AI in the News

1. AI in the News Lecture 7/9/2006

2. AI.Implant • Engenuity Technologies Inc. • Global player in visualization and simulation software solutions for the aerospace, defense, automotive, games and entertainment markets. • Provides artificial intelligence tools and middleware for games, animation and simulation • Products and services are currently used by more than 800 customers in 40 countries.

3. AI.Implant • Vivendi Games has signed a contract (announcement July 26, 2006) licensing AI.implant™, Engenuity’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) solution. • Vivendi Games, a global developer, publisher and distributor of multi-platform interactive entertainment, has selected AI.implant as the preferred artificial intelligence solution across all of their studios.

4. AI.Implant • “Engenuity understands the demands of the next-gen games pipeline, and has developed a product that addresses the market’s need for more intense and realistic in-game AI” • Peter Della Penna, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Worldwide Studios, Vivendi

5. AI.Implant • U.S.-based High Moon Studios, developer of the critically acclaimed “Darkwatch,” is the first Sierra Entertainment studio to standardize on AI.implant. • High Moon Studios has been up and running on AI.implant since the evaluation process began in February 2006.

6. AI.Implant • AI.implant provides an intuitive authoring environment that allows developers to create variable and complex artificial intelligence behaviors across all major next-generation game platforms • “PLAYSTATION®3” and Microsoft® Xbox® 360. • AI.implant provides seamless integration with the Unreal 3 game engine from Epic enabling many developers and designers to work with a familiar platform.

7. AI.Implant • Started life as BGT Biographic Technologies • Software's original target markets was movies, allowing filmmakers the ability to create virtual extras. • Engenuity purchased BGT for $1.7 Million. • Purchase was motivated by several clients "who clearly told us that they would like to see more intelligence in the tools." • BGT did that, giving simulation engineers using the tools easy access to artificial intelligence.

8. AI.Implant • BGT was a small company • “had more good ideas than the capacity to get out to the marketplace. Everyone was wearing a million hats.” • Engenuity provided engineering and corporate capabilities that allowed them to catch up to the ideas. • Provided more marketing and better customer support." • BGT had six employees. Engenuity has 92. • The sale also allowed BGT to escape some $1.5 million in debts which Engenuity assumed.

9. AI.Implant • Military operations are increasingly urban and individual warrior oriented in nature. • Military Operations in Urban Terrain(MOUT)-based Modeling Simulation and Training (MS&T) applications have greater demands placed on them for realistic and accurate real-time simulation of individual human entities operating in complex 3D urban environment.

10. Motivations • “The worst policy is to attack cities. Attack cities only when there is no alternative.” [Tzu 1982] • In spite of Tzu’s famous warning, increased urbanization has given modern armies little choice. • The only thing that they can choose is how they prepare for it. • As fighting becomes more urban and thus more indi-vidual, the need for high-fidelity (non-aggregate) simulation i.e., individual human based simulation / train-ing becomes a requirement rather than a nice-to-have.

11. Trends • Global Urbanization • In 2004, the United Nations reported 48% of the world’s population lived in urban environments. • As of 2003 and it was projected to exceed the 50% mark by 2007. • Furthermore, one billion people—approximately one third of the world’s urban dwellers, live in slums. • It predicted that within 30 years that figure would have doubled to two billion. • It is straightforward to see why the future holds more urban warfare not less.

12. Trends • Assymetric Warefare • Although battles between regular (e.g., structured armies) and irregular (e.g., armed militia) forces have been fought since beginning of history of warfare, up until recently they were small brief skirmishes on the side of larger formalized conflicts rather than ends in themselves. • However, The Battle of the Black Sea (Mogadishu, Somalia) in 1993 marked a significant turning point in combat for American forces in that every significant subsequent battle (excepting Iraqi Freedom) has been against irregular forces such as militiamen and terrorists. • There is no reason why this will decrease and only daily reasons reported in the media why this trend will increase.

13. Trends • Individual Fighting • Irregular forces operating in urban environments will naturally do everything • to minimize their opponents technical superiority • E.g., avoiding organized direct confrontation • to maximize their own advantages • E.g., being able blend into the surrounding civilian population. • This translates into battles that are small, individual and fierce.

14. Trends • MOUT • All conflicts within the last 15 years involving western forces have been urban in nature (e.g., Mogadishu, Bosnia, and Iraq) • Nonetheless, real-time crowd simulation in complex urban terrain has been neglected for a multitude of reasons: • Up until recently the hardware simply was not powerful enough. • The military moves very slowly to acknowledge change; so they have not emphasized it as a need. • Application developers have avoided human simulation as it is much more difficult than machine simulation.

15. Trends • Entertainment technology as an innovative force. • As films like The Lord of the Rings and video games such as Half-Life demonstrate, the driving force behind computer graphics in general and digital humans in particular is coming from the entertainment industries and in particular the special effects (SFX) and video game communities.

16. Potential Roles of AI • Simulate the people (not only the ground forces but also the drivers of vehicles) in • the battle • the combatants (blue and red forces) • the civilians (green forces). • These are often called Computer Generated Forces (CGFs) or Semi-Automated Forces (SAFs). • Examples of the types of entities that can be simulated are • Navigation for vehicles (e.g., drivers). • Individual doctrinal combatants. • Individual irregular combatants. • Crowds of individual non-combatants (clutter).

17. Potential Roles of AI • Vehicle Drivers and Pilots • Vehicles have very complex models for • physics • helicopters will wobble realistically as they bank into turns and tanks will bounce as they jump ditches • weapon / communication systems • line of sight radios will not work through hills • But they tend to have simplistic line of sight navigation systems that fail in the 3D concrete canyons of MOUT • helicopters fly straight through skyscrapers rather than around them • tanks get confused and stuck in the twisty garbage filled streets of the third world. • AI can be used to simulate of the brain of the human driver in the vehicle (with or without the actual body being simulated).

18. Potential Roles of AI • Crowds of individual non-combatants. • One of the most difficult restrictions of MOUT is how to conduct military operations in an environment that populated with non-combatants. • These large civilian populations can affect a mission by acting as only operational “clutter” to actually affecting the outcome of the battle.

19. Potential Applications • The individual-life CGFs are be used in • individual warrior trainers • vehicle (ground and air) simulators • battle simulators • JOIN THE ARMY AND PLAY GAMES? • PLAY GAMES AND JOIN THE ARMY? • Remember “Ender’s Game” • Orson Scott Card, 1985.