last year's ENMLP conference, the researchers introduced a more advanced version of the game and trained machine learning algorithms to play against each other or with humans. "Our paper is based on a project at AI2 aimed at training models to play Iconary, a Pictionary-based game we created, where a player has to guess what another player is drawing," Christopher Clark, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore.