Human Players Being Tapped to Enhance Artificial Intelligence

And they're using Torque 1.4 to do it!

Artificial Intelligence, or AI for short, has long been a challenging part of game development. Accurately simulating the complexity of human interaction is precisely what The Restaurant Game, a research project at the MIT Media Lab, is trying to accomplish. By leveraging thousands of actual human interactions within the project, the researchers behind it hope to algorithmically combine these experiences to create a new game with more nuanced, human-like AI.



Every person who participates in the project will receive credit as a "Game Designer," so if you're looking to pad your resume in twenty minutes or less, look no further. Intrigued by the inflated sense of self worth these credentials would surely bring me, I decided to try the game for myself.

To keep the research as accurate as possible, a tutorial must be completed before the player is allowed to play with--or against, depending on how combative your personality is--a real person. The tutorial is relatively short and simple. It gives you instructions on how to order food, pay your bill, and other stuff you probably know how to do if you've ever eaten or spent money. A dialog box pops up whenever the mouse is hovering over an object, and a bunch of possible interactions (such as "pick up" or "eat") with said object are presented. Despite being a tutorial, the player is still provided with the complete freedom to verb any noun in the scene.

Seeing as it was just a tutorial, and consequently of no research value to MIT, I decided to verb as many unexpected nouns as possible. Within moments I was sitting on the bartender's head and eating out of the trash. Delicious.Trying to pick up another person results in a disturbing grunt/groan hybrid that I can only assume symbolizes an extreme effort. A Dr. Suessian ability to stack objects is also possible, as anything that does not cause the aforementioned inhuman, gutterel cry can be piled high, to the sky, plates and glasses, piled sky high.

When you enter the game itself, a list of available servers is displayed in which two people enter--the first as a waitress, the second as a customer--and interaction ensues. Players can talk to each other by typing out questions, food orders, and bad pick-up lines. After each person has played their part, the customer can walk outside and conclude the demo.

Can this project successfully improve current standards of AI? Or will the AI come out biting countertops and running out with the cash register? (I may or may not have done the latter.) Or is that perhaps exactly the kind of success the project is looking for? What's more realistic than the complicated and unpredictable nature of your average human being? The idea of interacting with an in-game AI that is similar to humans is almost as frightening as actually stepping outside and interacting with real people on the streets. I shudder to think.

It's important to know that the project isn't being run by some schlub, either. The lead developer responsible for the project is Jeff Orkin, a game industry vet who has previously worked on award-winning AI systems for F.E.A.R. and No One Lives Forever 2. The man certainly has credentials. Then again, I have credentials now too! Thanks Jeff!

For more information or to try the game yourself, click here.