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Evolutionary Learning of Goal Priorities in a Real-Time Strategy Game
Young, Jay (The University of Birmingham, United Kingdom) | Hawes, Nick (The University of Birmingham, United Kingdom)
However, due to the small numbers of goals present in existing systems, goal management Autonomous AI systems should be aware of their own goals is a relatively simple affair. Hanheide et al. (2010) describe and be capable of independently formulating behaviour to a system similar in architecture to our own that manages address them. We would ideally like to provide an agent with just two goals, whereas the one discussed in this paper must a collection of competences that allow it to act in novel situations manage upwards of forty. As the number of goals increases, that may not be predictable at design-time. In particular, the potential for goal conflict grows. This leads to a requirement we are interested in the operation of AI systems in for more sophisticated management processes, such as complex, oversubscribed domains where there may exist a dynamic goal re-prioritisation, allowing agents to alter their variety of ways to address high-level goals by composing behaviour to meet changing operational requirements. In the behaviours to achieve a set of sub-goals taken from a larger oversubscribed problem domains we are interested in, encoding set. Our research focusses how such sub-goals might be chosen all possible operating strategies at design time may (i.e.
Adapting AI Behaviors To Players in Driver San Francisco: Hinted-Execution Behavior Trees
Ocio, Sergio (Ubisoft Entertainment)
The creative nature of games makes trying new ideas desirable, but these changes are sometimes very risky. We need to find ways to minimize risks while we build innovative experiences. Driver San Francisco did this by using Hinted-execution Behavior Trees; this technique allows developers to modify existing AI behaviors dynamically with very low risk, and was used to adapt Driver’s getaway AI to players’ skills.
Representing the Human to the Systems That They Use
Cohn, Joseph V. (Office of Naval Research) | O' (Office of Naval Research) | Neill, Elizabeth B.
The net result of this Because these approaches are not grounded in the core approach should be to either provide a viable alternative to processes that drive human action, the resultant outputs - classical artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI, ML) predictions of behavior, estimates of errors and the like - approaches or. Alternatively, to provide a more do not provide a robust basis for representing human users neurocognitively - inspired approach to developing these to the systems with which they are interacting.
Sports Commentary Recommendation System (SCoReS): Machine Learning for Automated Narrative
Lee, Greg Michael (University of Alberta) | Bulitko, Vadim (University of Alberta) | Ludvig, Elliot (Princeton University)
Automated sports commentary is a form of automated narrative. Sports commentary exists to keep the viewer informed and entertained. One way to entertain the viewer is by telling brief stories relevant to the game in progress. We introduce a system called the Sports Commentary Recommendation System (SCoReS) that can automatically suggest stories for commentators to tell during games. Through several user studies, we compared commentary using SCoReS to three other types of commentary and show that SCoReS adds significantly to the broadcast across several enjoyment metrics. We also collected interview data from professional sports commentators who positively evaluated a demonstration of the system. We conclude that SCoReS can be a useful broadcast tool, effective at selecting stories that add to the enjoyment and watchability of sports. SCoReS is a step toward automating sports commentary and, thus, automating narrative.
Embracing the Bias of the Machine: Exploring Non-Human Fitness Functions
Eigenfeldt, Arne (Simon Fraser University)
Autonomous aesthetic evaluation is the Holy Grail of generative music, and one of the great challenges of computational creativity. Unlike most other computational activities, there is no notion of optimality in evaluating creative output: there are subjective impressions involved, and framing obviously plays a big role. When developing metacreative systems, a purely objective fitness function is not available: the designer is thus faced with how much of their own aesthetic to include. Can a generative system be free of the designer’s bias? This paper presents a system that incorporates an aesthetic selection process that allows for both human-designed and non-human fitness functions.
Algorithmically Flexible Style Composition Through Multi-Objective Fitness Functions
Murray, Skyler (Brigham Young University) | Ventura, Dan (Brigham Young University)
Creating a musical fitness function is largely subjective and can be critically affected by the designer's biases. Previous attempts to create such functions for use in genetic algorithms lack scope or are prejudiced to a certain genre of music. They also are limited to producing music strictly in the style determined by the programmer. We show in this paper that musical feature extractors, which avoid the challenges of qualitative judgment, enable creation of a multi-objective function for direct music production. The main result is that the multi-objective fitness function enables creation of music with varying identifiable styles. To demonstrate this, we use three different multi-objective fitness functions to create three distinct sets of musical melodies. We then evaluate the distinctness of these sets using three different approaches: a set of traditional computational clustering metrics; a survey of non-musicians; and analysis by three trained musicians.
