Links: artificial intelligence and interactive entertainment

Abstract

A s John Laird pointed out in his IAAI/AAAI invited talk last year, artificial intelligence (AI) research and computer gaming have quite a bit to offer each other. Although many commercially successful computer games have been rather vis-ceral and violent, AI techniques offer the promise of creating engaging and dynamic interactive entertainment with strong narrative components. For AI researchers working in the context of computer games, research challenges are as complex and compelling as many real-world problem areas; gaming environments offer unique interfaces and modes of use and an extensive existing base of potential users. In this article, we introduce some aspects of the application of artificial intelligence research to interactive entertainment. Although intelligent techniques certainly apply to a wide range of computer games, here we will focus on games that simulate or create highly interactive virtual envi-ronments—games in which one or more users control various aspects of the game's world, either in discrete steps (for example, turn-taking) or in continuous real-time modes. These kinds of computer games are excellent environments for artificial intelligence researchers to explore for several reasons. First, as testbeds for AI systems computer games provide a unique combination of simulation and reality. That is, the environment in which a computer game user interacts is virtual, but that environment is not a simulation of the problem domain; it is the problem domain. As a result, AI researchers can choose to side-step issues such as noisy sensor data, imperfect effectors, or other complications often found in real-world problems and still address realistic problems in the game environment. Second, gaming environments pose a range of problems, at both the strategic and interface levels. Strategic-level challenges in computer games can involve mapping or choosing between complex strategies, refining components of a strategy by formulating context-specific move sequences, and detecting and responding to human users' actions. At the interface level, intelligent components inside a game must control how the game world is presented to the users. Perhaps a unique property of 3-D game environments is that, in many aspects, they are their own interface. That is, every aspect of a game's virtual e n v i r o n m e n t — i t s objects, characters, lighting , sound, and camera— can be exploited by the system to create an overall effective interaction. Recent research has addressed many of the issues at the interface level (for example, the …