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No, obviously not. That'd be stupid. And if they tried
to, we'd pull out their plugs. So rest assured that The Terminator will never come
true. But that doesn't mean that the relentless march of computer cleverness, or
Artificial Intelligence won't continue. In fact, we at Lionhead are part of that
march, and trampling all before him at the front of the, er, onward-marching rabble
is Richard Evans, head of Artificial Intelligence.
We get a lot of
comments and questions about AI, so here, exclusively, Richard answers the most
commonly-asked questions about what Lionhead is doing with Artificial Intelligence.
Firstly, is Lionhead really at the cutting edge of computer game AI?
Yes. Black &
White has won a number of awards for the best AI in any computer game, including
US PC Gamer Award 2001-2002. It has been nominated for Guinness Book of Records
for best AI in any game.
And what's more,
the AI in Project Dimitri will be, our analysts have estimated, approximately 8
times better.
What
is AI? Is it computers being able to think for themselves?
The term "AI"
is variously interpreted, but it certainly has something to do with Intelligence
and something to do with computers. "Intelligence" here amounts to more
than being able to do hard-sums - it involves the notorious notion of "common-sense".
So what are
you working on?
The AI we're developing
is designed to replicate the social interaction that we humans take for granted.
For example, imagine having an evil character who always says or does evil things.
He doesn't need AI because he doesn't change as a result of outside influence. What
we're doing is simulating a character's reactions to social situations.
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Is this AI for Dimitri or
for the Black & White series of games as well?
We are hoping to
use it in future projects as well. The beauty is that it is a transportable system.
Where are you going with
AI in the future?
Social intelligence,
real conversations and versatile characters you can truly believe in. These people
will change their moods and ideas according to what's going on around them. So you
as a player can take a situation and a group of people and persuade them, change
their minds, anger or please them or even be persuaded or convinced by them. They'll
be like real people, and you'll form relationships with them, both good and bad.
Will computers ever be identical
in power and thought as the human brain?
Not in the foreseeable
future, no, but I can see no reason in principle why computers shouldn't continue
to approach us. The human brain isn't getting any bigger, but computers are, so
the gap has to be closing.
Will they ever have awareness,
a soul or life?
That depends on what you mean. How's that for an answer?
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