Molyneux: Most of Milo Is ‘A Trick’

Tuffcub 45 Comments

More news filtering in from the Milo demo at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Global conference in Oxford, take it away, Peter Molyneux,

“Films, TV, even hallowed books, are just rubbish because they don’t involve me,” he said. “It’s a sea of blandness.”

As previously reported, Milo will use the cloud concept to help Milo evolve,

“No two people’s Milos can be the same – you are actually sculpting a human being. Some of the things you are doing will change the course of his life.”

Molyenux went on to reveal that Milo may seem to be alive as the technology exploits psychological techniques to make you feel the character was ‘real’.

“Most of it is just a trick – but it is a trick that actually works.”

The BBC also reports that there will be many ‘adventures’ with Milo, some of which will be ‘quite dark’. Part of the demo involved egging Milo on to stamp on a snail, not exactly murdering your father with a kitchen knife but still rather unpleasant.

The demo also included teaching Milo to skim stones before he confides in you that his parents have told him off.

Source: BBC

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45 Comments

  1. Its absolutely amazing where this could lead.

    In one swoop Microsoft have made the operating system for your future house, and in gaming the possibilities are limitless although it may be quite some time before actual uses are worked into games, maybe not even the next generation.

    • This decade’s tamagotchi.

    • Feh, someone’s already created a pseudo JARVIS (though not quite as verbose) using a 4 year old Mac Mini and lots of custom AppleScript. OSX has plenty of speech recognition and playback…
      http://projectjarvis.com/

      Just expand on that.

      • anyone can do all they want, but if they can’t sell it to people then its pointless.

        Kinda like video-calling, been around for years but Facetime looks like its got people actually impressed by it

      • Aye. It’s not about the technology but how they apply it. If MS have come up with something that’ll sell…kudos to them.

      • Exactly, anyone can do it using the tech that’s already there and has been there for over a decade.

        The biggest thing in the way is having to get a person to come and install all the other gubbins for the control centre to hook into. Whoever can market that and make it a huge success is better than Apple.

      • Off topic, but I hate that Facetime advert, its so cheesy with its token deaf guy and the heroic soldier with pregnant minority wife.. And all the time its selling something that’s been on every phone for years and just re-branding it like its something new. This is why I don’t buy Apple products, its all just style over content, imo..
        .
        On topic, this seems to be a similar thing, stuff that’s been done before but repackaged and sold like he’s created sentient AI. I cant help but be reminded of his earlier game, Black and White which was hyped in a similar way, but the finished product turned out to be very light in comparison, which leaves me very sceptical about this.

    • Does anyone remember the rumblings of a game whose story was entirely unscripted (I know I know, bear with me) and instead would be created on the fly by AI and how they react to the player’s actions? It was very propriety and likely pre-alpha but if anyone has a lead it’ll be much appreciated.

      • I think I know what you’re on about, I have an issue of games mag where it’s mentioned on the last page. I’ll have a rummage for it later. As for milo, I’m interested.

      • I thought I remembered reading about it in OPM, so I read through my collection. Didn’t find it, but I only looked at the Rumour Mill section so I probably just missed it. They made a comment on how the tech powering it was probably alien, didn’t they?

    • Doesn’t stop him or the idea of interacting with him being any less creepy though. Of course, that’s just my opinion…But I’d feel a tad weird if I was speaking with a little boy through a TV telling him what to do, especially with that really annoying British accent he has.

      The tech might be good, seems like one of those chat bots but with an actual 3D model that talks, but Milo himself is quite creepy. Interested to see where it goes though I guess.

      • Yeah, creepy as hell

        But forget actual Milo and imagine the underlying tech being brought into a game where there is conversation between characters, rather than choosing from a list of 3 predefined responses giving you a 33% chance of successful outcome of the situation the game uses the tech to listen to what you’re saying and how you’re saying it and the game evolves dynamically from there.

        Obviously this won’t happen soon, but is it the future? Maybe

    • “The possibilities are limitless”

      Unless you plan on walking forward in your games of course :)

      • *clunk*

        That gave me my morning laugh.

      • At two in the afternoon?

      • Was referring to the tech powering Milo being adapted for game use, not Kinect.

