ConvSim | Devpost

ConvSim UI
A brief look at our model architecture!
The analysis in action! The agents do it all by themselves.

Inspiration

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, we found ourselves pondering a profound question: What if AI agents could transcend their role as mere tools?

In the events of this hackathon, we've seen agents made with Fetch AI be utilized for autonomous tasking, scheduling, and other simple interactions. We're also aware of the progress that is being made in having AI Agents emulate real people for interactivity with users. But what if we were able to develop an environment that humans didn't need to exist in at all -- in other words, what does it look like when AI agents self-sustainably interact with only each other? What happens in that world? What insights do we gain? Can agents become self-sufficient entities capable of meaningful interaction?

This curiosity was sparked by our time in the Bay Area, CA this summer, where we participated in hackathons and events led by ML engineers at Google Deepmind, NVIDIA, AI21 Labs, and Boston Dynamics. We're here to answer a question in fundamental AI/ML research and development, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the realm of AI agents, because it's being worked on and it is unanswered.

Through this project, we've envisioned a world where AI identities are not just reactive but proactive – a world where they can engage in complex dialogues, simulate real-world scenarios, and provide us with unprecedented insights into human interactions. Better yet, we've proven that it's possible. Our vision has given birth to ConvSim, a revolutionary multi-agent platform that transforms us from active participants into captivated observers of a virtual world demonstrating intelligence and autonomous action.

What it does

ConvSim is not just another chatbot or simulation tool – it's a window into a new dimension of AI-driven experiences. At its core, ConvSim is a sophisticated multi-agent platform that orchestrates interactions between AI entities, simulating real-world conversations and scenarios with uncanny realism. Imagine witnessing a debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on climate change, observing how it unfolds, and gaining insights that were previously unattainable. ConvSim makes this possible by leveraging advanced AI technologies to create a self-sustaining ecosystem of intelligent agents. Our platform comprises five distinct agents, each playing a crucial role in the simulation:

A. Identity Generation Agent: The gateway to our virtual world, this agent interacts with users to understand their desired simulation parameters. B. Agent 1 & Agent 2: These are our conversationalists, meticulously crafted AI entities that emulate real individuals with high fidelity. They engage in dialogue, mirroring the nuances and complexities of human interaction. C. Analysis Agent: A silent observer that provides valuable perspective on the unfolding conversation, offering insights that might escape the human eye. D. Tool Agent: This agent translates the rich tapestry of conversation into quantifiable data, generating plots based on sentiment analysis and productivity metrics.

Through this intricate dance of AI entities, ConvSim creates a self-sustaining environment that can simulate a vast array of scenarios – from high-stakes political debates to intimate counseling sessions, from classroom interactions to celebrity interviews.

How we built it

Building ConvSim was an exercise in pushing the boundaries of AI technology and software architecture. We leveraged cutting-edge AI frameworks, including Fetch AI and OpenAI, to create a robust and flexible multi-agent system. Our development process focused on several key areas:

Agent Design: Each agent was carefully crafted to fulfill its specific role within the ecosystem. We used advanced natural language processing models to ensure realistic and context-aware interactions.
Inter-Agent Communication: We developed a sophisticated communication protocol that allows our agents to exchange information seamlessly, creating a cohesive and believable simulation.
User Interface: While the magic happens behind the scenes, we created an intuitive interface that allows users to easily set up and observe simulations.
Analysis and Visualization: We integrated powerful analytics tools to process the wealth of data generated by our simulations, providing users with valuable insights and visualizations.
Scalability and Performance: Given the complex nature of our multi-agent system, we paid special attention to optimization, ensuring that ConvSim can handle multiple simultaneous simulations without compromising on performance.

A high-level diagram of our multi-agent platform architecture is also included.

This architecture allows for a seamless flow of information between agents, creating a dynamic and responsive simulation environment.

Challenges we ran into

Developing ConvSim was not without its hurdles. Some of the key challenges we faced include:

Maintaining Coherence: Ensuring that multiple AI agents could maintain a coherent and contextually relevant conversation over extended periods was a significant challenge. We had to fine-tune our models extensively to achieve natural dialogue flow.
Balancing Realism and Ethics: As we simulated real-world personalities and scenarios, we had to carefully navigate ethical considerations to ensure our simulations were respectful and did not propagate harmful biases or misinformation.
Performance Optimization: Managing multiple sophisticated AI models simultaneously put a strain on computational resources. Optimizing our system for efficiency without compromising on the quality of interactions was a complex task.
Data Integration: Synthesizing outputs from multiple agents into meaningful analyses and visualizations required careful data integration and processing techniques.
User Experience Design: Creating an interface that could convey the complexity of our simulations while remaining intuitive and engaging for users was a delicate balancing act.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Despite the challenges, our team has achieved several groundbreaking accomplishments with ConvSim:

True Multi-Agent Interaction: We've successfully created a self-sustaining ecosystem where multiple AI agents interact autonomously, a feat that pushes the boundaries of current AI technology.
High-Fidelity Simulations: Our platform can emulate real-world personalities and scenarios with remarkable accuracy, opening up new possibilities for entertainment, education, and research.
Advanced Analytics: By integrating sentiment analysis and productivity metrics, we've added a layer of quantitative insight to qualitative interactions, providing valuable data for various applications.
Scalable Architecture: Our system is designed to handle multiple simultaneous simulations, making it a powerful tool for large-scale scenario analysis and entertainment productions.
Ethical AI Development: We've navigated complex ethical considerations to create a platform that respects privacy and promotes responsible AI use.

