Frequently Asked General Questions about EmpathyWorks

A FAQ for technical issues is available for registered partners.

Q: Is EmpathyWorks a standalone program?
A: No, EmpathyWorks is mean to enhance an AI program or robot.  EmpathyWorks is designed as a plug-in. If the host program is able to recognize individuals then EmpathyWorks can model relationships and personalities.

Q: Is EmpathyWorks designed for video games, personal robotics or is it a diagnosis tool?
A: EmpathyWorks can be used for all those purposes, and more. EmpathyWorks is a generalized personality modeling system, configured by personality rules and extended and integrated by custom software.  Given a sufficiently powerful computer, it could model many thousands or millions of individuals and their relationships.

Q: How is EmpathyWorks different from Tamagotchi® by Bandai, WiZ?
A: The EmpathyWorks Infant edition is similar to Tamagotchi in that both emulate an ego-centric individual, unable to form relationships with others.  Tamagotchi owners spend their time attending to the needs of their Tamagotchi, but the Tamagotchi does not recognize them as unique individuals.  Instead, Tamagotchi owners pretend to live their fantasies through their Tamagotchi, much like how children play with Barbie dolls.  In contrast, all of the EmpathyWorks editions except Infant are able to interact with the specific individuals that send them events.

Q: How is EmpathyWorks different from the Sims™ published by Maxis and distributed by Electronic Arts?
A: EmpathyWorks is rather similar to the Sims artificial intelligence program in many ways.  One key difference is that The Sims is a complete packaged game, while EmpathyWorks provides an important building block for making artificial life games; EmpathyWorks could enable games like The Sims, but with more control over life stages, species and the types of relationships. EmpathyWorks can also be used to power robots and avatars.  This means that the personalities and relationships powered by EmpathyWorks could reach out from a game into the physical world.

Q: Does EmpathyWorks include speech recognition? Image recognition?
A: Sensory perception is the job of the host AI application, which must notify EmpathyWorks of events that it perceives.

Q: Are Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics supported?
A: That would be up to the host AI system, not EmpathyWorks. EmpathyWorks could help implement support for Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, however.  Because EmpathyWorks is aware of relationships and is aware of what the response of an individual to an event would be, it could inform an AI system how various individuals might behave as a result of a possible event.

Q: Can an EmpathyWorks character die?
A: Individuals modeled by EmpathyWorks are instantiated as members of species. You define the life stages for the species that you wish to have EmpathyWorks model.  One of the implicitly defined life stages is death.  Death can occur when advancing the maturity level of an individual the the last stage (death.)  Death can also occur as a result of interaction with the virtual world in which the character 'lives'.  When a character dies, every other individual in relationship with the deceased receives a notification, and EmpathyWorks also models their responses.  The internal state of the character is preserved for the remainder of the simulation.

Q: Can an EmpathyWorks personality evolve, based on experience?
A: Yes. Individuals modeled by EmpathyWorks have both emotional state and a world view. Individuals change their emotional state and world view according to their innate characteristics and life events (nature and nurture are both influences.)

Q: Can a product with EmpathyWorks develop a "bad" personality?
A: Yes. The tendency for an artificial personality towards developing a bad attitude increases if exposed to negative events without sufficient support from others.

Q: How many individual products using EmpathyWorks can interact with each other?
A: There is no limit. Interactions require very little processing power, so hundreds or thousands of individuals can interact every second.

Q: Who integrates EmpathyWorks into a product — Micronautics Research or the customer?
A: Micronautics Research would port the EmpathyWorks runtime to the target system, and the customer would integrate their AI system with EmpathyWorks.  Micronautics Research offers professional services on an as-needed basis or as part of a support contract.

Q: Is there a royalty on items made using EmpathyWorks?
A: The runtime does have a royalty.  The various EmpathyWorks editions cost more for successively more sophisticated editions.  Unit costs decrease as volume increases.  Please contact your sales representative for a quotation.  A EmpathyWorks sale consists of a license to distribute a specific quantity of product with a designated EmpathyWorks edition.

EmpathyWorks and PRL are trademarks of Micronautics Research Inc. All rights reserved.

EmpathyWorks Editions

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