State of Emergency

Black and White

Artificial Intelligence from Eliza to The Sims

Curator: John Alderman

The world of artificial intelligence is becoming sophisticated enough to provide rich material for artists and designers of interactive experiences. Pixels 2002 presented a sampling from the spectrum of AI work that overlaps with the program's usual interest: how digital tools are changing the world of storytelling.

Starting with the pioneering Eliza--which was one of the first attempts to get a computer to have a conversation with a human--we'll also include links to the many different evolved riffs on the same idea, to see how far the conversational ability has come.

We will also look at some of the more mainstream entertainment with popular games that utilize sophisticated artificial intelligence, including Creatures, The Sims, Black & White, and State of Emergency. These games create interesting, challenging worlds that take on a nearly cinematic scope while taking advantage of many parts that operate with unique intelligence.

Chatterbots

Eliza creator Joseph Weizenbaum's 1966 paper

Black & White: Playing God (from Salon)