What skills would a NAI-4 have in 2011?

[Vampire-X]

Assuming NAI-4 were available right now, what skills would come prepackaged?

I am thinking an off the shelf general AI targeting the average consumer. Although we could come up with skill packages for specialties too.

[panton41]

I'd probably it would argue it would depend on the installation. It would take a "Microframe" (or server rack) to run it, which would limit its practical utility. I could see it as an expert system that can take make minor creative leaps, but stay within a set of programed skills.

Industrially, I could see it in an automated system that needs flexibility, but would be difficult for a human or even team to do adequately.

For a real-life example, look at the military's use of image recognition software on the feeds from highly automated drones. They can query databases of military equipment and "persons of interest" in real time and pass along possible targets to human operators.

[vicky_molokh]

Why "microframe" and not just microframe?

Anyway, given the fact that it will likely only be able to afford a single skill, and will cost a lot, I suspect a military bunker with a CABAL-like strategist with outrageous skill level (likely Strategy-40 or something, to offset all the penalties for being Hidebound etc.).

Let's see:
C4 is IQ8, and a C4 program costs $3000 at TL8. Each extra character point is worth +5%, so a überstrategist with skill 40 [132] will cost $22,800 (plus the shell - +$10k without, or +$20k with hardening). Not bad for the ability to gain an effective 50fold TS increase (having 50 times the enemy's TS of troops is worth a +20 TDM to Strategy, so having such a computer for a strategist is the same as having 50 times the troops).

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Not bad for the ability to gain an effective 50fold TS increase (having 50 times the enemy's TS of troops is worth a +20 TDM to Strategy, so having such a computer for a strategist is the same as having 50 times the troops).

GURPS rules aren't pure algebra; you can't spend a character point to get 200 hours of free time and a 20-level margin in Strategy shouldn't let you secure a city block with one infantryman. I'd also be wary of what gotchas might slip past an IQ 8 strategist. "Wait, the blue line is a river?"

[Langy]

Someone really needs to release some rules about how many skill points you can add to an AI. That's just silly, Molokh.

Anyways, I'd expect it'd have Research and be used as a search engine, powering Google or somesuch. That's probably the most useful skill. Maybe some Mathematics as well, since that's so easy to program in. Can't think of anything else that the average consumer (as opposed to the non-average consumer the previous posters talked about for some unknown reason) would need, though if you can do it Computer Operation would be really handy.

[vicky_molokh]

My point illustrates the vagueness of the question. Also, I doubt that a Strategy Savant will not recognize a river on a strategy map - the skill should cover such stuff.
Anyway, assuming skill 16 (Cx4=IQx2=16 - seems a nice limit, if maybe a bit high) is available civilians might be interested in stuff like Accounting, Administration, Math, Finance, Market Analysis, Merchant, Programming, the mental side of Freight Handling, Diagnosis etc.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Langy

Someone really needs to release some rules about how many skill points you can add to an AI. That's just silly, Molokh.

It may not be a quantity so much as a rate. I work with neural networks that will eventually approximate any process of reaching a decision based on a given set of inputs with any desired degree of accuracy - but you may have to let it work on a very large set of examples for a very long time to get there.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

My point illustrates the vagueness of the question. Also, I doubt that a Strategy Savant will not recognize a river on a strategy map - the skill should cover such stuff.

Garbage in, garbage out: if the blue line is left unidentified, anything could happen. IQ 8 is Rainman/Forrest Gump territory.

[panton41]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Why "microframe" and not just microframe?

Because the text in the book is fairly explicit the exact design varies over time. These days an actual monolithic minicomputer is all but extinct in favor of banks of servers, and the text reflects that.

Either way it's just a rough abstraction. Is a full tower gaming system a GURPS "Microframe" because it weighs close to 40 pounds, or is it still a "Medium Computer" because of the textual description?



Back on topic:

At TL8 I can't imagine an actual consumer-level use for it outside of gaming. I can imagine enterprise and industrial uses the wazoo. But the rest of TL8 technology (remember it begins at 1980 and we're arguably 1/2 to 2/3 through it) isn't up to making an NAI useful for the average person.