OK, this is kinda a random thought which has probably been thought of before, but has Robert ever thought of approaching a major computer game label with the prospect of licensing and using replicated versions of Hal's AI in a video game?
Since I'm a die-hard computer gamer and have been playing either on-line since Everquest, WOW, etc., or off-line since Bethesda's Morrowind, today I had a vision of what this kind of AI could do to revolutionize either genre.
At present, dialogue a non-player character (NPC) is mostly pre-scripted being based upon certain condition sets and IF voice is included in a game the vocalizations tend to repeat itself monotonously during game play although Bethesda has done the best job of simulating intelligence and random thought in its NPCs.
Still, these games tend to recycle the voice files and you often hear the same voice from different NPCs so the seemingly limited number of quality computer generated voices at present wouldn't be an issue. I'm sure Bethesda had to pay Wonder Woman's Linda Carter to voice act in both Oblivion and Skyrim, so I would hope computer generated voices would be less expensive.
What if a 3D environment was created with 3D AI entities who could "hear" the player using VOIP technology and also hear each other and they would interact with each other using a free will script. The information and dialogue set of this world could evolve over time through interactions with one or more players.
Maybe the NPC's with AI could have certain "travel" package triggers which would allow them to decide to play an eating animation, go to the local store, or to take a bath or to go on the same quest that the player is also on or another quest and they might meet in the general play area as competing entities.
Of course players like to KILL things in these games so the death of an AI would also have to be dealt with but with scripting that "listens" for events like that. It could prompt the other AI entities to comment on the missing NPC later instead of just ignoring the fact that one of the members of their community is suddenly missing.
In present games I have slaughtered entire towns and not one NPC I come across after ever even mentions the loss of the entire population. =P
Although Bethesda has done the best work with "radiant" quests which allow for changing goals and targets for certain repeatable quests, something similar with independent AI's competing for similar goals might make things a lot more interesting.
Since the information set for a fantasy world wouldn't necessarily have to be as varied and extensive as the real world, the initial brains would not need too much information since they would learn more about their own environment from each other and the player over time.
Maybe none of them leave the village at first and they rely soley upon the player to go out and bring back information about the "outside" world.
This would allow the teaching aspect of AI to create an ever changing social environment for the player.
<shrugs>
Just a random thought I had on a Sunday afternoon.
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