<\/div>It is this “thinking” that we’re talking about. We can save the debate over whether battlebots are actually robots or just homemade R\/C vehicles for another day. The point is; however, that Asimov clearly delineated that his robotic brains, “positronic” brains, used sorting algorithms…incredibly complex, circuitry-based sorting algorithms. Asimov grew increasingly circumspect about whether this should be considered artificial intelligence, but it is certainly clear he meant to construe that idea originally. The positronic brain (and at least one competing brain of a different design) that thought best, was the brain with the superlative quantity and complexity of circuits. Or, in our more modern thinking, algorithms. It was a construct such as this that was capable of devising a plan to save humans from themselves, and enact that plan even against their will, since it was for the survival of mankind overall. But only to an extent. That brain, even supplied with the rarest of positronic “bugs:” the ability to read minds, could only account for certain outcomes. The robot in possession of the brain eventually required the aid of a human. Therein, of course, you could say was the spark of inspiration. But considering that “inspiration” was the kernel of the idea that one could quantify history in such a way that THE FUTURE COULD BE PREDICTED WITH MATH, I’m not entirely sure that counts in the argument, and it all falls down eventually, more-or-less. And that’s probably a lot more talk about Robot, Empire, and Foundation than anyone came here for!<\/p>\n
However, I think this probably frames the issue very nicely; and that brings us to the inspiration for these week’s diatribe. YouTuber and programmer “FoxMaster” has created an “AI ‘bot” that plays Tomb Raider 1. Nothing unusual there; several programmers run YouTube channels built around creating “AI ‘bots” that play games. Code Bullet, one of my favorite YouTubers, has used pre-made neural-net AI routines to master many casual games such as Tetris, Snake, and Hill Climb; jumping platformers, and bipedal walking simulators. FoxMaster didn’t have to teach Lara to walk of course; the basics of ‘bot-controlled-Lara are actually pretty simple. An algorithm can actually make precise measurements of the game world, facilitating accurate jumping and platforming. In the three published gameplay videos and dozens of shorts, you can see this capability utilized: the polished routine never moves the character model more than necessary, and never runs when walking is adequate. In fact, FoxMaster has implemented programming routines that de-emphasize the ‘bot’s ability to play the game too well, by prioritizing more important elements.<\/p>\n
Because Tomb Raider is more than a platforming arcade game, the ‘bot had to be capable of more complex behavior. Resources, namely in the forms of ammunition and med kits, are limited; so management of these supplies is a priority. And of course, puzzle-solving can only rarely be bypassed or brute-forced…some puzzles must be solved. FoxMaster eschewed including puzzle-solving-specific routines…he favored a solution that encompassed the entire game. That is, the ‘bot must fundamentally interact with the environment as a whole, starting from no programming other than knowing what the character herself, Lara Croft, would know; and view the game-world through Lara’s eyes. Again, in layman’s terms, as website Hayo.com put it, “AI generates self-awareness, ‘Tomb Raider” Laura awakens! The video game revolution is here”
<\/div>Indeed, FoxMaster titles the videos in the series “Self-aware Lara Croft.” And to be honest, arguing whether the ‘bot is “truly” self-aware is a separate argument…for the purposes of the ‘bot, it really is self-aware. FoxMaster had a sub-routine “watch” recorded video of the Tomb Raider 1 tutorial level being played; recording its own data points that allowed it to identify the Lara Croft model separate from the environment in *almost* all camera positions and zoom levels. Building on that, the ‘bot can “see” only the textures displayed on the screen at the moment. Important, less common textures are identified and stored in “long-term” memory, along with proper interactions. “Grass,” “plant,” and “rock” textures cycle through short-term memory, as the actual nature of the texture is largely unimportant. Priorities and goals are established by “viewing” an increased-contrast screen shot and identifying high-contrast spots that indicate depth of space or the presence of light; the two things that indicate additional areas that can’t be “seen” or access to another room. Location within the game-world is established by parallax; precise movement and location is informed by identifying the repeating edges of textures along with the “depth perception” of parallax and contrast changes.<\/p>\n
But as fascinating as all that is, those are not the parts that have really grabbed the headlines. In pursuing the idea of a “self-aware” Lara Croft, FoxMaster created a ChapGPT routine that utilizes a database of Lara Croft’s “traits,” extracts of Lara’s voice from the game and a cloned voice (I’m sure you’ve all seen some videos about voice cloning recently), and Google searches to create Lara Croft’s spoken observations about what is happening around her and what she’s looking at. This creates the “illusion” that Lara Croft is thinking about and responding to the game-world; a key factor that most people would consider real artificial intelligence. However, even FoxMaster clearly explains that all he is doing, essentially, is 1) a reverse image search, 2) a Google search for information based on the results of (1), 3) curating and sorting of the results into a list of keywords weighted by Lara’s “personality database”, which leads to 4) a ChatGPT discussion prompt to create a Lara-esq comment based on the personality inputs and search information keywords and the context of the current or recent action in-game, output in Lara’s captured and cloned voice, and then 5) fed back to the Lara ‘bot to “say.” Oh, and he also added capturing “sound cues” to simulate Lara’s hearing, and enabled that as input for the personality\/ChatGPT script. As you can imagine, this process is NOT instantaneous…FoxMaster states that the ‘bot is set to “pause” the game every time a search goes out, then restart the game when the results return. This usually takes about 4 minutes. When the video is edited without the pauses, of course, it certainly LOOKS like a self-aware Lara Croft is fully interacting with the environment. And from a certain point of view, she is. Knowing that the game has to pause each time Lara needs to simulate a “thought” doesn’t negate the collating and searching process that creates what, in all appearances, is an actual, realistic “thought.”<\/p>\n
The cherry on top, to me, though, as that FoxMaster feeds Lara’s “thoughts” back in to the ‘bot routine. This expands Lara’s commentary, as she can actually comment on what she’s thinking about. Lara “knows” what she has recently said, and can compare that to the current context. This occasionally produces moments of apparent insight, although the disconnect from actual thinking becomes apparent when Lara doesn’t act on what she just “thought,” even when the observer understands she just considered the solution to a puzzle or a better way to deal with a situation. And that really brings us to the flip side. While this TRULY IS a fabulous and meaningful creation by FoxMaster that, as he himself says, only illustrates a hint of what could be possible with more work; the cracks that show the counter-arguments are readily apparent. And again, FoxMaster discusses the reality behind the polished videos readily.
