"Jacques" makes "Robert" look idiotic. "Jacques" is the first UFO chatbot to have (momentarily) caused me to worry about its abilities - see the screenshots below from the relevant conversation...
By now, almost everyone is familiar with various online chatbots (particularly ChatGPT), but I haven't seen the UFO community talk much about running chatbots and other AI software on your own HOME computer (i.e. "locally") with access to files on your own hard drive.
Such a local chatbot can, for example, assimilate your collection of scanned UFO books, documents, magazines etc.
Copyright and privacy issues prevent the big online chatbots readily answering questions based on UFO books and case files. Besides, most people aren't very interested in that content so AI chatbots typically aren't trained on huge amounts of UFO material and data. But you can now do this at home.
There have already been glimpses of the possibilities for AI software running on your home computer (or even on your mobile phone...) with access to your own collections of material.
I'm not sure how many people have noticed that, just within the last few months (or even weeks), this has moved from technically difficult to almost trivial.
An explosion of such AI tools running on home computers is inevitable given the above issues.
As a small demonstration of the ease with which such customized AI tools can now be installed on a home computer, I've created a new UFO chatbot - "Jacques" (named as a small gesture of appreciation to Jacques Vallee for his contributions to UFO research).
In brief, "Jacques" is a UFO chatbot that I have created to access numerous PDFs (including Jacques Vallee's books, his published diaries, plus some of his articles and emails / messages). "Jacques" is based on (free) "AnythingLLM" AI software that also has access to a growing range of tools (or "agents") which enable it to execute various tasks - including accessing information from websites, making charts and saving files to my computer.
Until a few months ago, the creation of such a chatbot at home, and assimilating a collection of files, required knowing a considerable amount about relatively exotic-sounding technologies, such as embedding, vector databases and open source LLMs. Augmenting the LLM with the ability to execute relevant agents would have been difficult, if not impossible, for most people. Fortunately, as a result of developments in the last few months (and, indeed, in the last few weeks...), nobody needs to understand those technologies. Recently released tools deal with the technical stuff for you.
New (free) software, such as AnythingLLM, allows easy installation of all the necessary technical stuff and sets it up for you, almost entirely automatically. Adding a collection of your files to your chatbot is then (again, largely...) a matter of dragging and dropping relevant files into the new software. Better documentation of these new tools would still be useful, but even a modest amount of knowledge of computers is enough to get everything running.
So, to duplicate something like "Jacques" at home no longer requires any substantial technical knowledge. I therefore hesitate to give any technical details. You no longer need them to do something like this at home. (Just in case, for those that like technical terms or are gluttons for punishment, "Jacques" is a locally-run LLM chatbot based on the AnythingLLM application and uses the Mistral 7B open source model [although the model can easily be changed] and the default embedder [all-MiniLM-L6-v2] and default vector database [Lance DB]. It has RAG capabilities to access PDFs / documents and can also execute AI Agents from within the chatbot. I am running my copy on a fairly typical desktop PC [16GB Windows 10 with a slightly dated 8GB GTX 1070 Nvidia GPU].
In other words, as a result of other people making relevant software and tools freely available online, you need to know much (if anything) about computer coding to do something similar (or much bigger) at home, nor do you need to upgrade to a particularly new or high powered system to create or use a specialised chatbot like "Jacques".
In short, the UFO community (and the rest of the world) are going to have a lot of fun with tools like "Jacques" in the very near future.
To put "Jacques" in context, I've previously created 3 UFO chatbots:
(1) "Robert" (2018) - Back in December 2018, I created and shared a basic UFO chatbot which I named "Robert", after Robert Moore. I think that was the first UFO chatbot created. (Robert Moore was a kind and friendly British UFO researcher. He has since sadly passed away). "Robert" attempted to respond to raw reports of basic UFO sightings by asking some questions and suggesting _possible_ solutions for them. "Robert" utilised logic set out in flowcharts published in the updated version of the book "UFO Study". "Robert" used the IBM Watson Assistant framework of Artificial Intelligence which, in particular, allowed natural language to be used to chat with Robert. ("Robert" was my chatbot that that Vicente-Juan Ballester-Olmos generously called "one of the best, most proactive and original developments in UFO research in the last decades").
