What is artificial intelligence? Is it as it sounds? A lot of games now are claiming there games are better because they use artificial intelligence, while I think sometimes its a waste of time, effort and money. Say you are programming a Snake game. You don''t need artificial intelligence, just a routine. The artificial intelligence would make the game less challenging than a well made routine. I do believe if it is used correctly it can improve a games gameplay and lifespan, but mostly it is''nt. What do you think? DX++ The DirectX Programming Site

The term "artificial intelligence" is a generalized term for improving computer responses. If you''re making a snake clone, you do need AI to make the game more fun. Even if it doesn''t involve pathfinding, natural language or image processing, AI can improve any game in any area. In snake, the computer needs to know where to place the apples to give the correct challenge level. If there''s a computer snake, it needs to use AI to know where to go to trap the player. This is all AI.


Pax

Well, Artificial Intelligence is just another of those trendy buzzwords that are so overused that they start to mean everything and nothing. A bit like "multimedia" if you will. But let''s not be discouraged by this overuse.
Personnaly, when confused, I like to come back to the roots, so I grab a dictionary and here I read
intelligence : from the Latin "intelligere", to understand.
capacity to understand, reason.

From there, work out your own definition But I think you can englobe pretty much anything in it, can''t you ?

Apart from that, I hate commercial people, marketing, and all other consumer activities, I can complain about them for hours, but I wouldn''t change anything to it. I just ignore them.

youpla :-P

To paraphrase Marvin Minsky, father of AI (pretty much), Artificial intelligence is the mechanisation of any functionality that, if performed by a human being, would require intelligence.

Gonna ask me to define intelligence now aren''t ya?

That is a looooooooong discussion.

Any algorithm that performs a task that would normally require an intelligent person to perform it can be considered AI. If it would take an intelligent person to be a good opponent at snake then you can consider your snake routine to have AI.

Personally I consider the functionality to be more AI the less we understand it''s exact working and the more autonomous it is. If we can look at two if-then rules and see how it controls an opponent then it is AI but it is easily understandable and all the thinking is done by the programmer. If the AI uses a set of heuristics that the programmer lays down and tweaks the effects of by adjusting values then we understand less how each individual decision is made and I, personally, deem it more intelligent because it is more autonomous. If you genetically evolve a neural network giving it the power to chose (by evolution) it''s own connections, neurons, activation functions and network functionality, the programmer just supplying the problem, then I''d consider that the highest level of AI.

So, snake is unlikely to be high up the ladder (no pun intended) but it is AI because AI is just a mentality towards problem solving.

Mike

What you guys are talking about is hardcore AI. I personally have no problems with the watered-down version of AI. In my opinion, AI is a computer solving a problem. Any problem. The question is, when is the computer solving the problem vs. the programmer solving the problem in his code? When the computer responds to stimulus and applies algorithms to choose one response as preferred in a situation, that is the computer solving a problem. That''s my definition.


Pax

This would be my definition making it SEEM as though the computer is thinking and solving problems in a human-like way...

Why human-like? Why do we always consider humans to define intelligence? I believe that humans are unique, largely due to our mental capacity and intelligence, but what about animal intelligence? I think that responding in a human-like way is only a requirement of AI when it is a requirement of the problem. AI involves all kinds of problem solving, not just simulating human behavior.


Pax

I agree, but my statement (Marvin''s statement actually) said "if performed by a human being, would require intelligence." is more of a cover all which includes animal intelligence. If I''d said "if performed by a cheetah" that would have ignored higher logical thought associated with human intelligence.

Human intelligence just incorporates a great deal of animal intelligence as well.

"We may be human, but we''re still animals" - as some moderately talented guitarist once said.

Mike

Human-like is the highest form of intelligence we really understand. Sure, animals can exhibit some pretty amazing problem-solving but not as well as we.

And yes, as MikeD said, our intelligence includes animal intelligence.