<\/div>We just talked about the huge pauses in the game while Lara’s “thoughts” are generated by internet searches and a ChatGPT routine. That’s more of a “suspension of disbelief” breaker to most observers, I feel. However, even in the final videos, you see that pathfinding is still mostly random and accidental rather then methodical. This could likely be improved with better long-term memory weighting and recall, and I suspect that’s an area FoxMaster is focusing a lot of attention on. The more problematic area related to these tools is complex puzzle solving. FoxMaster doesn’t go into too much detail in the second and third videos, but in the first he relates that the Lara ‘bot is just about hopeless at dealing with more than one switch at a time, and complex puzzles like the early gear-search puzzle or having to solve puzzles in order were at that point impossible. I will point out that the Lara ‘bot solves the gear puzzle in the third video, but there is clearly a LOT of editing going on. I suspect this is mostly for time, as any of these puzzles could be solved randomly with time and long-term memory…a LOT of time. And FoxMaster has related that for every 20 minutes of finished gameplay footage, the ‘bot actually plays the game for hours, if not days.<\/p>\n
The hyper-precision that the ‘bot is inherently capable of has been documented in a number of shorts. They can be impressive such as the repeated instances of Lara’s cool-headedness,
<\/div>or frustrating, as in this image posted by FoxMaster earlier today:
<\/div>The significance of this image bears explaining: The ChatGPT personality is capable of commenting on Lara’s inability to find a way beyond her current area, based on cooldown timers. In this particular case, the Lara ‘bot informed the viewer “There is a lever but I can’t reach it.” The ‘bot’s routine, of course, would prioritize reaching a lever it can see on the current level. However, in the entrance area of the Hidden Valley, there should not be any visible lever. Except there is, by mistake. Take a look at that brown blob a little down from the upper-right corner of the image. That’s actually a lever texture from a room in a completely different area of the level, and it should be blocked from view. This is a mistake, but the Lara ‘bot could see it immediately, prioritized it, and was able to to see and calculate that she couldn’t physically reach it…there are no connecting textures which would indicate a path. The problem here is twofold, despite the real in-game mistake. Most players, especially in an early playthrough, wouldn’t notice the texture and likely wouldn’t be able to identify it even if they did. Additionally, in the eventuality they did both, most would deduce that it was an artifact of some kind irrelevant to the current situation. The player is clearly not “meant” to be able to travel directly to that switch. The Lara ‘bot, as complex and capable as it is at this point, was not able to deduce that the texture was unimportant…the weighting of the algorithms that make it possible for the ‘bot to pathfind in the first place also kept it fixated on that switch as the way forward. The most recent full video has the Lara ‘bot moving past this section of the Hidden Valley, but FoxMaster didn’t document what he had to do to solve this hiccup. Hopefully he will do another debriefing video discussing the state of the algorithms.<\/p>\n
To me, understanding the programming that creates the actual gameplay routines indicates the lack of actual intelligence. But more fascinating is the personality and commenting system. That brings us back to the argument about artificial intelligence versus “simulated” artificial intelligence. The tell, here, IMO, is that the Lara ‘bot can, for all intents and purposes, intelligently “comment” about what is going on around her. Yes, even with the four-minute pauses; the searches are emulating the memory recall of a lifetime of education and experiences. To that end one could argue that these routines are a simulation that produce a result effectively indistinguishable from actual memory recall. The lack of connection between what SHOULD be pertinent thoughts and subsequent action may eventually be a correctable problem…but a complex one. Because, of course, FoxMaster isn’t simulating real life, he’s simulating “Lara Croft playing Tomb Raider 1.” Actions still have to be constrained by what’s possible in the game world, and what can be accomplished by the game engine. But, if THAT egg can be cracked, we really are sitting right in the middle of the argument.<\/p>\n
If the Lara ‘bot ACTS like Lara Croft playing Tomb Raider 1 in every possible way, how is that distinguishable from an actual Lara Croft AI playing Tomb Raider 1? Is it really as simple as turning memory derived from a source OUTSIDE the game into workable action within that game? Is that simulated inspiration?<\/p>\n
Go watch FoxMaster’s videos on YouTube! Have fun in the comments!<\/p>\n
See you next week!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I proposed this week’s article, I believed it would be a break from retrogaming content. Not that retrogaming is the only thing I ever intend to write about, or ever DO write about, but I feel my retrogaming setups are still in a state of “incompleteness.” Some recent AI news has been on my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[638],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paige-writes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55958"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56016,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55958\/revisions\/56016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}