      • @DuffyBox I was born in GMT but don’t live there any more. I’m speaking to you from 5 hours in the past. :)

      • I see. Well, don’t get too excited about 5 hours in the future, for me a pizza showed up and I did some gardening but not much else

  2. Well of course it’s a trick, most technology is just a trick. Films are just a trick where static images are shown quick enough that it tricks our brain into thinking they’re moving.

    • Games are just a trick… I’m actually sat on my sofa and not really fighting a never ending war between Chernovans and Eucadians

    • Exactly! He is, by definition, not a real living thing and therefore any methods employed to make him seem so are tricks.

      • “What is real? How do you define ‘real’?”

      • Is this the Matrix?

      • Play your games through an Amstrad CPC 464 and everything looks like the Matrix.

      • What if I play an Amstrad CPC 464 Plus. Does it look like the Matrix minus a clock counter?

  3. “you’re actually sculpting a human being” – nope, dont think you will be

    • nope you’re “grooming” a human being…

  4. Isn’t that exactly what he promised for Black and White… and Black and White 2… If that’s the case, I’d try get Milo to drown himself as soon as possible.

  5. Just as long as the little so and so doesn’t pull on Manchester United shirt!

  6. I think what they are trying to get at with Milo is to create a relationship with something/someone. I think there has been a better system in existence for millenniums – its called people. With the right interaction you can create friendships, have sex…..and just generally do stuff. Seems we’re in the era of being sold stuff we think we need……. I don’t mind innovation but at the end of the day I just want games I can escape into.

    • It is basically simulating a sappy annoying friend who does whatever you want, has no opinions of their own and just wants to hang out with you all the time. We’ve all had a friend like that and we all don’t need to pay for another one!

  7. undecided if this is something really groundbreaking or more of a tech demo. but then i suppose that’s the just molyneux effect…
    from what i see, kinect offers more potential as an improved media UI than it does for any gaming experience. you’ll never get an experience akin to “actually sculpting a human being” because you’re talking to a screen and waving you’re arms about as opposed to, y’know, playing with your kid or nephew or whatever

    • aye….I think that’s what I was trying to say.

  8. So, what he’s saying is that he hasn’t actually achieved sentient AI, placing us on the cusp of the technological singularity after all.. He’s a big fat phony!
    .
    Cant say Im surprised really, this always seemed to be a more advanced version of the old ‘GIGO’ (Garbage In, Garbage Out) programs, like Lisa (I think it was called that) and the various chatbots on IRC. In fact, I wouldnt be surprised if MILO is an acronym along similar lines, i.e $something In, $something Out.

    • Twas ELIZA. But I think Milo is different to GIGO in that his personality gradually changes over time based on how you treat him, no?

      • Eliza, that was it.. You could argue that a GIGO personality changes over time as well, as it adds things you say to its own vocabulary which it then spits back at you later, I assume that Milo does a similar thing, but in a more advanced way, like comparing your input via various databases within the ‘cloud’ to break it down into something more meaningful. I expect there will some human interaction in the backend as well, cleaning up those databases so that you dont just get garbage back out. This is all guessing of course, it may work in some completely other way, but thats how I see it myself..

      • Good point. I guess Milo is the next evolution of GIGO because he has ‘eyes’. I wonder what he’d say if suddenly you appeared dressed as Tuffcub one morning, or if he noticed the Wotta skin rug? :)

        He’s not quite Turing Gold, but he’s a relatively large step on the way there.

        P.S. Well spotted about the milo possibly being an acronym.

  9. Am I the only one who misunderstood “Films, TV, even hallowed books, are just rubbish because they don’t involve me,” as ““Films, TV, even hallowed books, are just rubbish because I, the Mighty Molyneux, didn’t have a part in their development,”

    • I was wondering that myself, I assumed it must have been a joke in the article or possibly by Molyneaux himself, as no one could seriously be that arrogant.

      Though given some of the crap we’ve heard from Molyneaux in the past…

  10. He can talk all he wants, but until he actually has something to actually show to back that talk up that isn’t some pre-rehearsed video, “talk” is all it’s going to stay.

    Molyneaux has a history of underdelivering on big promises, and until the day comes he actually manages to prove people wrong, there’s little reason to assume the same thing couldnlt end up happening here.

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