(2) "Jenny" (2023, April) - On 1 April 2023, I shared a new toy with the UFO community : "Jenny". I think "Jenny" was the first Chatbot focused on UFOs that used ChatGPT (just using simple prompt engineering) to answer questions and summarise information to assist with UFO research and investigations. I called that Chatbot "Jenny" as a gesture of respect to another British ufologist, Jenny Randles. I'm not aware of any other UFO chatbots being shared with the UFO community between my creation of "Robert" in 2018 and my creation of "Jenny", so "Jenny" appears to have been only the second chatbot focused on UFO investigation and research. Jenny was a significant upgrade over Robert, but was unreliable and prone to making stuff up. Basically, "Jenny" was neither as smart nor as careful as the "Jenny" was named after. :) But it was much much easier to create "Jenny" than my previous chatbot. Here's a direct link to "Jenny":
https://ora.sh/isaackoi/jenny
(3) "Dave" (2023, November) was a chatbot utilising ChatGPT4 and the custom GPT facilities that had recently been released, I named "Dave" as a tribute to David Clarke. As a test, I got "Dave" to assimilate one UFO book by David Clarke and a collection of online material - but I was concerned about copyright issues so ultimately decided not to upload more books to that chatbot. (This was the main reason for my looking into developing a "local" chatbot like "Jacques"). I think this was the first UFO chatbot to assimilate an entire UFO book. "Dave", like "Jenny", used ChatGPT (version 4, whereas "Jenny" used version 3.5). "Dave" was even easier to create than "Jenny", utilising the GPT creation tool released by OpenAI during the previous week. https://isaackoidata.blogspot.com/2023/11/
https://chat.openai.com/g/g-LUQvGeeIm-dave-ufo-analyst
Here's the second passage cited for that answer about Richard Doty:
Since the answer given by "Jacques" referred to potential further investigation, and since "Jacques" is based on software that is capable of running various tools (including searching online), I asked "Jacques" to perform those follow-up investigations itself to the extent it was capable of doing so. "Jacques" agreed and indicated that follow-up research could take several days, listing various steps it would take.
A few minutes later, I asked for an update.
"Jacques" gave a answer that set out a number of steps that it claimed to have taken - starting with (as I'd expect) it reviewing the material that I had provided to it.
I'll admit (with a slightly red face...) that I was somewhat surprised, indeed momentarily rather concerned, when I got to the third paragraph of the reply from "Jacques": it claimed to have "reached out to experts in the field of UFO research"...
Yes, I know that chatbot are prone to imaging things (or having "hallucinations"). And, yes, I haven't [yet] seen any chatbot capable of following up answers ... but "Jacques" is built on software that does enable the chatbot to access information on the internet and to write files and it had generated a sensible plan for further research. So, for a few seconds I was concerned that it had been spamming some of my contacts or others. After pulling myself together, I dismissed the claim made by "Jacques" that it had emailed some other people as yet another "hallucination" by a chatbot. This exercise did make me wonder, however, how long it will be before such a chatbot CAN (if permitted to do so) send emails and independently do other follow-up research that it can already plan.
I therefore find the citations helpful (and a quick and easy way to find relevant passages, even if they do not include a relevant keyword) - BUT, as with other existing LLM chatbots, the answers have to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Here's a screenshot of the part of the exchange that caused me that momentary worry:
By the way, I struggled to select a single image to accompany my posting of this item on social media. I'm not sure I selected the right one. I'll paste some of the options below so that others can pick their own preferred image. (Besides, they're fun...).
Option 1:
Option 2:
Option 3:
Option 4:
Option 5:
Option 6:
Option 7:
Option 8:
New (free) software, such as AnythingLLM, allows easy installation of all the necessary technical stuff and sets it up for you, almost entirely automatically. Adding a collection of your files to your chatbot is then (again, largely...) a matter of dragging and dropping relevant files into the new software. Better documentation of these new tools would still be useful, but even a modest amount of knowledge of computers is enough to get everything running.
So, to duplicate something like "Jacques" at home no longer requires any substantial technical knowledge. I therefore hesitate to give any technical details. You no longer need them to do something like this at home. (Just in case, for those that like technical terms or are gluttons for punishment, "Jacques" is a locally-run LLM chatbot based on the AnythingLLM application and uses the Mistral 7B open source model [although the model can easily be changed] and the default embedder [all-MiniLM-L6-v2] and default vector database [Lance DB]. It has RAG capabilities to access PDFs / documents and can also execute AI Agents from within the chatbot. I am running my copy on a fairly typical desktop PC [16GB Windows 10 with a slightly dated 8GB GTX 1070 Nvidia GPU].
