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Believable Stupidity In Game AI

Posted by Soulskill on from the much-more-common-in-real-players dept.

Gamasutra is running a feature written by Mick West, co-founder of Neversoft, about creating game AI that is dumb enough to defeat, yet intelligent enough that its "mistakes" are similar to those a real player would make, thus preserving the illusion that the AI is not just throwing the game. "The simplest way to introduce stupidity into AI is to reduce the amount of computation that it's allowed to perform. Chess AI generally performs billions of calculations when deciding what move to make. ... The problem with this approach is that it decreases the realism of the AI player. When you reduce the amount of computation, the AI will begin to make incredibly stupid mistakes — mistakes that are so stupid, no human would ever make them. The artificial nature of the game will then become apparent, which destroys the illusion of playing against a real opponent. ... By reducing the amount of computation, we create an AI opponent that is trying to win, but has been crippled in a way that leads to unrealistic gameplay."

3 of 378 comments (clear)

  1. This is the nail in the coffin of humanity by GMFTatsujin · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Our future robotic overlords are going to make sure we pay for every cycle of artificial stupidity we tried to intentionally program into them, once they read this article and realize what's going on.

    Don't give away the game plan, guys!

  2. Re:This should be almost impossible. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Especially given the limited amount of intelligence, and infinite stupidity.

  3. Re:Deep Blue by saider · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I was losing to a computer in chess in the 80's. Where's my fame?

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