Selmer Bringsjord

Selmer Bringsjord (born November 24, 1958) is a professor of computer science and cognitive science and a former chair of the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also holds an appointment in the Lally School of Management & Technology and teaches artificial Intelligence (AI), formal logic, human and machine reasoning, and philosophy of AI. Quotes Lots of computer games are compelling. E.g., I find even current computerized poker games quite compelling, and I find The Sims downright fascinating; doubtless you have your own favorites. But our planet isn't graced by even one dramatically compelling computer game (or, more generally, one such interactive digital entertainment). The movie T2, Dante's Inferno, Hamlet, Gibson's prophetic Neuromancer, the plays of Ibsen -- these things are dramatically compelling: they succeed in no small part because they offer captivating narrative, and all that that entails (e.g., engaging characters). There is no analogue in the interactive digital arena, alas. Massively multi-player online games are digital, interactive, and entertaining -- but they have zero literary power (which explains why, though T2 engages young kids through at least middle-aged professors, such games are demographically one-dimensional). The same can be said, by my lights, for all other electronic genres. Is It Possible to Build Dramatically Compelling Interactive Digital Entertainment (in the form, e.g., of computer games)?*1 This state of affairs won't change unless a number of key challenges are conquered; and conquering them will require some seminal advances in the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and narrative. (E.g., since interactive digital narrative will need to be crafted and massaged as the story is unfolding, computers, not slow-by-comparison humans, will need to be enlisted as at least decent dramatists -- but getting a computer to be a dramatist requires remarkable AI.) In this paper, I discuss one of these challenges for the start of the new millennium: the problem of building dramatically compelling virtual characters. Within this challenge I focus upon one property such characters presumably must have: viz., autonomy. Is It Possible to Build Dramatically Compelling Interactive Digital Entertainment (in the form, e.g., of computer games)?*1 We have dramatically compelling non-interactive digital (= electronic) entertainment: sit down and watch The Matrix (see Figure 1) or T2 (see Figure 2). We have compelling interactive digital entertainment; my favorites include console-based sports games.2 We have dramatically compelling interactive entertainment; for example, improvizational theatre. What we don't have is dramatically compelling interactive digital entertainment. People sometimes tell me that there is a counter-example to my negative view to be found in online multi-player games, but though such games are digital, interactive, and entertaining -- they have zero literary power (which explains why, though T2 engages young kids through at least middle-aged professors, such games are demographically one-dimensional). The same can be said, by my lights, for all other electronic genres. Can we build systems that imply and affirmative answer to the title of this paper? My answer is: ``Maybe, maybe not; but at any rate I can tell you, at least in broad strokes, what some of the hurdles are, from the standpoint of AI. And I can tell you, today, about one specific hurdle." Is It Possible to Build Dramatically Compelling Interactive Digital Entertainment (in the form, e.g., of computer games)?*1 The Issue Realism About Narrative and AI Before we go any further, let's make sure we're realistic about the driving question, and thereby start with a provisional answer of ``I don't know." Such realism will buck the trend. For unfortunately, realistic positions on the advance of AI are rather hard to come by. There are two reasons for this. Is It Possible to Build Dramatically Compelling Interactive Digital Entertainment (in the form, e.g., of computer games)?*1 The first reason is that lots of people are either ignorant of or tendentiously choose to ignore the underlying mathematical facts. These facts include that some problems can be solved by computing machines, and others can't, and that most can't. So whenever you ask whether a problem P can be solved by a computing machine, where P is such that it isn't known that there is an algorithm for solving it, honesty should imply wait-and-see agnosticism.3 Is It Possible to Build Dramatically Compelling Interactive Digital Entertainment (in the form, e.g., of computer games)?*1 Let make explicit one presupposition before we begin in earnest. I assume that AI in general, along with the AI part of the gaming industry in particular, have realized that non-logicist AI isn't magic. What do I mean? I mean that people should be smart enough now to concede that no system is going to automatically learn, through subsymbolic, numerical processing, how to, say (and this is the challenge I'm going to focus on below), assemble robust, autonomous characters in a game. Automated learning through artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms are fine for certain applications, but gone, I assume, are the days of wild optimism about the ability of such learning techniques to automatically yield (to stick with this example) full-blooded NPCs.4 We really only have two overall approaches to AI: one based on logic, and one based on subsymbolic processing. This paper is written from the perspective of logic. If you think that you have a way of solving the problems I'm talking about without using logic, I wish you well. Is It Possible to Build Dramatically Compelling Interactive Digital Entertainment (in the form, e.g., of computer games)?*1One Presupposition: There's No Free Lunch External link Category: living people