Fast Heuristic Search for RTS Game Combat Scenarios
Churchill, David (University of Alberta) | Saffidine, Abdallah (Université Paris-Dauphine) | Buro, Michael (University of Alberta)
Heuristic search has been very successful in abstract game domains such as Chess and Go. In video games, however, adoption has been slow due to the fact that state and move spaces are much larger, real-time constraints are harsher, and constraints on computational resources are tighter. In this paper we present a fast search method — Alpha-Beta search for durative moves— that can defeat commonly used AI scripts in RTS game combat scenarios of up to 8 vs. 8 units running on a single core in under 5ms per search episode. This performance is achieved by using standard search enhancements such as transposition tables and iterative deepening, and novel usage of combat AI scripts for sorting moves and state evaluation via playouts. We also present evidence that commonly used combat scripts are highly exploitable — opening the door for a promising line of research on opponent combat modelling.
Autonomy in Music-Generating Systems
Bown, Oliver Roland (University of Sydney) | Martin, Aengus (University of Sydney)
The word autonomy is often used in the discussion of software-based music-generating systems. Whilst the term conveys a very clear concept — the sense of self-determination of a system — attempts to formalise autonomy are at an early stage, and the term is subject to a range of interpretations when practically applied. We consider how the evaluation of music-generating systems will be enhanced by a clearer understanding of autonomy and its application to music. We discuss existing definitions and approaches to quantifying autonomy and consider, through a series of examples, the information that is required in order to make precise formal judgements about autonomy, and the identification of relevant levels at which the principle of autonomy applies in music. We conclude that automated measures can supplement human evaluation of autonomy, but that (a) automated measures must be supported by sound reasoning about the features and timescales used in the measurement, and (b) they are improved by a having knowledge of the internal working of the system, rather than taking a black box approach. We consider multi-dimensional representations of system behaviour that may capture a richer sense of the notion of autonomy. Finally, we propose an approach to automatically probing music systems as a means of determining an autonomy `portrait'.
The Melody Triangle: Exploring Pattern and Predictability in Music
Ekeus, Henrik (Queen Mary University of London) | Abdallah, Samer (Queen Mary University of London) | Plumbley, Mark (Queen Mary University of London) | McOwan, Peter (Queen Mary University of London)
The Melody Triangle is an interface for the discovery of melodic materials, where the input – positions within a triangle – directly map to information theoretic properties of the output. A model of human expectation and surprise in the perception of music, information dynamics, is used to ‘map out’ a musical generative system’s parameter space. This enables a user to explore the possibilities afforded by a generative algorithm, in this case Markov chains, not by directly selecting parameters, but by specifying the subjective predictability of the output sequence. We describe some of the relevant ideas from information dynamics and how the Melody Triangle is defined in terms of these. We describe its incarnation as a screen based performance tool and compositional aid for the generation of musical textures; the users control at the abstract level of randomness and predictability, and some pilot studies carried out with it. We also briefly outline a multi-user installation, where collabo- ration in a performative setting provides a playful yet informative way to explore expectation and surprise in music, and a forthcoming mobile phone version of the Melody Triangle.
Combining Search-Based Procedural Content Generation and Social Gaming in the Petalz Video Game
Risi, Sebastian (University of Central Florida) | Lehman, Joel (University of Central Florida) | D' (University of Central Florida) | Ambrosio, David B. (University of Central Florida) | Hall, Ryan (University of Central Florida) | Stanley, Kenneth O.
Search-based procedural content generation methods allow video games to introduce new content continually, thereby engaging the player for a longer time while reducing the burden on developers. However, games so far have not explored the potential economic value of unique evolved artifacts. Building on this insight, this paper presents for the first time a Facebook game called Petalz in which players can share flowers they breed themselves with other players through a global marketplace. In particular, the market in this social game allows players to set the price of their evolved aesthetically-pleasing flowers in virtual currency. Furthermore, the transaction in which one player buys seeds from another creates a new social element that links the players in the transaction. The combination of unique user-generated content and social gaming in Petalz facilitates meaningful collaboration between users, positively influences the dynamics of the game, and opens new possibilities in digital entertainment.