Running Header: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH

Artificial Intelligence Research

Patrick Meinen
Ocean Lakes High School

What I Already Knew

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Computers are an amazing thing. They are able to take code written by humans, translate

it into a string of 1s and 0s that it can then use to implement certain actions or animations on a

screen just like how the programmer had written it. However, since the creation of computers it

has developed enough to where it doesnt require direct code from a programmer and instead the

programmer can set it up so the computer is able to recognize certain actions already going on

and utilize another code written by the programmer to understand how to react to it. Now I

wanted to learn more about how Artificial Intelligence, AI, worked and how it has advanced

since its creation.

The best way to understand this is by looking at how it is used in video games. There are

pre-designed characters that are given a certain knowledge by the developers to know how to

react to certain stimuli. For example in one of the earliest games, Pong, the player is facing a

computer that is given knowledge that a small ball will be hit by the player and it needs to slowly

move towards where the ball is heading to try and return it. Since then it has developed past this

pretty far giving the computer abilities such as dodging shots coming from the player and return

its own to waiting to move in until a full team is gathered at a certain point making it more

realistic to playing against another player.

The Story of My Search

My search took about four weeks to complete with me researching in short spurts,

typically on the weekend, and trying to answer a question each time. Now I chose to research

into AI because of how much I enjoy playing video games along with my interest in becoming a

game or software developer. More specifically I researched into the future of AI, the actual

software design jobs, and the applications of AI in video games.I decided to start my researching

by collecting some vocabulary about software development but more specifically game
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development. I had already known much of the information about game development however

what intrigued me was how little i had known about actually developing a game. Since I had my

broad topic figured out I decided to narrow it down to learning about AI since I had very little

prior knowledge to it as well as trying to learn some more about the base requirements for a job

working with technology. I typically started each question by googling the question straight out

and reading a few of the top sources to learn more about it. Following that I typically took what I

learned from one source and researched into that a bit more by googling and checking out the top

sources again. Most of the sources I was doing research on were very credible coming from

college websites like MIT or government websites (Bureau of Labor Statistics) however the

websites I used for learning about the basics of a subject typically were not as credible, being

websites without any affiliation.

Overall my search was very successful however I did have a few failures the first day in

the library where we were tasked to use google scholar and that limited the amount sources I was

able to find. One specific failure was when I was using google scholar I found a lengthy article

about the technology of AI which didnt help me at all but wasted a bunch of my time. Another

failure that I had was trying to determine exactly what I wanted my sub questions to answer. This

related mostly to my first few questions about the potential of AI, which I would later discover to

be very hard to research, that I turned into research about deep learning AI which was a close call

to wasting most of my time finding nothing that I would use.

I also decided to interview my computer programming teacher, Mrs. Adriano, since she

was the only person I knew who has some experience with programming and AI. The answers I

received were almost exactly what I had expected the answers to be after I had done my research

or at least the bulk of it prior to the interview. The basic things I learned was that a bachelors
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degree was required for many of the jobs in the field. She was able however to give me a little bit

of professional information that was able to confirm my research into the couple subjects that my

questions were based off of.

The Search Results

My search concluded with the discovery that deep learning is the next step in advanced

AI. This was evident from mainly the MIT technology review article where I researched what the

most advanced AI would look like or incorporate. I found out about deep learning which as

described by Kurzweil, who spent over fifty years working with AI, is Deep-learning software

attempts to mimic the activity in layers of neurons in the neocortex.(MIT technology review on

Deep Learning, 2013) and while this had not been my intention it ended up being one of my

main topics of research. The way I see the technology being used is in creating AI that could

simulate a human being better in the way that it can store past events in a memory that is able

to be accessed later and can influence decisions later. There was also further research into how

the current goal of AI is to model the human brain in such a way that it is able to complete tasks

in the same way and even compete in intelligence tests. Hypothetically if deep learning is fully

developed I could see it acting as a major player of making humanoid robots often seen in

movies that are able to understand everything and surpass humans in intelligence. However, most

experts say the most practical use would be predicting traffic problems or weather events such as

hurricanes or blizzards.

