Human-Level AI's Killer Application: Interactive Computer Games

International Journal of Computer Applications

Computer games are an increasingly popular application for Artificial Intelligence(AI) research. This paper discusses some of the most interesting components and challenges faced by developers in designing and creation of a game based on artificial intelligence. Game AI provides players a richer gaming experience by going beyond scripted interactions, responsive interaction systems that are adaptive and intelligent.

2001

understand what is required for human-level artificial intelligence. A key component of our methodology is developing AI systems that behave in complex, dynamic environments with many of the properties of the world we inhabit. Although robotics might seem an obvious choice, research in robotics requires solving many difficult problems related to low-level sensing and acting in the real world far removed from the cognitive aspects of intelligence. Simulated virtual environments make it possible to bypass many of these problems, while preserving the need for intelligent real-time decision-making and interaction. Unfortunately, development of realistic virtual environments is an expensive and time-consuming enterprise onto itself and requires expertise in many areas far afield from artificial intelligence. However, computer games provide us with a source of cheap, reliable, and flexible technology for developing our own virtual environments for research. Over the last four years, we ha...

2013

■ Although one of the fundamental goals of AI is to understand and develop intelligent systems that have all the capabilities of humans, there is little active research directly pursuing this goal. We propose that AI for interactive computer games is an emerging application area in which this goal of human-level AI can successfully be pursued. Interactive computer games have increasingly complex and realistic worlds and increasingly complex and intelligent computer-controlled characters. In this article, we further motivate our proposal of using interactive computer games for AI research, review previous research on AI and games, and present the different game genres and the roles that human-level AI could play within these genres. We then describe the research issues and AI techniques that are relevant to each of these roles. Our conclusion is that interactive computer games provide a rich environment for incremental research on human-level AI. Over the last 30 years, research in A...

Proceedings of the …, 2001

The computer games industry is now bigger than the film industry. Until recently, technology in games was driven by a desire to achieve real-time, photo-realistic graphics. To a large extent, this has now been achieved. As game developers look for new and innovative technologies to drive games development, AI is coming to the fore. This paper will examine how sophisticated AI techniques, such as those being used in mainstream academic research, can be applied to computer games and introduce three projects doing just that.

Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence

The General Video Game AI framework and competition pose the problem of creating artificial intelligence that can play a wide, and in principle unlimited, range of games. Concretely, it tackles the problem of devising an algorithm that is able to play any game it is given, even if the game is not known a priori. This area of study can be seen as an approximation of General Artificial Intelligence, with very little room for game-dependent heuristics. This short paper summarizes the motivation, infrastructure, results and future plans of General Video Game AI, stressing the findings and first conclusions drawn after two editions of our competition, and outlining our future plans.

2023

The study of artificial intelligence techniques quickly moved to computer games, a sector in which they are of enormous practical utility. Artificial intelligence has advanced significantly in the last five decades. The concept of intelligent agents provides a crucial theoretical framework to compare numerous diverse methods to the smart, logical conduct of computer-controlled characters in games. Computer games represent one of the best environments for artificial intelligence research as they are typically designed to be played multiple times by many players and can thus be studied. Furthermore, advances in computer hardware have allowed game developers to create increasingly complex and engaging games that have forced computer scientists to produce even more creative solutions to complex problems. Artificial intelligence techniques are often used to make computer games more exciting and entertaining by providing the designers with the tools they need to create interactive characters capable of responding to the player's actions. We can achieve behavior that resembles that of a human player, which is also preferred in games, by combining rationality with some restrictions on our agents' skills. In addition, we can simulate behaviors observed in humans during social interaction between individuals or groups. In this paper we interpret, analyze, and bring a simple case study for using intelligent agents for computer games. From an interpretative literature review and a case study approach, we concluded that intelligent agents could improve the gameplay experience, gain insight into Artificial Intelligence behavior, and increase game difficulty.

This paper presents how artificial intelligence (AI) is used in computer games to solve common problems and provide game features. Specifically, non-playing character (NPC) path finding, decision making and learning are examined. Different AI techniques are looked at as to how they help provide a solution to these problems and features in computer games. This discussion is followed by a survey of research articles regarding the different type of AI techniques presented.

Communications of the ACM, 2002

Computer, 2001

Building agents that can survive the harsh environment of a popular computer game provides fresh insight into the study of artificial intelligence.

2003

With this document we will present an overview of artificial intelligence in general and artificial intelligence in the context of its use in modern computer games in particular. To this end we will firstly provide an introduction to the terminology of artificial intelligence, followed by a brief history of this field of computer science and finally we will discuss the impact which this science has had on the development of computer games. This will be further illustrated by a number of case studies, looking at how artificially intelligent behaviour has been achieved in selected games.