… as played by a computer. Here’s an entry for the “Mario AI Competition 2009,” a contest to see who can design the best AI player of Infinite Mario Bros., a heavily modified version of Super Mario World with random level generation. Both videos succinctly demonstrate why the robots will be ruling us all within decades years months.

The bit to really watch out for comes at 0:45, when the otherwise inch-perfect AI controller seems to plunge down a pit, only to brilliantly rescue itself with some impossibly nimble wall-jumping.

[Mario AI Competition 2009, via Shacknews]

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Remember Skynet?  For the uninitiated, the concept is very simple:  a giant surveillance computer system achieved sentience, and then decided that the best way to protect the Earth, and itself, was to kill all of mankind.  And there’s a bunch of people who think this is a bad idea, who try to stop it from happening in by manipulating the past, present, and future, all while trying to stay away (and, somehow related, alive) from the super-strong intelligent death machines known as robots.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention that this all happened in the fictional world of the Terminator, previously in the four movies, and, more recently, in the awesomely badass tv show on the surprising network of FOX.

Weekend Update

It’s all been good fun though, since it was all just a bunch of SciFi designed to scare, enlighten, and entertain.  It could never happen in the real world, and that’s what’s so fun about it!  Right?

Twenty points for “Wrong Answer”, Dr. Beerpants.

The reality is that Skynet is quickly becoming a reality, whether we like it or not.  And since I haven’t heard of Sarah Connor blowing up buildings, killing people, or traveling through time to avoid robots… I’m not sure there’s anything we can do about it.

Before you start complaining that I’m making stuff up, or jumping to conclusions, let’s look at the facts.

Good Morning, Dave

Point 1:  The Air Force is developing a digital warfare division.

Category:  Artificial Intelligence

No matter how watered down they want to say it is, do you really think the military is going to invest it’s time and money on a herculean scale just to develop some sort of DDoS engine?  Or a super-rootkit that will work on only certain versions of Windows, as long as they have the right hardware?

Come on.  This, I believe, is how the Skynet actually got started in the movies:  the military decided to connect it’s different pieces under one electronic, and intelligent, system.

Go figure.

Read My Lips

Point 2:  Satellites now exist in the realm of unimaginable resolution.

Category:  Satellite Surveillance

The recently launched Google satellite has been praised for it’s certifiably awesome resolution, but here’s the kicker:  this is a resolution that the public has access to.  And it’s common knowledge that the government has access to even higher resolutions… both for this satellite, and any ones that may or may not exist.

If I can get on Google Maps and count the trees in your 10-square-foot backyard… what do you think they can do?

I Work For Miniluv

Point 3:  England is becoming the always-watched country that George Orwell envisioned.

Category:  Video Surveillance

England has CCTV cameras all over the place.  I’m not talking the level of surveillance that the average American is used to seeing at malls, supermarkets, or even the airport.  We’re talking constant surveillance.  Everywhere.  Which now includes actually filming the every move of the police, through the simple method of putting cameras on their uniforms.

I think the porn industry may have beat them to the punch on the POV angle, actually.

‘Goose’ Is Now Known As ‘AF-666.Apocalypse’

Point 4:  Autonomous air support.  Completely autonomous.

Category:  Humanity-free Warfare

Most people are, by now, familiar with the concept of UAVs being used in places like Iraq to help spot targets, track people, or other obvious uses… but they don’t have the ability (as far as the public knows) to actually shoot anybody, or even fly by themselves.  Well, now they do.

Match that firing capability with computer-controlled flights completely devoid of human thought or interaction.

You’ve got yourself a free-thinking fighting machine.

Resistance Is Futile

Point 5:  Cyborg exoskeletons by a company named ‘Cyberdyne’.

Category:  Robots

A Japanese company is developing an exoskeleton that people can wear to enhance things like brute strength and leverage capabilities.  At first glance, this seems innocent enough, but think about it for a second…

• A machine that has massive strength and endurance?  Check
• The ability to plug any humanoid form into the machine?  Check
• Throw in a few motors, a can of oil, and some computer chips…

You’ve got yourself a robot.  Or, worst case scenario, a heavily modified human being.

We like to call those “borgs”.

The All-Together Now

Take the average of the five points, and multiply by four.  What do you get?  The hands and feet of a system that will eventually become what we hope for.  Or fear, depending on who you are and how evil a computer thinks you are.

The mythical Skynet doesn’t appear as an entire package in real life, things just don’t work that way.  I wish I could have been born old enough to legally buy alcohol, but I still have another month to go for that… Why do people assume that our self-contained future overlords will be any different than the rest of what humanity creates?

Things take time, and take incremental steps.  Sometimes those steps, while individual, appear as a great leap… but it all starts somewhere.

In this case, our demise begins as part military might and part civilian obsequiousness.

Sprinkled with a dash of Japanese awkward-but-not-so-untrue humor.

Kyle Brady is a contributing columnist for the Inquisitr, an entrepreneur, and has a future in science fiction.  He can be found at his blog, via email, or on Twitter.

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The AP has an interesting write-up about how researchers are now using the online world to develop new AI technology. Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are testing their creations there to see how convincingly they can think on their own and interact with real people.

“It’s a fantastic sweet spot — not too simple, not too complicated, high cultural value,” one of the institute’s directors said.

Would you be fooled? Read more about the technology here.

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