America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 316 Short-haired, cross-dressing fitness girl (3k)

Now Will finally understood why Lin Lixin had given him special tutoring this time.

In terms of this project, it is indeed a perfect match for his major.

Decision trees, which originated from the JAZZ system, were born for this kind of gameplay.

To put it simply, the AI ​​logic in the game and the various behaviors of the NPCs are essentially a guessing game.

"I understand! I understand!"

Once you understand this, it becomes very clear what Lin Lixin intends to do.

No wonder Lin Lixin mentioned "mind reading".

In a sense, when they actually succeed in building such a huge database, it is indeed like a mind-reading internet genius.

With the project direction determined, the rest followed naturally.

When faced with decision tree structures involving fuzzy decision-making, Will's project experience was actually much richer than Carmack's.

In just one day, he developed the core decision engine.

But it was only at this point that Will truly discovered that there seemed to be many serious problems that they had not even realized.

Could Akinator be wrong?

Lin Lixin was somewhat puzzled when he heard Will's report.

"Well—to be precise, we don't have a database that can truly cover all options."

Will thought for a moment and gave a more precise answer.

He noticed this problem during the test just now.

Akinator is not true artificial intelligence; it is merely a series of programs that strictly adhere to code.

This means it is impossible for it to create results out of thin air that do not exist in its own dataset.

Will added Lin Lixin to the test database, so Akinator could guess Lin Lixin. However, since he hadn't had time to add Hideo Kojima, Hideo Kojima couldn't be guessed.

"Simply put, if we want to achieve a result that satisfies everyone, the number of entries that need to be entered into the database will be enormous!"

With only a small team in the development department, even if they keep adding people day and night, their efficiency will ultimately be limited.

Just going through all the historical figures would be enough to develop for a year or two.

This reminded Will of when they were developing Civilization.

In order to create the spectacle in the game, they actually consulted countless ancient books.

"If we don't have enough data, then a large portion of its guesses will be wrong!"

This kind of thing obviously cannot meet Lin Lixin's needs. "I think we can cooperate with university libraries in various places to make a version where people can only guess historical figures."

This was the most suitable solution Will found after careful consideration.

This part of the dataset is absolutely accurate and sufficiently complete.

"Well----"

Lin Lixin scratched his face. "Who said it had to guess right?"

"?"

Lin Lixin put down his pen, looked at the genie image that was beginning to take shape, and nodded in satisfaction.

Setting the sketch aside, he turned to Will and continued, "No matter how much manpower or data we invest, we can't achieve perfection or cover all the answers."

"Moreover, it can guess not only people, but also various objects and even abstract concepts."

"If we were really asked to enter each entry one by one, we could never do it even if we worked ourselves to death."

"From the very beginning, Akinator could not have been right all the time."

Will frowned slightly upon hearing Lin Lixin's words.

As a hardcore geek with a science and engineering background, this imperfection made him intuitively very uncomfortable.

"Don't rush. Although Akinator is indeed not an omniscient and omnipotent god, we can make it a quasi-god that can improve infinitely."

""

"Akinator is not a simple decision tree; that would be too inefficient and not smart enough."

Lin Lixin reached out and tapped his temple. "We can think of it as—a brain."

"brain?"

Will was taken aback.

Could it be that Lin Lixin has secretly developed artificial intelligence?

"Yes, but not a real brain, but a Bayesian brain."

"7

The Bayesian brain hypothesis is a hypothesis derived from Bayesian reasoning.

Bayesian reasoning, in its simplest form, is all about guessing!

"To put it another way, if there's someone standing not far from you, how would you determine their gender if you don't know them?"

"Well?"

This wasn't a complicated question. After a brief hesitation, Will blurted out, "Long hair means woman, short hair means man; narrow shoulders mean woman, broad shoulders mean man; women's clothing means woman, men's clothing means man, and so on?"

"Yes, that's how Akinator works."

Lin Lixin nodded. "Use experience and existing evidence to deduce the answer."

After saying that, Lin Lixin suddenly changed the subject, "However, there is a problem with your deduction just now. The long-haired one could be a rock punk guy, the broad-shouldered one could be a female warrior who works out intensely, and the one in men's clothing could be a fashion pioneer."

"Well----"

Will scratched his head; this was clearly just arguing. "So, does that mean it's never possible to be 100% correct?"

Even if you go over and strip them naked, they might have had medical treatment in Southeast Asia, and the DNA test might be due to a malfunction in the equipment.

