Much to the torment of myself, I could safely bet that many AI researchers have fallen into the trap of building expert systems, as opposed to the ideal abstract intelligence that we humans possess.
In Douglas Hofstadter’s Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies, he details his experience writing a program capable of calculating patterns in sequences of numbers. At the time, Hofstadter was a professor teaching his first artificial-intelligence course where he proposed a programming competition for the students and himself. The programs would be given a sequence of numbers and were expected to utilize several strategies to recognize the patterns. At the competition, 30 randomly selected sequences from the semester were utilized, where Hofstadter’s program successfully identified 27 of the 30 patterns, coming in second place. Despite his success, he explains that upon reflecting on his work, he was upset with his choice of strategy.
I’ll be forward in saying that a “pure” AI exceeds my goals by a long shot. In the field of video game design, I feel that there is a desire for an Artificial Artificial Intelligence (which I will dub “AAI” and use profusely) that borders between humanlike and an expert system built on the rules of the game. In the context of video games, the acronym “AI” itself has become a mass media buzzword for Non-Player Character (NPC) behavior. Literally, to this day, the closest videogames get to AI are pre-scripted sequences that cause NPCs to react to predetermined events. I feel that currently existing video games do not qualify for the “AAI” tag, and especially not the widely used ”AI”.
Through this blog, I plan to completely detail my vision of a pure AAI. Stay tuned.