The other topics I researched were not as interesting as deep learning but is still very

important to me, which is a summary of the software development career and implementation of

AI in video games. The market for jobs relating to software development is on the rise and is

growing much faster than the average for jobs. It also was able to show me an average salary for
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someone in the field which was around $135,000. This indicates that the potential for an open

job inside once I graduate college with the required degrees to earn. According to the website it

was described as growing much faster than average.(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015) I was able

to trust the website because it was run by the government as it was the Bureau of Labor

Statistics, I trusted that the website would provide correct evidence to support the job potential

since the government runs and fills in the information of each job according to statistics.

Another website that really helped me learn from was about how intelligent artificial

intelligence has grown to be and how it is behind the maximum potential for AI. It spoke

specifically about AI converging or learning of certain traits and basically making decisions from

that. They stated how while on paper that sounds really fun it would be very difficult to play

against when say for example in a fighting game where the goal is to be the computer every time

you make a move it is no longer available to you anymore, or rendered ineffective. However, it

does state that games will soon be catching up since other fields have seen success with learning

technology. I was surprised by what I found that games actually had more basic AI then they

could and that a main struggle of AI is making it dumb enough to where it is still fun for the

player. This piqued my interest since I had previously thought that video games were given the

most advanced technology in terms of everything since the hardware to run the games is always

the most advance computer technology that is consumer available as well as how large of an

industry that the video game creation is.

As a general conclusion I was able to learn that deep learning is the next step for AI to go

into providing that the processing power is able to handle it. Also as a general career review that

software developers live a comfortable life with the average of $135,000 a year. Also that many

companies are campaigning to make the intelligence of AI in video games actually advanced and
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not lagging behind compared to the rest of the technology field. This was able to really solidify

my interest in a career in Software Development however it has gotten me a bit more inclined to

research into why AI is not as advanced in video games.

My Growth As A Researcher

I was able to learn a lot about how to research leading from how to research effectively to

how to evaluate certain websites. I learned that it is best to do research all continuously instead

of splitting it apart into little sections. While it was easier timewise it would have been a lot

better if I had been able to do the research in one sitting so I don't lose any information just from

not having it be continuous. Sadly, I would not have been able to do this either way as I had

either work or my parents took us on vacation so that I couldnt have enough constant time to

work on it all at once. I didnt enjoy using the google scholar functionality since it seemed to

block part of the potential websites that I could have found from professionals. It seemed to only

bring up certain papers that were written by college students or professors but sadly for my topic

those were not the best places to look for information since it would require a more hands-on

approach to the field of study. Overall it was a good way for me to look into the field of study a

bit more and I plan on doing some personal research into why AI is not as advanced as it could

be in video games.

Works Cited

Graft, K. (n.d.). When artificial intelligence in video games becomes...artificially

intelligent. Retrieved June 05, 2017, from

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/253974/When_artificial_intelligence_in_video_games_be

comesartificially_intelligent.php
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What Skills Do I Need to Get a Job in Artificial Intelligence? (n.d.). Retrieved June 05,

2017, from http://www.computersciencedegreehub.com/faq/skills-job-artificial-intelligence/

Games developer. (n.d.). Retrieved June 05, 2017, from https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-

profiles/games-developer

Hof, R. D. (2016, March 29). Is Artificial Intelligence Finally Coming into Its Own?

Retrieved June 05, 2017, from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/513696/deep-learning/

Why Deep Learning Is Suddenly Changing Your Life. (n.d.). Retrieved June 05, 2017,

from http://fortune.com/ai-artificial-intelligence-deep-machine-learning/

(n.d.). Retrieved June 05, 2017, from

http://study.com/articles/Game_Designer_Job_Info_and_Requirements_for_Becoming_a_Game

_Designer.html