Expressive Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence, Games and New Media

Abstract

Artificial intelligence methods open up new possibilities in art and entertainment, enabling the creation of believable characters with rich personalities and emotions, interactive story systems that incorporate player interaction into the construction of dynamic plots, and interactive installations and sculptural works that are able to perceive and respond to the human environment. At the same time as AI opens up new fields of artistic expression, AI-based art itself becomes a fundamental research agenda, posing and answering novel research questions which would not be raised unless doing AI research in the context of art and entertainment. I call this agenda, in which AI research and art mutually inform each other, Expressive AI. These ideas will be illustrated by looking at several current and past projects, including the interactive drama Facade. As a new game genre, interactive drama involves socially and emotionally charged interaction with characters in the context of a dynamically evolving plot.