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Games That Design Themselves
destinyland writes "MIT's Media Lab is building 'a game that designs its own AI agents by observing the behavior of humans.' Their ultimate goal? 'Collective AI-driven agents that can interact and converse with humans without requiring programming or specialists to hand-craft behavior and dialogue.' With a similar project underway by a University of California professor, we may soon see radically different games that can 'react with human-like adaptability to whatever situation they're thrust into.'"
The idea of an AI that learns from the players sounds great when you're talking about a bot for Multiplayer Shooter 2010 developing tactics and strategies without explicit programming, or an NPC partner in a stealth gaming learning how not to bash their face into walls and then walk off a cliff into lava. Awesome, bring on the learned emergent behavior!
But dialogue? Oh lord no, please don't let the AI's learn how to "converse" from players. Because the last thing I need is to have AIs in games screaming "Shitcock!" or calling me a fag a thousand times in a row with computerized speed and efficiency.
The enemies of Democracy are
Because programming -IS- Logic.
A group of neurons can be connected together to form a calculator. But, you can't multiply 20 digit numbers in your head. You don't have access to the "hardware" layer of your brain. Why would a sufficiently advanced AI be any different?
As such you generally tend to base it against the opponent you are playing. An AI cannot tell if you are an aggressive or passive person, you're strategic abilities or understanding of game mechanics having never met you before playing the game.
I play online games against people I've never met before too. What magical ability do I have, that a computer could not?
... and that's when the C.H.U.D.'s came at me.