Sports giant Nike is already using an Ask Jeeves interface to help sell shoes on its Web site, asking the user what they want and then finding the best matches. It's like putting your best salesperson on the Web. The project, launched last year, is supported by Acer Group, Delta Electronics, HP, NTT, Nokia Research Centre and Philips Research. One very big business in which AI plays a key role is the video-game industry, comparable to the film business in size. Unlike in the movies, it's often up to a computer or game console to create a sense of reality for the gamer, and standards of realism are going up all the time.
Some games use neural networking technology to create characters who can learn as they go along.
Characters in a fighting game, for example, might be taught combat skills in much the same way as a human. It's all theoretically possible. In the mean time, the same intelligence that lets a video-game fighter predict your next move is also helping antihacker security systems better protect sensitive computer networks. One such project, spearheaded by Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, will use AI agents to pool the forces of as many Internet-connected computers as possible into one vast, collective security force. The Linux-based system will require no specialised security computers and will be able to share information and form a consensus about the nature of any irregularity it spots.