Noted British AI expert calls for industry-wide AI improvement
- April 20, 2007 10:39 AM PST
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Although visual quality in video games has progressed leaps and bounds over the years, a leading British researcher believes that artificial intelligence has not been advanced at all.
By Eugene Huang
Grand is the creator of the groundbreaking game series Creatures.
In a recent interview with U.K. newspaper "The Guardian", renowned researcher of artificial intelligence Steve Grand spoke about the discrepancy between the quality of graphics in next-gen video games compared to the quality of modern AI programs. In fact, he states that the realistic nature of graphics in modern games actually accentuates the obvious deficiencies in AI behavior.
"When characters looked cartoon-like, any vaguely lifelike behavior was impressive," he explains. "[B]ut now that characters have fluid movements, realistic textures and complex facial expressions, they tend to engage different circuits in the players' brains. The better the graphics become, the worse the behavior looks."
The OBE recipient and creator of the artificial life game Creatures feels that modern programmers have largely ignored working with AI, instead relying on nothing more than "a bunch of 'if/then' statements" to tell artificially created charcters what to do. This, by Grand's definition, can not be referred to as artificial intelligence.
"If a computer character doesn't learn something for itself then the programmer must have told it what to do, and anything that does exactly what it's told and nothing else is not intelligent. This is changing, and neural networks and other learning systems are beginning to creep in. But games programmers tend to devalue the phrase 'artificial intelligence'."
In the interview, he calls on his fellow game developers to use the realm of video games as a field for experimentation. Without free experimentation, the technology of AI will never be able to move forward.
"I think it's probably the best environment for AI that exists, at least until we've cracked some of the huge problems that are holding back robotics," he concludes. "When you write a game, your only responsibility is to be entertaining. It's not a mission-critical environment, so this gives you plenty of scope for new ideas."
Famed developer Peter Molyneux concurs with Grand's sentiments. He states that the learning dog companion in his upcoming title Fable 2 will be powered by an AI program that's been influenced by the theory of neural networks, and also emphasizes the importance of AI development.
"AI is certainly the undiscovered country of games design," he tells The Guardian. "Any game genre -- from hardcore shooters to the most story-driven adventure game -- would be truly revolutionized by AI driving plot, characters and scenarios."