If this gets out of hand, it could go on forever.

However, Lin Lixin did not refute this statement at all; instead, he nodded happily.

"Yes, all we needed to do was make the probability of being right high enough."

"?"

What kind of situation is this?

So all that babbling was just to comfort him that he didn't need to consider that everything was 100% correct?

"However, Bayesian reasoning has a correction step in addition to relying solely on experience and guesswork."

"While we can't make it absolutely correct, we can make it avoid making the same mistakes."

Will's breath hitched.

Sometimes that's just how you think.

Everything is ready, just waiting for that final step.

Then came the vastness of the sea and sky.

"That's why you're so determined to make online games!"

Will suddenly understood everything.

Yes, Akinator may make mistakes, but it is an absolutely rational program. As long as the mistake is corrected, it may make another mistake next time, but it will never make the same mistake again.

Whenever the answer cannot be guessed, the new entity is added to the database.

Whenever a guess is wrong, try to increase the probability dimension to make it guess more accurately!

Lin Lixin is right.

It is a quasi-god that is infinitely progressive.

One day, it will become truly omniscient and omnipotent.

To achieve this goal, it needs to get all players, and even all netizens, to actively use it and actively improve its database.

Seeing the change in Will's expression, Lin Lixin smiled broadly.

It seems he already understands what I mean.

That's enough.

Although the future real Akinator will combine machine learning and big data collaborative filtering, those things are beyond the capabilities of current technology.

Lin Lixin reached out and grabbed Carmack, who was still working hard beside him, like picking up a kitten, and pushed him toward Will.

"But you're right, it involves complex probability theory and algorithm optimization, so it's best to have more people involved."

Ultimately, it wasn't a complicated project. The three of them worked together and finished everything they needed to do in a week.

-

This is a purely backend project.

In other words, its actual physical form is mounted on a web server.

The software used by players, whether on NX, NB, or PC, is just a port for accessing the system, similar to a browser.

This makes its multi-platform porting very easy.

From the moment the project was launched, it was a full-platform system in the literal sense.

This time, unlike before, there wasn't any massive, widespread advertising campaign. Instead, a few days of PVs were simply broadcast in magazines and on television before being quickly placed on the shelves of department stores, supermarkets, and digital stores across the country.

A fellow who looks just like a genie in a lamp, with a catchy but ambiguous name.

Akinator - The Internet Genius

The large "[Network access required!]" sign on the cover is particularly eye-catching.

Following Pixels, GAMENOVA has released many new titles.

However, their need for network access has always been "optional".

Just like the recently released "American Truck Simulator".

You can play the game normally even without connecting to the NEXUS network.

However, to experience features such as online radio, shadow drivers, travel sharing, intermodal transportation, and fleet management, you must connect to the app.

And a game like this, which openly and explicitly tells you that you need an internet connection to play, is truly unique to *Pixels*.

The next time.

Therefore, even though it was touted as just a simple puzzle game, there were still quite a few players queuing up to buy it on the first day.

Of course, the most exciting thing is that all you need to play this time is a PC with internet access!

After all, the NX is indeed a bit expensive, and not everyone can afford it.

Sutherland Corporation, Silicon Valley, California.

Ivan Sutherland finished his workday and walked home with his briefcase in hand.

Unlike other Turing Award winners, Ivan is much more low-key in his approach to things.

He didn't even give his usual speech, but promised to write a long paper soon.

-

For Ivan, while the Turing Award is indeed an unparalleled honor, he felt even more proud of the fact that he had mentored Nolan, the man who ushered in the golden age of video games.

"You haven't bought it yet? Wow, bro! Quick, let's go to Walmart now, we should still have some left."

Ivan suddenly heard a sharp scream coming from not far away.

The source of the sound was a young and strong man.

He looked at his companion in disbelief, then reached out and grabbed his arm, trying to rush towards the mall.

"Don't be so cocky. Is Akinator really that fun? I'm not interested in puzzle games at all."

"My foot! You'll know once you play it! It's fucking amazing, bro."

"ha?"

"It can read minds!!! It knows everything I'm thinking, it's like the Akinator genie, it knows everything!"

'

"You know everything?"

"I asked it to guess Elvis Presley, and it guessed it right away! I don't know how it reads my mind."

"What you're saying sounds a bit creepy. Is it some kind of mind control?"

Watching the two figures disappear into the distance, Ivan tightened his grip on his briefcase.

"A genie in a lamp that can read minds?"

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