Episode 400! Michael, Andy and Michael all get together for the four hundredth episode of the podcast.
Getting right down to business, the co-hosts start off with a novel use of ChatGPT, where Michelle Huang trained her GPT-3 chatbot from her younger self’s diary entries. This allowed her to converse with a younger version of herself, without all the muss and fuss of time travel. Check out the show notes for some of the intriguing conversations. And see e387 for links to four prior episodes dealing with training an AI for immortality, going all the way back to e26. Sticking with the AI theme, the trio discuss how Furby was a 1998 version of ChatGPT from the @SwiftOnSecurity post. Next is a conversation about Microsoft’s reported investment in OpenAI for ChatGPT from the recent news.
Next up is an AR version of Pong, played by two players on a climbing wall with the Pong game superimposed on the wall via AR. The player’s bodies are the paddles and the virtual ball goes back and forth between the players climbing up or down the wall. Most intriguingly, this YouTube video was published 6 years ago! Then Michael, Michael and Andy talk about a much more recent BMW promo video (published last week) for the i Vision DEE, and how the full windshield becomes an AR display, which is possibly too immersive for the driver. Rounding out this segment is a story about LEGO’s focus on the metaverse and their hiring plans.
Longtime listeners of the podcast know that not only are AR, metaverse, AI and LEGO well-loved topics, but also creative uses of Doom and Minecraft. The latest Doom story is a VR version of Zelda that combines the Legend of Doom mod that was applied to QuestZDoom which makes Doom playable on a Meta Quest. This is followed by an Arduino powered project to allow a user to walk around in real life, which simultaneously controls the movement of the associated avatar in the Minecraft world.
Wrapping up this most excellent episode, Andy, Michael and Michael discuss the news about Dungeons and Dragons and the reported/leaked updated version of the Open Gaming License (OGL). The D&D community has been up in arms about the proposed changes, concerned about the impact on the creative content developed under the current version of the OGL going back 22 years. After the recording of the episode, there was news from Wizards of the Coast (WotC), the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons addressing the outrage at the OGL 1.1, and several articles are included in the show notes below reporting on the next steps.
Wrapping up the momentous episode on the lighter side the co-hosts remark on @AlexBlechman’s post about how AI bots in the future will play games for you to free up your valuable time for more work. We couldn’t say it better ourselves here at Games At Work dot Biz.
Should the Games at Work team skip episode 404? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!
These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.
Selected Article Links
AI
Cnet article: She Brought Her Younger Self Back to Life as an AI Chatbot
Games at Work e387 Meta-Verged for references to earlier episodes on AI training for immortality
Games at Work e26: Business Process Management and Immortality
The Furby source code is public and heavily commented. For example, it turns the microphone off when the motors are running.
Furby was the 1998 version of ChatGPT and tons of people thought it actually slowly learned English words. The NSA was alarmed. However it turned out the "learning" process was just on a timer and the "microphone" only triggers on loud sounds.
https://archive.org/details/furby-source
Wikipedia article: Furby
Wikipedia article: Teddy Ruxpin
Semafor article: Microsoft eyes $10 billion bet on ChatGPT
needed something to add to the bottom of all my blog posts
AR
Wikipedia article: Pong
Brickfanatics article: LEGO is hiring staff for its new ‘metaverse experiences’
Wikipedia article: LEGO Universe
Wikipedia article: LEGO Worlds
Doomed, I tell you!
Polygon article: The original Legend of Zelda in VR is more terrifying than you’d expect
hackster.io article: Controlling Minecraft in Real Life
Hackaday article: Roll-on Deodorant Controller Heats Up Racing Game
Dungeons & Dragons
TechCrunch article: Dungeons & Dragons content creators are fighting to protect their livelihoods
Hi @Wizards_DnD. I canceled my @DnDBeyond subscription. I love the site, #1 reason I kept playing your game (not the other way around). But with OGL 1.1, I'm moving to other systems now. Look at my game room. I bought everything you put out. Not buying any more. #OpenDnD #ttrpg pic.twitter.com/20LYK1LhFD
— Lou Anders #BLM #StopAsianHate (@LouAnders) January 12, 2023
After the roll for initiative (Wizards ‘rolled a 1’)
The Verge article: Dungeons & Dragons finally addresses its new Open Gaming License
Gizmodo article: Cancelled D&D Beyond Subscriptions Forced Hasbro’s Hand
Ars Technica article: Amid widespread backlash, D&D maker scales back “open” license changes
Saving Throw
In the future AI technology will play video games for us. You'll say "Computer, play Doom" and a message will pop up saying "You have won Doom." This will free up valuable time for doing more work
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Such a fun episode, Michael & Andy! Loved your discussion on Life by You.