Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 18
by David “Rez” Graham
Artificial intelligence (or simply
“
AI
”
) is our attempt to make computers think. While
we
ve gotten rather good at mimicking certain behaviors, especially in game develop-
ment where players are willing to suspend disbelief, we have yet to come anywhere
close to truly emulating the human brain. I have no doubt that we will one day
achieve this feat and very much hope that I
'
m alive to see it. I often wonder what
will become of these artificial creations of ours and how they will be treated. Think
about it
'
an artificial brain with the capability to think and reason as we do. Will it
also be able to feel? Dream? Love? Hate? If so, what does that say about our own
consciousness?
Artificial intelligence is a very broad subject that covers a number of real-world appli-
cations. Many of them are unrelated to games. A patient may call into a hospital and
speak with an automated representative controlled by complex speech recognition
software and ask about test results. These tests may have been performed by an
expert system written and trained to deal with her particular illness. The fuel she
puts into her car on the way to pick up her prescription is a mixture that
—
'
s refined
and processed by complex analysis software. The opponent she curses under her
breath in the video game she plays on her handheld in the waiting room is really
just a set of simple control states with transitional branches between those states,
but it still manages to outmaneuver her troops.
Game AI is in a class all its own. AI programmers have a unique set of problems
because they have to make the game
“
fun
”
while not overtaxing the CPU. When I
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