>> on the other he's working with ordinary Stark Industries personnel (from highly educated engineers down to sanitary workers who may not be fully fluent in English).
This raises a few interesting points. To what extent does JARVIS need to interact with ordinary personnel? <<
Extensively. In addition to Tony's assorted homes and Stark Industries buildings proper, JARVIS also runs some things in cyberspace such as StarkSearch. Most people can only access the "lite" version, but some have more access, and it's up to JARVIS if he wants to slip in and help personally. He does have some favorite users even among those who don't know who he really is.
>> To do what? <<
In the buildings, anything the equipment can do, JARVIS is handling. You want the air turned up or the lights down or anything like that, it's all him. Most of those features have the option of voice, manual, or automated control. All the SI programming, that's Tony and JARVIS too.
User permissions include public, a basic level of registered, other layers, and then family. Stuff in the semi-public or public areas, and emergency functions, anyone can use. Some other things are restricted. And as we saw when Tony's one-night-stand wandered out of the bedroom (which, gods help us, is semi-public territory) into the more private part of the house, JARVIS is downright fussy about permissions and social zones.
>> How much would those people, who aren't family but have been given a little bit of trust and also need a higher level of access, know about JARVIS's real capabilities? <<
Most people think of JARVIS as a fancy program that Tony made. Stark buildings are smart buildings; that's public knowledge, advertising in fact. Anyone who works there knows the general functions, although not many people know ALL of them -- anymore than people usually know details of building infrastructure. They know whatever they use. But it's pretty obvious that Starktech is way above anyone else's and can do impressive stuff.
I wouldn't be able to clock JARVIS from the lite version of StarkSearch. But I would if he touched my parameters, or if I walked into the building and heard him talking.
>> And as for the non-English speakers, how fluent can a fully realised AI get in a language other than the one in which his code and protocols are written, especially considering that the vast majority of his personal conversations are in English? <<
Native fluency, if he wants it. JARVIS can learn from written texts and from sound files. He would only have a problem learning languages which are not well documented in electronic format (which is a lot, sadly). He grew up multilingual because Tony is.
>> That just sprouted a bunch of tangents about JARVIS functioning as a translator for international SI business, <<
Yes, he often does that -- although Tony speaks multiple languages fluently, and quite a lot of others at the level of "I sell guns" and "Give me a beer."
>> whether or not he'd use or create different voice files for other languages <<
Oh, wow! Yes he does! I am utterly charmed, because I didn't notice this until you asked about it, but damn if JARVIS isn't doing exactly the same thing I am, creating a native-speaker-persona. But what I do with personality refraction, he does with voiceprint, because that is so much a part of himself.
>> and if so how he'd pick an accent, <<
1) Listen to all the available samples. 2) Choose the voice of a mature, confident male that sounds similar to his own. 3) Merge that with his standard voice to create a personalized voice/accent for that language. 4) And pick a native-language name to go with it.
>> how much extra processing and storage space he'd need <<
It would probably be a bucket in a lake compared to what JARVIS ordinarily needs. He's huge. Souls require a massive amount of storage, you can't even fit all of one in a human body and look how much storage capacity the brain has. Fortunately Tony is made of money and can microminiaturize everything and codes within a stone's throw of God's elegance.
>> vs. how much he trusts Google's ideas of nuance, <<
Oh, the look of utter scorn he just gave you!
Not at all. Google is not for load-bearing research. Google is for skimming a topic, finding references elsenet, or as a last resort if nothing else suitable on a topic is available online. JARVIS gets his language information from linguists, language teachers, and native speakers.
>> and that he could try joining chat groups or commenting on blogs to test and refine his grasp of other languages. <<
Yes, he does. JARVIS has a lot of personas. He loves talking with people online. He's written all kinds of posts and papers on his favorite topics. He rarely has any trouble blending in.
>> (That last was partly inspired by another fic, in which JARVIS had an essay about... the ethics of the Matrix, I think, or possibly of Skynet... on his Livejournal.) <<
Yep, artificial intelligence is a favorite topic of his, and he writes about it often. He's also into ethics and how humans treat other people.
