Computer game bot Turing test: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:10, 26 February 2013

Revision as of 05:13, 4 October 2013

Line 1:

{{DISPLAYTITLE: Computer Game Bot Turing Test}}

The [[Video_game_botVideo |game bot|Computer Game Bot]] Turing Test is a variant of the [[Turing Test]], where a human judge viewing and interacting with a [[virtual world]] must distinguish between other humans interacting with the world and game bots that interact with the world. This variant was first proposed in 2008 by Associate Professor Philip Hingston<ref>http://philiphingston.com/Homepage/Homepage.html</ref><ref name="turing">{{Cite journal|last=Hingston | publisher=IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games|first=Philip | title=A Turing Test for Game Bots | date=September 2009|url=http://www.cs.ucf.edu/~gitars/cap6671-2010/Presentations/turing.pdf}}</ref> of [[Edith Cowan University]], and implemented through a tournament called the 2K BotPrize.<ref name="BotPrize">http://botprize.org</ref>

[[File:UT^2 bot combats an opponent in the BotPrize.jpg|thumb|alt=The UT^2 bot combats an opponent in the BotPrize.|A bot combats a human opponent in the game [[Unreal Tournament 2004]]]]

Line 6:

The Computer Game Bot Turing Test was proposed to advance the fields of [[Artificial Intelligence]] and [[Computational Intelligence]] with respect to video games. It was considered that a poorly implemented bot implied a subpar game, so a bot that would be capable of passing this test, and therefore might be indistinguishable from a human player, would directly improve the quality of a game. It also served to debunk a flawed notion that "game AI is a solved problem."<ref name="turing"/>

Emphasis is placed on a game bot that interacts with other players in a [[Multiplayer video game | multiplayer]] environment. Unlike a bot that simply needs to make optimal human-like decisions to play or beat a game, this bot must make the same decisions while also convincing another in-game player of its human-likeness.

==Implementation==

The Computer Game Bot Turing Test was designed to test a bot's ability to interact with a game environment in comparison with a human player, simply 'winning' was insufficient. This evolved into a contest with a few important goals in mind:<ref name="turing"/>:

* There are three participants: a human player, a computer-game bot, and a judge.

* The bot needs to appear more human-like than the human player. Judge scores are not bipolar — both human and bot can be scored anywhere on a scale from 1 to 5 (1=not humanlike, 5=human).

Line 17:

* Human participants were of a moderate skill range, with no participant either ignorant to the game or capable of playing at a professional level.

In 2008, the first 2K BotPrize tournament took place.<ref name="BotPrize 2008">http://botprize.org/2008.html</ref> The contest was held with the game [[Unreal_Tournament_2004 | Unreal Tournament 2004]] as the platform. Contestants created their bots in advance using the GameBots<ref>http://gamebots.sourceforge.net</ref> interface. GameBots had some modifications made so as to adhere to the above conditions, such as removing data about vantage points or weapon damage that unfairly informed the bots of relevant strengths/weakness that a human would otherwise need to learn.

==Tournament==

The first BotPrize Tournament was held in [[Perth]], [[Australia]], on 17 December 2008, as part of the 2008 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games.<ref name="BotPrize 2008"/><ref>http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/cig08/</ref><ref name="BotPrize 2008"/> Each competing team was given time to set up and adjust their bots to the modified game client, although no coding changes were allowed at that point. The tournament was run in rounds, each a 10-minute death match. Judges were the last to join the server and every judge observed every player and every bot exactly once, although the pairing of players and bots did change. When the tournament ended, no bot was rated as more human than any player.

In subsequent tournaments, run during 2009-2011,<ref>http://botprize.org/2009.html</ref><ref>http://botprize.org/2010.html</ref><ref>http://botprize.org/2011.html</ref> bots achieved scores that were increasingly human-like, but no contestant had won the BotPrize in any of these contests.

Line 35:

The outcome of a bot that appears more human-like than a human player is possibly overstated, since in the tournament in which the bots succeeded, the average 'humanness' rating of the human players was only 41.4%.<ref>http://botprize.org/result.html</ref> This showcases some limits of this Turing Test, since the results demonstrate that human behaviour is more complicated and quantitative than was accounted for.<ref>{{Cite news|title=How did this game bot score higher than humans on a Turing Test?|date=October 1, 2012|last=Dvorsky|first=George|url=http://io9.com/5947796/how-can-a-game-bot-score-higher-than-humans-on-a-turing-test}}</ref> In light of this, the BotPrize competition organizers will increase the difficulty in upcoming years with new challenges, forcing competitors to improve their bots.<ref>{{Cite news|title=More human than human: AI game bots pass Turing Test|date=September 26, 2012|first=Darren|last=Quick|url=http://www.gizmag.com/turing-test-ut2004-botprize/24308/}}</ref>

It is also believed that methods and techniques developed for the Computer Game Bot Turing Test will be useful in fields other than video games, such as [[virtual training]] environments and in improving [[Human–robot interaction | robot-human interaction]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Artificially Intelligent Game Bots Pass the Turing Test on Turing's Centenary|date=September 26, 2102|url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120926133235.htm}}</ref>

==Contrasts to the Turing Test==

Line 52:

*[[Graphics Turing Test]]

*The [[Loebner Prize]], a contest that implements the 'traditional' Turing Test

*[[Rog-O-Matic]], a 1984 bot that plays the 1980s dungeon crawler [[Rogue_Rogue (video_game)video game)| Rogue]]

==References==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Artificial intelligence]]