Just in case you didn't see this on the SL Researchers listserv email, there's some talk of some AI going on in SL:
Apparently a team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is using SL to develop AI.
http://itnews.com.au/News/72057,childlike-intelligence-created-in-second-life.aspx
The team is led by the head of the cog sci department, Selmer Bringsjord
There also seems to be a bot called, "Jezebele the Talking Phantom" at a castle called NEMESIS in Agravain. It is supposedly pretty convincing.
It would be helpful if those who are more well read on AI would comment on these bots and their capabilities in light of the state of AI in general.
4 comments:
On a plus side, this could open up new doors on what people, and industries can do in second life, as well as what the future holds for intelligent AI in MMO gaming (or any online or off software AI).
On the negative side, this could cause even more lag on second life.
There're definitely some benifits to apply AI in Second Life. I've seen people use bot as a guide that greet and show directions to visitors automatically. It's pretty useful to have these kind of bots that will introduce or help people learn. But the AI in that is pretty simple.
Due to the limitation of bandwidth, I'm not sure if what they described in the article will be achieved. Besides, do we really need this in Second Life while there're always lots of avatars controlled by real human anytime we log in? Social network plays an improtant role in Second Life and that many people go in-world to make new friends, if they can interact with a real human, what would make AI avatar attractive? And if people log in Second Life to play an AI game, what's the difference of playing it on a web-based application? The fantastic 3D avatars or the environment?
I'm not saying that AI is worthless in Second Life, it's helpful, absolutely, to some extent. However, in my own opinion, it's very important that we think AI as a plus, a tool, and don't take it too seriously. While AI is a technology that amis to make computer act as human beings, we should always bear in mind that human intelligentce is so complicated that even we ourselves don't understand it all. Things unexpected always happen. Yet this is not true in a AI program since everything has been designed well, and users are supposed to act in a certain way. Therefore, relying on it too much could be dangerous that instead of making computer intelligent, would turn human into computers.
I don't think bandwidth limitations will be a problem for AI in Second Life. The fact is, things like complicated havok physics are much more network intensive than a bot that is controlled by AI. This would be very inexpensive, for the most part.
I agree with comment 2. Many of the successful second life worlds have actual people guiding you, which has been extremely helpful to me.
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