Poll #21: 2/05/01 - 3/02/01



AI: Game Industry, Academia, and the Military
Who do you think is doing a "better job", overall, to advance the field of Artificial Intelligence in general?
(#1 of 2)
The Game industry, no doubt about it. (35)
20%
Academia and their many research projects. (71)
42%
The Military with their need for "smart weapons" and the like. (23)
13%
They're probably all about equal. (22)
13%
As near as I can tell "AI" means "Artificial Idiot" to nearly everybody. (20)
12%
Total Selections = 171

Out of curiosity, what group do you "belong" to?
(#2 of 2)
I'm a game developer active in the industry. (32)
19%
I want to be a game developer when I grow up. (43)
25%
I'm an academic researcher in the field of robotics, computer science, AI, etc. (31)
18%
I want to be a researcher when I grow up. (8)
5%
I'm a military scientist/contractor. (5)
3%
I want to work for the military and do this kind of stuff when I grow up. (1)
1%
I'm just an interested observer, really. (40)
24%
I have no idea what it is I'm doing here...help me. (9)
5%
Total Selections = 169
Steve's Comments: I'm frankly amazed at the discrepancy in the numbers. 42% of respondents think that academia does a better job of advancing the field of AI in general, but only 23% either are or want to be academics. Fully 44% are or want to be game developers, while only 20% actually thought that said industry is doing the best job at advancing good AI.

A case of "sexy outweighs smart"?