In other words, as a result of other people making relevant software and tools freely available online, you need to know much (if anything) about computer coding to do something similar (or much bigger) at home, nor do you need to upgrade to a particularly new or high powered system to create or use a specialised chatbot like "Jacques".
In short, the UFO community (and the rest of the world) are going to have a lot of fun with tools like "Jacques" in the very near future.
To put "Jacques" in context, I've previously created 3 UFO chatbots:
(1) "Robert" (2018) - Back in December 2018, I created and shared a basic UFO chatbot which I named "Robert", after Robert Moore. I think that was the first UFO chatbot created. (Robert Moore was a kind and friendly British UFO researcher. He has since sadly passed away). "Robert" attempted to respond to raw reports of basic UFO sightings by asking some questions and suggesting _possible_ solutions for them. "Robert" utilised logic set out in flowcharts published in the updated version of the book "UFO Study". "Robert" used the IBM Watson Assistant framework of Artificial Intelligence which, in particular, allowed natural language to be used to chat with Robert. ("Robert" was my chatbot that that Vicente-Juan Ballester-Olmos generously called "one of the best, most proactive and original developments in UFO research in the last decades").
(2) "Jenny" (2023, April) - On 1 April 2023, I shared a new toy with the UFO community : "Jenny". I think "Jenny" was the first Chatbot focused on UFOs that used ChatGPT (just using simple prompt engineering) to answer questions and summarise information to assist with UFO research and investigations. I called that Chatbot "Jenny" as a gesture of respect to another British ufologist, Jenny Randles. I'm not aware of any other UFO chatbots being shared with the UFO community between my creation of "Robert" in 2018 and my creation of "Jenny", so "Jenny" appears to have been only the second chatbot focused on UFO investigation and research. Jenny was a significant upgrade over Robert, but was unreliable and prone to making stuff up. Basically, "Jenny" was neither as smart nor as careful as the "Jenny" was named after. :) But it was much much easier to create "Jenny" than my previous chatbot. Here's a direct link to "Jenny":
https://ora.sh/isaackoi/jenny
(3) "Dave" (2023, November) was a chatbot utilising ChatGPT4 and the custom GPT facilities that had recently been released, I named "Dave" as a tribute to David Clarke. As a test, I got "Dave" to assimilate one UFO book by David Clarke and a collection of online material - but I was concerned about copyright issues so ultimately decided not to upload more books to that chatbot. (This was the main reason for my looking into developing a "local" chatbot like "Jacques"). I think this was the first UFO chatbot to assimilate an entire UFO book. "Dave", like "Jenny", used ChatGPT (version 4, whereas "Jenny" used version 3.5). "Dave" was even easier to create than "Jenny", utilising the GPT creation tool released by OpenAI during the previous week. https://isaackoidata.blogspot.com/2023/11/
https://chat.openai.com/g/g-LUQvGeeIm-dave-ufo-analyst
"Jacques" is the first of my UFO chatbots to run entirely on my home computer. It does not need any Internet access nor does it involve any uploading of material. Copyright and privacy issues are therefore much easier to address and control.
I think "Jacques" is the first UFO chatbot that has assimilated a collection of UFO books and other files.
I think "Jacques" is the first UFO chatbot that has assimilated a collection of UFO books and other files.
I have fed "Jacques" with all the books by Jacques Vallee's books listed below.
