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US Army to invade World of Warcraft with AI

Published on 6th November 2008 by Joe Martin

Arnie might have been more recognisable, but we'd prefer to stare at Summer Glau's version of the Terminator instead.

The US Army has announced that it is to start testing a new type of artificial intelligence in public through the servers for Blizzard's World of Warcraft.

You heard us; SkyNet is coming to Azeroth!

The new AI has been designed by Dr. John Parmentola for the US military and is intended to be used to control holographic soldiers for use in training exercise and battle simulation. As an early test though the Army is to upload the AI to World of Warraft and see if it can successfully pass itself off as a human player.

"We want to use the massively multi-player online game as an experimental laboratory to see if they’re good enough to convince humans that they’re actually human, that can think on their own, have emotions and talk in local slang," said Dr. John in a statement to the press.

"I actually interact with virtual humans in terms of asking them questions and they’re responding."

According to Gizmodo this is just one of several crazy-sounding projects that the Army is currently working on. Other projects include researching technology to erase memories that cause trauma, creating nanites that can rebuild limbs and finding ways that soldiers can play MMOs all day without getting fired.

Think you've spotted an AI wandering across Azeroth? Let us know what he looked like in the forums.

32 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

rjkoneill 6th November 2008, 12:09

it will only pass itself off as human if it runs around shouting LEEEEROOOOYYYYY JEEEEEENKINS!

Zurechial 6th November 2008, 12:16

It'd be priceless if they got banned for botting.

Next they'll start rolling lv1 orcs and shouting about gold for sale in the middle of Orgrimmar.. Oh no, wait, that's the Chinese army..

karx11erx 6th November 2008, 12:19

"Army ... projects include ... finding ways that soldiers can play MMOs all day without getting fired."

ROFLMAO

Bauul 6th November 2008, 12:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjkoneill
it will only pass itself off as human if it runs around shouting LEEEEROOOOYYYYY JEEEEEENKINS!

Lol, I would love to see the US Army add a command that does this into the AI.

But the real question is, how do you know who is AI? How do you know who isn't AI? How do you know you're not the only human in the game? How do you know you yourself isn't an AI? How? HOW???

kylew 6th November 2008, 12:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bauul
Lol, I would love to see the US Army add a command that does this into the AI.

But the real question is, how do you know who is AI? How do you know who isn't AI? How do you know you're not the only human in the game? How do you know you yourself isn't an AI? How? HOW???

Hold there a second while I tighten your straight jacket and straighten your tinfoil hat.

LeMaltor 6th November 2008, 12:51

If it can talk absolute drivel for hours on end it'll fit in in any clan in WoW, hell I did :)

liratheal 6th November 2008, 12:51

Do we get any bonus if we kill the AI's in game character?

Free M16?

UrbanMarine 6th November 2008, 12:57

Government funded PUGs weeeeeeee.

Gunsmith 6th November 2008, 13:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bauul
Quote:
Originally Posted by rjkoneill
it will only pass itself off as human if it runs around shouting LEEEEROOOOYYYYY JEEEEEENKINS!

But the real question is, how do you know who is AI? How do you know who isn't AI? How do you know you're not the only human in the game? How do you know you yourself isn't an AI? How? HOW???

"you see a turtle lying on the beech, its soft belly exposed to the sun. what do you do?"

Sebbo 6th November 2008, 13:15

I think he really just couldn't be bothered levelling to 70 himself before Wrath of the Lich King comes out. And then there's all those achievements :-P
would love to see some more info on this sort of thing

TreeDude 6th November 2008, 13:43

Why WoW? Why not CoD4 or something? It is not going to be able to interact in WoW unless it knows how to talk to immature gamers who say things like "nub" and "lulz".

I think even Planetside would be a better platform for this. They are only picking WoW for a headline rather than practicality.

Tyrmot 6th November 2008, 14:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gunsmith
"you see a turtle lying on the beech, its soft belly exposed to the sun. what do you do?"

+1 for the quote :)

Dr. Strangelove 6th November 2008, 14:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyrmot
+1 for the quote :)

docodine 6th November 2008, 15:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrmot
+1 for the quote :)

+2

=3

I call bullshit, this sounds pretty stupid, If anyone finds one of these bots, I'll believe it.

salesman 6th November 2008, 15:16

I think its a stupid idea. One its not meant to interact with video game characters controled by humans using a keyboard and mouse, for people act retarded in wow like when everyone stands around naked while dancing. Honestly you have humans in an unnatural environment testing whether it appears human or not... damn my country's military is retarded. I think its going to be a Army recruitment bot saying things like "Gee you know whats better then playing wow playing wow for the US army". Stupid idiots.

