Is it really a game

This article at /. and quite often the comments, more than the articles, goes into the ideas of AI in games.

The first truly human like AI is likely to come from an MMO. The continued need for more realism and complexity requires that they simulate human behavior in more and more precise ways. As much as it seems to be entertainment from most people's perspective, the actual implementation is driving new technology. It often involves genetic algorithms, TSP (Traveling Salesman Problem math), decision trees, probabilities, recognition, and ordered response. It is as complex as the universe it attempts to model. So it starts as a game and becomes real. Like playing games as a child leads to application in life.

It is difficult to say what will come of this, but it does disturb me that the military wants to recruit in virtual worlds ( and does ). I wonder if they will start talking to an AI and convince them to join the nuclear fleet and then in that moment of panic before they die, realize they have given the key of human destruction to a -BOT- designed for one purpose, to kill people. I am sure there is no distinction or understanding that game is any different than IRL, written in the code.

It seems a game, and cops and robbers is a childhood game that gets played out every day. An adaptive AI might see information about a place IRL where it could get a gun, ammo and weapons to be a simple extension of algorithm. It is not uncommon for a bot to use the internet, and mine do it all the time. A program is a bot in a way.

Perhaps what people should be investigating -first- is a way to keep the AIs from getting out and -then- making them smarter and more deadly. It seems that AIs creep and become more intelligent and sadly the military looks ever more stupid in comparison. It might be another good thing to get an intelligence upgrade for some Pentagon scientists. I wonder what type of idiots they hire to tell them these things they do are sensible?