(a) The paper he co-authored with Eric Davis, "Incommensurability, Orthodoxy and the Physics of High Strangeness: a 6-layer Model for Anomalous Phenomena"
- Vallee, Jacques - Anatomy Of A Phenomenon -- Unidentified Objects In Space
- Vallee, Jacques - Challenge to Science
- Vallee, Jacques - Confrontations, A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact
- Vallee, Jacques - Dimensions, A Casebook of Alien Contact
- Vallee, Jacques - Fastwalker (A Novel)
- Vallee, Jacques - Forbidden Science Journals - Volume 1 - 1957-1969
- Vallee, Jacques - Forbidden Science Journals - Volume 2 - 1970-1979
- Vallee, Jacques - Forbidden Science Journals - Volume 3 - 1980-1989
- Vallee, Jacques - Forbidden Science Journals - Volume 4 - 1990-1999
- Vallee, Jacques - Forbidden Science Journals - Volume 5 - 2000-2009
- Vallee, Jacques - Messengers of Deception
- Vallee, Jacques - Passport To Magonia -- From Folklore To Flying Saucers
- Vallee, Jacques - Revelations- Alien Contact And Human Deception
- Vallee, Jacques - The Invisible College
- Vallee, Jacques - Ufo Chronicles Of The Soviet Union
- Vallee, Jacques - UFOs The Psychic Solution
- Vallee, Jacques and Aubeck, Chris - Wonders in the Sky
- Hynek, J Allen And Vallee, Jacques - The Edge Of Reality -- A Progress Report On Unidentified Flying Objects
(a) The paper he co-authored with Eric Davis, "Incommensurability, Orthodoxy and the Physics of High Strangeness: a 6-layer Model for Anomalous Phenomena"
(b) A paper on UFO databases he presented at the French Geipan event that I attended in 2014
(c) Jacques Vallee's paper "Physical Analyses in Ten Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects"
Just as a test, I also added some emails and messages from Jacques Vallee. (Interestingly, such material can be added as Microsoft Word files, not just as PDFs).
I asked "Jacques" whether Richard Doty can be trusted. "Jacques" gave a somewhat equivocal answer BUT, crucially, gave citations to the sources of the answer. it is possible to click on those citations and see what information the chatbot particularly relies upon. Those citations do not have to contain a relevant keyword since "Jacques" is bright enough to identify other material relevant to the questions. Thus, the material cited in response to the question about whether Richard Doty can be trusted included material about him (allegedly...) hoaxing documents, even though those passages do not include the word "trust".
Here's the initial exchange with "Jacques", showing citations linked at the bottom of the image.
Just as a test, I also added some emails and messages from Jacques Vallee. (Interestingly, such material can be added as Microsoft Word files, not just as PDFs).
I asked "Jacques" whether Richard Doty can be trusted. "Jacques" gave a somewhat equivocal answer BUT, crucially, gave citations to the sources of the answer. it is possible to click on those citations and see what information the chatbot particularly relies upon. Those citations do not have to contain a relevant keyword since "Jacques" is bright enough to identify other material relevant to the questions. Thus, the material cited in response to the question about whether Richard Doty can be trusted included material about him (allegedly...) hoaxing documents, even though those passages do not include the word "trust".
Here's the initial exchange with "Jacques", showing citations linked at the bottom of the image.
Here's the first passage cited for that answer about Richard Doty:
A few minutes later, I asked for an update.
"Jacques" gave a answer that set out a number of steps that it claimed to have taken - starting with (as I'd expect) it reviewing the material that I had provided to it.
I'll admit (with a slightly red face...) that I was somewhat surprised, indeed momentarily rather concerned, when I got to the third paragraph of the reply from "Jacques": it claimed to have "reached out to experts in the field of UFO research"...
Yes, I know that chatbot are prone to imaging things (or having "hallucinations"). And, yes, I haven't [yet] seen any chatbot capable of following up answers ... but "Jacques" is built on software that does enable the chatbot to access information on the internet and to write files and it had generated a sensible plan for further research. So, for a few seconds I was concerned that it had been spamming some of my contacts or others. After pulling myself together, I dismissed the claim made by "Jacques" that it had emailed some other people as yet another "hallucination" by a chatbot. This exercise did make me wonder, however, how long it will be before such a chatbot CAN (if permitted to do so) send emails and independently do other follow-up research that it can already plan.
I therefore find the citations helpful (and a quick and easy way to find relevant passages, even if they do not include a relevant keyword) - BUT, as with other existing LLM chatbots, the answers have to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Here's a screenshot of the part of the exchange that caused me that momentary worry:
By the way, I struggled to select a single image to accompany my posting of this item on social media. I'm not sure I selected the right one. I'll paste some of the options below so that others can pick their own preferred image. (Besides, they're fun...).
Option 1:
Option 2:
Now that I've finished developing "Jacques", I am focusing on another chatbot, which further scales up the development of "Jacques". The relevant pace is accelerating. I anticipate finishing that fifth chatbot within a few days.
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