BRIGHTON--Damian Isla of Bungie Studios addressed the 2008 Developer Conference and Expo yesterday. The AI expert talked about the challenges he'd faced leading the artificial-intelligence development on Halo 3, how the AI has changed since the original Halo, and the problems being faced by the development team on their next project.

It is friendly AI, rather than opposition AI, that is currently his team's focus, according to Isla. Making friendly NPCs react in a manner that is both useful and natural is a great challenge, he said, as it requires the AI to be able to accurately determine player intent and act accordingly. The team have looked at two possible ways of solving this most vexing of problems. The first is to improve the AI's player modelling--essentially teaching the machines how players are likely to behave so that they can react in a more realistic and considerate way. This is, however, incredibly difficult, Isla rued. "We'll never be 100 percent there, and 99 percent is very often just not good enough," he explained.