Art in the form of literature, television and film has created fictional artificial intelligence that becomes indistinguishable from organic intelligence. It provides a wonderful vehicle to discuss concepts of consciousness, being human or falling in love. Whether they are Blade Runner "skin jobs" or Battlestar Galactica "cylons" the androids are struggling for identity and acceptance. This is all fine in fiction but trying to apply it to a truly interactive world is a huge challenge. We aren't quite there yet.
In nonfiction world AI has improved and the computational power of computers gets better and better. There are currently some interactive psychological programs that respond to text or voice and do a pretty good job of fooling quite a few people. Of course there is the computer that beat the Chess Grand Master, Kasparov. AI continues to make inroads. Computer gaming is one area that has pushed AI further and further along. From the earliest text based adventure game and even Pacman ghosts chasing you as you crunch the dots to much more sophisticated bots in first person shooter games. I can remember playing Unreal Tournament online and not realizing that my opponents were AI Bots until I had been playing for a couple days. The AI bots would razz me and cuss me out when I killed them like living players. I figured it out when they repeated the same phrases enough times. The Sims game created a whole new level of AI bots. The players can create their own bots that run around and interact with each other. They are given tools to define the characteristics and aspirations of the Sim bots. This is much more sophisticated AI than the the bots in FPS game. It is not a huge leap to imagine Sim like avatars running around SL with out people behind them. The only reason I would want to do is to just see if it is possible. One can use the Second Life open source client to interface a neural network AI cluster to drive an avatar bot capable of interacting with living avatars. This takes away the issue of creating all the physical robotics so one could focus on just the AI. Create a heuristic AI that could begin SL as a newbie and learn as it explores Second life.
People already run rudimentary bots in SL to camp for Lindens or act as greeters in clubs. I would not be surprised if someone isn't taking that to a higher level. First to allow it to better interact to it's environment on its own. Second to interact with other Avatars and Third to create some level of personality and consciousness. These possibilities are pushing way beyond the limits of simple home desktop. I think they are exciting possibilities only because the are possible and want to see it done. Artificial Intelligence has been one of my many diversions in my life as a programmer and obsessive researcher. I doubt I will have the time to take it very far.
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