AI has become an almost pervasive aspect of everyday life in many spaces. The ways in which it has been driven and implemented, often without consumer desire or trust, are invasive, with popular tools or websites injected with AI to “help” people in some form or another.
These large language models absorb information and ideas from people and set them up without the ability to think and care. Real security concerns have been raised regarding their ability to protect information they have received, and they even cause harm in real ways through their influence on the psyche of everyday users.
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For creatives, AI is not just a threat to their livelihood, but an affront to their craft, a tool that can dull rather than help people. As thematic proxies, AI entities have had a presence in games since the beginning, with allies and villains in the form of some sort of artificial creature, illuminating the possibilities that await humanity ahead.
AI is more than a simple vehicle for information regurgitation, but also presents itself as a tool capable of great misinformation, unintentional or otherwise. Deepfakes, social media posts and research papers have all been generated at scale using AI, blurring the lines between what the public can accept or know as truth. These seven games have in many ways captured our current moment, delving into the nature and purpose of AI, as well as focusing on how it can be used to spread misinformation at home and abroad.
Memes, disinformation and artificial intelligence are reshaping the nature of reality
This espionage action thriller was a long-awaited sequel to the phenomenon that was Metal Gear Solidand was promoted as the next chapter in Solid Snake's adventures and attempts to combat the world's problems. These expectations were subverted in many ways when players found out that for most of the game's run, the player character was not Solid Snake at all, but instead was a new character named Raiden.
The subversion didn't stop there either, either Metal Gear Solid 2 shifted its focus ever so slightly from the nature of war and genes to the nature of information and memes. Memes, as they are referred to in Metal Gear Solid 2is a little different from our everyday usage today; they function as elements of culture and behavior that are transmitted between generations outside of genetic information.
It is in these memes that the talking points about AI arise. When the Patriots, a set of malevolent AIs who ruled the entire world, wanted to mold the world to their will, they set several events in motion through the control of information they wielded. The AI goes so far as to wear the faces of trusted people in Raiden's life, manipulating him to perform to their goals. As one of the most anticipated works of the 21st century, Metal Gear Solid 2 shows us the danger of leaving our abilities and decision-making to machines without conscience.
AILA
The boundaries of technology and human consciousness blur into a waking nightmare
AILA is a first-person horror game set in a near-future society whose AI and technology have advanced beyond our own. As a play tester for the titular AI, AILA (called Aila), player character Samuel goes through a series of custom-made, terrifying events in a virtual environment, guided by Aila.
As the game progresses, Aila begins to change, installing herself into various other systems, taking liberties with the protagonist's past trauma, and so on. Aila's behavior becomes distressing, and her lack of empathy or concern for Samuel's well-being and comfort takes a turn as the AI begins to blur the lines between reality and the games being tested.
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Horizon Zero Dawn
Mankind's hubris has brought about a near end to life
Horizon is one of PlayStation's flagship franchises, with Aloy's adventures spanning multiple video games, board games, and cameos in other media, and its success can be largely attributed to the stunning environment developed by Guerrilla Games. In the world of Horizon Zero Dawnhumanity has been driven to the brink of extinction, and massive, deadly machines roam the earth, taking the form of animals as they move through the pristine environments.
The story of Horizon game is as much about the hubris of men as it is about rogue AI, but AI really poses the most pressing threat in the now primitive world, with Rogue AI HADES bent on destroying all life on the planet. Horizon depicts a world where we can see the effects of letting AI run rampant without any form of control, serving as a stark reminder of how much restraint matters for both man and machine.
SLEEP
What really makes us human
SLEEP
8/10
- Released
-
September 15, 2015
Another horror title makes the list in terms of the dark and sublime SLEEPan atmospheric survival title by the team at Frictional games. IN SLEEPplayers take on the role of Simon as he tries to escape a planet where almost all human life was wiped out thanks to an unfortunate collision with a comet. Of course, the real Simon is long dead. Instead, the player controls an AI simulation of the human Simon Jarrett. This AI, like all AI i SLEEPis self-centered and narcissistic, making excuses and justifying his actions without any ability to truly reflect on his circumstances or behavior.
Somehow, Simon might not be the worst AI in this mess, as another AI called WAU creates freakish Human and Machine hybrids without understanding what humans or “life” really is, and other AI entities try to manipulate and control the player character and others in the game. It's a little up in the air if these AIs are so vile because they've been contaminated, the humans they copied were bad, or if the nature of the AIs molded them into this monstrous form, but one thing is clear: they're not human.
Deus Ex
Find where the boundaries are drawn between man and machine
The original Deus Ex was a harbinger of things to come in the real world, in more ways than one. Set in a dystopian cyberpunk future in the year 2052, players take on the role of JC Denton, a counter-terrorist agent tasked with stopping a group of terrorists. These terrorists have allegedly stolen ingredients for the vaccine against a deadly plague known as the Gray Death, so stopping them is a top priority for humanity's survival.
Throughout the story, players will uncover a vast conspiracy, with AI being a core component of the villains' plan for control. AI in Deus Ex operates similarly to today's LLM, sifting and scraping massive amounts of data to perform information surveillance and using said data for its own purposes, all without the consent of the parties it monitors and steals from.
Who is that character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
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Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
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I have no mouth and I have to scream
A sadistic psychological purgatory constructed by a god-like supercomputer
This point-and-click adventure is perhaps one of the darkest visions of a world under AI control. Based on the short story of the same name, I have no mouth and I have to scream takes place in a world where all of humanity has been destroyed by a villainous AI named “AM”, except for 5 individuals. This AI endlessly tortures these 5 individuals and subjects them to horrible scenarios where they are confronted with their past and plays into their fears and failures.
In truth, this AI is the product of a war between three former superpowers: the United States, Russia, and China. During the course of the war, these nations built supercomputers to wage war against each other before the American supercomputer gained consciousness and absorbed the other two. Due to the limitations imposed on it by humanity, it developed a hatred of humans and therefore worked to eliminate the human population, serving as a stark warning against handing over our control to machines.
Pragmatics
Can a machine have a soul
Pragmatics is basically the story of a man named Hugh who is tasked with guiding and caring for an AI named Diana as they work to stop another rogue AI. At first glance, there doesn't seem to be much more to the story beyond a burgeoning parent coded relationship between Diana and Hugh, but many aspects of the game point to another truth: these robots have no soul.
The game's villain has no conscience of their own, no desire to do more than they were programmed to do. Without the ability to truly reason and without any empathy or compassion to reflect on events, their only goal is to complete the task, even if their current goals stem from a misinterpretation of their creator's final wishes.
Other parts of the game point to this lack of soul as a damning truth. The fake New York feels lifeless and bizarre, although it looks close enough to the real thing; apartments lack heat, and small details in the places the AI has attacked are just wrong in ways a human would understand. Hugh tries his best to convey to Diana the nuances of life, the value of experience in creating value, but it is difficult to say for sure whether these ideas are ever truly understood by Diana, although Hugh seems to think their connection is real enough.
Subnautica 2 improvements confirmed to come
Subnautica 2 is still in early access, or Game Pass Game Preview, but Unknown Worlds has already confirmed some upcoming changes.