What we learned

The development of ConvSim has genuinely been an incredible learning journey:

AI Complexity: We gained deep insights into the intricacies of creating and managing multiple AI agents in a cohesive system. The level of architectural detail and rigor required to make this happen was extraordinarily high. Our program utilizes multi-threading, computation optimization, and a fully integrated platform based on Fetch AI's architecture system to make this environment self-sustaining and continually alive. 2 Interdisciplinary Approach: We learned the importance of combining expertise from various fields – from AI and software engineering to psychology and ethics – to create a truly innovative product. Our product is applied to the Entertainment and Media track, but its simulation capabilities unveil serious potential in Sustainability, Healthcare, and Education as well.
Real-World Applications: Through our development process, we've uncovered numerous potential applications for multi-agent systems in entertainment, education, mental health, and more. But more over, we've continued to find use cases that fit across any industry -- the reason being, we're able to simulate a "team environment" where a set of agents work together to accomplish a task. It's an architecture that fits so many systems.
Ethical Considerations: We developed a keen understanding of the ethical implications of AI simulations and the importance of responsible development practices. This is at the forefront of our development system and mission. The abilities of the product support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the simulation capabilities and the questions that are answered.
User-Centric Design: We learned valuable lessons about designing complex systems that remain accessible and engaging for end-users.

What's next for ConvSim

ConvSim is not just a hackathon project – it's the beginning of a journey to revolutionize how we interact with and learn from AI. Our future roadmap includes:

Expanded Simulation Capabilities: We aim to increase the range of scenarios and personalities that ConvSim can emulate, making it an even more versatile tool for entertainment and research. Enhanced Analytics: We plan to integrate more advanced analytics tools, including predictive modeling, to provide even deeper insights from our simulations.
VR/AR Integration: To create truly immersive experiences, we're exploring integration with virtual and augmented reality technologies.
API Development: We want to make ConvSim's capabilities accessible to developers and researchers, allowing them to build upon our platform.
Real-World Partnerships: We're seeking partnerships in the entertainment, education, and mental health sectors to bring ConvSim's capabilities to real-world applications.
Continuous Ethical Review: As we expand, we're committed to ongoing ethical review and refinement of our platform to ensure responsible AI use.

ConvSim represents a paradigm shift in AI-driven experiences. By creating a self-sustaining multi-agent platform, we've opened the door to unprecedented possibilities in entertainment, education, and research. From simulating high-stakes political debates to exploring sensitive topics in mental health and sexuality, ConvSim provides a safe, immersive environment for exploration and learning. In the realm of media and entertainment, ConvSim is not just a tool – it's a revolution. We're not merely predicting the future; we're creating it. With ConvSim, content creators can prototype storylines, test character interactions, and even generate entire narratives driven by AI. Audiences can step into immersive experiences, witnessing historical events unfold or exploring alternate realities. But our vision extends beyond entertainment. ConvSim has the potential to be a powerful tool for education, allowing students to interact with historical figures or complex concepts in engaging ways. In the field of psychology, it could provide a platform for exploring human behavior and interactions in a controlled, ethical environment.

From a highly technical perspective, this product is one that doesn’t have linear utility - if done less than optimally, it exists as an exciting entertainment and media tool; if done optimally, it is an invaluable tool in simulating the unknown.

Personality mimicking - In the future, a potential implementation is to first create RAG knowledge bases or fine tune models to mimic a known person or personality. Relevant information can be gathered by webscraping.
Simulation Optimization - Multiple simulations can be done, with slight modifications. These simulations can be aggregated into reports, finding the “Nash equilibrium” of conversations, or what state will they most likely trend towards.
Analysis - In the future, the analysis agent should be able to produce what metrics to measure on its own. This could be sentiment, productivity, entertainment.

As we continue to develop and refine ConvSim, we're not just building a product – we're pioneering a new frontier in AI research and application. We're tackling fundamental questions about AI capabilities, ethics, and human-AI interaction with the highest technical rigor. We're building a system that redefines immersive experiences for media and entertainment, but also provides insights and learning that address key issues in sustainability, education, and healthcare, amongst other regions. We can simulate how a conversation between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump about climate change looks. We can simulate how a conversation between a harsh teacher and disgruntled student with some learning disadvantage looks. We can simulate how doctor-patient interactions look. We can find insights by exploring the unknown or difficult conversations that haven't been had, and dive into the future.

Join us on this exciting journey as we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI. With ConvSim, the future of interactive experiences is here, and it's incredible.

NOTE: We have a video demo for our project, and have not been able to include it in this project due to some technical difficulties with the submission. We are so excited to share the product in person, and please reach out if you would like to see the demo!