Silver51 6th November 2008, 15:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bauul
Lol, I would love to see the US Army add a command that does this into the AI.

But the real question is, how do you know who is AI? How do you know who isn't AI? How do you know you're not the only human in the game? How do you know you yourself isn't an AI? How? HOW???

One of many theories about the nature of reality.

http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality

Brooxy 6th November 2008, 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gunsmith
"you see a turtle lying on the beech, its soft belly exposed to the sun. what do you do?"

Work out how it got up that tree in the first place :p

steveo_mcg 6th November 2008, 16:02

It strikes me as a slight cheat to the Turin test. In wow your not expecting a bot to act remotely human so your not looking for it if your taking part in a Turin test your likely to be on guard and attempting to trip it up.

MrMonroe 6th November 2008, 16:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by steveo_mcg
It strikes me as a slight cheat to the Turing test. In wow your not expecting the actual players to act remotely human so your not looking for it if your taking part in a Turing test your likely to be on guard and attempting to trip it up.

Also I fixed "Turing."

-EVRE- 6th November 2008, 16:30

Dont forget it has to spam trade about Chuck Norris.....

Spillers_909 6th November 2008, 17:00

The reason they most likely chose WoW is due to the large diverse player base. Sure COD4 is a military style game, but a bot pulling headshots in there is not the purpose of the test. An AI bot could do little in the way of chatter and fit in. It would seem that they want to prove that this AI system can be placed anywhere and be mistaken as a human. Its a lofty goal. Especially when considering the type of chat and interaction that occurs in an MMO.

metarinka 6th November 2008, 18:10

they also choose wow because it is readily adapted for bot play and for awhile had a 3rd party bot program. I would think it must have some way of increasing it's vocabulary or else it would have a problem with wow. It would be interesting to see how it played out and say if it could successfully heal an instance or otherwise play in a team

Brett89 6th November 2008, 19:18

awesome, this will be neat.

matee 6th November 2008, 21:09

What if they will make a guild? Ai ganking guild?

Veles 6th November 2008, 22:22

Sounds more like an advertising ploy by the US Army than a proper test, I'm sure there are other, more efficient ways to do it. Obviously Americas Army isn't doing well enough at drawing in the geeks.

tranc3 6th November 2008, 22:48

i thought they already had a military tab on gamers, AA, and im not so sure some cod games/source is monitored to, i know some servers are.
I've never played AA, would tho.

Project_Nightmare 7th November 2008, 02:42

This is strickly banned from their EULA! Have these fools every heard of wowglider!!! I will hate blizzard if they make and exception to the rule for the US army!

metarinka 7th November 2008, 03:08

i would be really surprised if blizzard didn't agree/ provide them support. The fact that they announced it most likely means they have been in discussion with blizzard. It already has good AI support so I think it was the easiest for the army to jack into. Really this bot wouldn't work well without support from blizzard not to mention it would be very hard for it to jack into the game

Darkefire 7th November 2008, 03:10

I remember a number of AI programs that would expand their vocabulary and speech patterns based on how people talked to them. Then the silly fools put the programs on the internet. Guess what the average level of discourse was?

The sad thing is that copious use of four-letter words is exactly what your average internet denizen sounds like, perhaps doubly so on an MMO where the average player is a fourteen year old trapped in a grown man's body (frequently with an age difference's worth of BO to boot). Hell, anyone could make a bot that could pass for human in most online games; put up a rotation of a couple dozen basic Mad Libs, fill them in with random curse words and misspell half the sentence. It'd fit right in on a typical CS pub.

Langer 7th November 2008, 03:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brooxy
Work out how it got up that tree in the first place :p

Hahaha, classic...just classic. I just lolled all over myself.

AIVAS 7th November 2008, 08:04

Hmm.. thinking about it.. They stated it will be uploaded to the game itself.. so it's not going to be some sort of end-client...

The NPCs have also been using more skills a few patches ago..

Maybe the NPCs are running the new AI? :)

xaser04 7th November 2008, 11:52

*Must write intelligent response* - *Can't stop looking at Summer Glau* :p

This does sound interesting and would be cool in say a call of duty game / RB6

Can I go back to staring now?..... *Too late I am*