Herself’s Artificial Intelligence

Much of cutting edge artificial intelligence is being done in games as it has been for several decades. The newer massively multiplayer online games are showing the glaring flaws in traditional game characters. The main one being the ability to carry on intelligent conversation.

But those bright people writing software that better mimics human intelligence are running smack into an interesting new trend: online virtual worlds like Second Life, and “massively multiplayer online games” such as World of Warcraft, in which characters are inherently pretty intelligent because they’re being controlled by other humans. Players in those games design their own characters and then enter the game realm to interact with one another. Their strategies and dialogue seem authentic — because they are.

“In some ways, all of these massively multiplayer games have shone a light on the deficiencies of artificially intelligent characters in games to this point,” says Hank Howie, chief executive of Blue Fang. Howie’s company makes Zoo Tycoon, distributed by Microsoft, in which players build and operate a virtual zoo. Now the company’s focus is on using artificial intelligence to create more believable animals for future products.

Game designers test the limits of artificial intelligence - Boston Globe