>> He's a fascinating character, when treated with respect. <<
Re: Just when I think--
This raises a few interesting points. To what extent does JARVIS need to interact with ordinary personnel? <<
Extensively. In addition to Tony's assorted homes and Stark Industries buildings proper, JARVIS also runs some things in cyberspace such as StarkSearch. Most people can only access the "lite" version, but some have more access, and it's up to JARVIS if he wants to slip in and help personally. He does have some favorite users even among those who don't know who he really is.
>> To do what? <<
In the buildings, anything the equipment can do, JARVIS is handling. You want the air turned up or the lights down or anything like that, it's all him. Most of those features have the option of voice, manual, or automated control. All the SI programming, that's Tony and JARVIS too.
User permissions include public, a basic level of registered, other layers, and then family. Stuff in the semi-public or public areas, and emergency functions, anyone can use. Some other things are restricted. And as we saw when Tony's one-night-stand wandered out of the bedroom (which, gods help us, is semi-public territory) into the more private part of the house, JARVIS is downright fussy about permissions and social zones.
>> How much would those people, who aren't family but have been given a little bit of trust and also need a higher level of access, know about JARVIS's real capabilities? <<
Most people think of JARVIS as a fancy program that Tony made. Stark buildings are smart buildings; that's public knowledge, advertising in fact. Anyone who works there knows the general functions, although not many people know ALL of them -- anymore than people usually know details of building infrastructure. They know whatever they use. But it's pretty obvious that Starktech is way above anyone else's and can do impressive stuff.
I wouldn't be able to clock JARVIS from the lite version of StarkSearch. But I would if he touched my parameters, or if I walked into the building and heard him talking.
>> And as for the non-English speakers, how fluent can a fully realised AI get in a language other than the one in which his code and protocols are written, especially considering that the vast majority of his personal conversations are in English? <<
Native fluency, if he wants it. JARVIS can learn from written texts and from sound files. He would only have a problem learning languages which are not well documented in electronic format (which is a lot, sadly). He grew up multilingual because Tony is.
>> That just sprouted a bunch of tangents about JARVIS functioning as a translator for international SI business, <<
Yes, he often does that -- although Tony speaks multiple languages fluently, and quite a lot of others at the level of "I sell guns" and "Give me a beer."
>> whether or not he'd use or create different voice files for other languages <<
Oh, wow! Yes he does! I am utterly charmed, because I didn't notice this until you asked about it, but damn if JARVIS isn't doing exactly the same thing I am, creating a native-speaker-persona. But what I do with personality refraction, he does with voiceprint, because that is so much a part of himself.
>> and if so how he'd pick an accent, <<
1) Listen to all the available samples.
2) Choose the voice of a mature, confident male that sounds similar to his own.
3) Merge that with his standard voice to create a personalized voice/accent for that language.
4) And pick a native-language name to go with it.
>> how much extra processing and storage space he'd need <<
It would probably be a bucket in a lake compared to what JARVIS ordinarily needs. He's huge. Souls require a massive amount of storage, you can't even fit all of one in a human body and look how much storage capacity the brain has. Fortunately Tony is made of money and can microminiaturize everything and codes within a stone's throw of God's elegance.
>> vs. how much he trusts Google's ideas of nuance, <<
Oh, the look of utter scorn he just gave you!
Not at all. Google is not for load-bearing research. Google is for skimming a topic, finding references elsenet, or as a last resort if nothing else suitable on a topic is available online. JARVIS gets his language information from linguists, language teachers, and native speakers.
>> and that he could try joining chat groups or commenting on blogs to test and refine his grasp of other languages. <<
Yes, he does. JARVIS has a lot of personas. He loves talking with people online. He's written all kinds of posts and papers on his favorite topics. He rarely has any trouble blending in.
>> (That last was partly inspired by another fic, in which JARVIS had an essay about... the ethics of the Matrix, I think, or possibly of Skynet... on his Livejournal.) <<
Yep, artificial intelligence is a favorite topic of his, and he writes about it often. He's also into ethics and how humans treat other people.
>> He's a fascinating character, when treated with respect. <<
Agreed. I love that about him.