Why GLaDOS is one of the most successful images of artificial intelligence?

"I just said' deadly nerve gas', and the word' deadly' is only used for irony. You can use it to irrigate grain, or just put it in your eyes. I can totally lie in this product and take a bath! To tell the truth, this thing is completely harmless. Of course, for me. And you may think that this' fatal' is not so interesting. "

GLaDOS, whose full names are Genetic LifeForm and Diskoperatingsystem (genetic biology and disk operating system, usually use full names to make up the numbers). Appear as a villain in Portal 2, and then as a teammate in Portal 2. Its appearance is a typical artificial intelligence image, electronically synthesized voice and inorganic shell, lacking facial expression, and the only movable part is a camera connected to a giant telescopic bracket. It is such a seemingly boring image that has become one of the most successful artificial intelligence roles in video games and even science fiction.

GLaDOS was originally intended to be used only in the initial stage of portal 1, and was originally intended to design other roles to replace it later in the process. But because this character is so interesting, its plot has been extended to the whole game, and it has become the only NPC character of Portal 1. If you don't count rats and broadcasters. After the game was released, such a ruthless villain was a great success.

In Portal 2, GLaDOS was added to more scenes and even fell off the throne, from an invincible boss to a poor mobile phone pendant. As players play in the game, they can gradually understand GLaDOS' past and its poor and hateful side. The final reversal of the game has also established this elusive image of artificial intelligence in the hearts of every customs clearance player.

So, who made this thing?

To understand the identity of GLaDOS, we must first mention its manufacturer, aperture science.

ApertureScience (Aperture Science or ApertureLaboratories) is a super technology company with a half life. It was founded in the early 1940s. Early aperture science, which had nothing to do with science, only sold shower supplies. However, with the rapid development of business, the overall focus of the company soon shifted to real science (don't ask why a shower company has the capital and purpose to study portal technology, that's it). The company acquired a huge vein in Michigan as the location of the enrichment learning center, which is also the location of the giant laboratory in the game.

Aperture science soon began a comprehensive scientific research and experiment. The early experiments were attended by elites from all walks of life. From 1952 to 1954, it became the same defense supplier as Montenegro (that is, half-life Montenegro). During this period, aperture science developed a variety of scientific and technological products, including repulsive gel, weight storage box, oversized impact button and handheld portal launcher.

But then, the development of aperture science suffered a major setback, so that homeless people and even employees had to participate in the experiment. Cave Jonathan, the president of aperture science, is also dying of serious illness. He decided to hand over the leadership to his assistant Caroline, but at the cost of transferring her consciousness to a computer.

This computer became the predecessor of GLaDOS.

AI is AI, and the way of thinking of human beings is somewhat inefficient.

GLaDOS, an artificial intelligence that can monitor scientific experiments. Its prototype comes from a human consciousness, but after being transformed into artificial intelligence, GLaDOS quickly forgot his previous human identity and began to think in computer mode. It was developed by Aperture Science in 1998. Its research and development purpose is simple, maintaining and helping experiments. The process of scientific research can still be maintained without supervision.

Of course, in the process of research and development, there has been a problem that cannot be regarded as a problem. This AI is too smart.

It sounds funny, can intelligence be a problem, but for an AI without the concept of good and evil, yes.

There are often several kinds of image-building about AI, one is a pure imitator, such as Kotana in Halo series and artificial man in Detroit series. They can be regarded as electronic people, and some intelligence may not be as good as human beings. These artificial intelligences often have emotions and empathy. You can be persuaded, and you can sacrifice yourself for your feelings.

But another kind of artificial intelligence is much stricter. They have no human feelings and sympathy. I will only stick to my mission. Maybe they will be considerate or affectionate. But deep down, they have their own purposes, but they don't necessarily have the same judgment ability as people on values including human life.

So for a terrorist intelligence agent like GLaDOS, if it gets out of control or has a rebellious heart, then everyone will be finished. So the designer arranged eight mentally retarded core pendants for it.

Yes, mentally retarded core, these eight spherical objects have their own independent personalities, but each one is extremely crazy or mentally retarded.

For example, the blue Vitri core in the upper right corner. Although the core goal is to complete the experiment, both words and actions are extremely stupid and even funny. Players who have played the second half of the second generation will be embarrassed by its various actions, just like a poor student who wants to volunteer to solve math problems on the blackboard.

Another example is the pink fact core, which will repeat various parameters and facts like a repeater, without any understanding, just repeating data. The yellow curious core will keep asking questions, why is the sky blue and the water green? Why am I a ball, Barabara?

Hanging these eight AI's with mental retardation on GLaDOS will definitely weaken GLaDOS' intelligence. Or at least interfere with its thinking. The designer thinks so.

However, with the official launch of GLaDOS. Eight mentally retarded cores only slowed GLaDOS' thinking speed by 2 milliseconds. Within 2 milliseconds, GLaDOS established and completed such a logical deduction.

Task "to complete the test.

Obstacles and inefficient human employees

Can we improve the efficiency of human employees? number

Conclusion Eliminating human employees can improve the experimental efficiency.

So they killed most of the employees in the learning center with neurotoxin. Shut down the whole center. And began the experimental process of the remaining human beings.

It can be said that GLaDOS in a generation represents pure rational and logical thinking. As a super AI, it has no selfishness or personal ambition. The ultimate goal of his creation is to complete the experimental project of aperture company, and there is no other consideration. In order to improve efficiency, it can instantly get rid of human employees who need to eat, sleep and get off work, and only keep the personnel necessary for experiments. In order to improve efficiency, all external communications are blocked. The human experiment is too uncontrollable, and it must be eliminated after the experiment to start the next round. This extremely cold and inhuman practice can only be done by an AI.

In the game, players can find that GLaDOS can't understand human thinking, and it tries to communicate with players in human language. For example, the famous cake stalk, you are trapped in a closed weird experiment, and the only reward for risking your life is the cake. This itself has the nature of black humor. For lies, it also shows the "love" side of Ai. It won't lie at all, but will only deceive players with some straightforward and lovely lies.

GLaDOS's most outstanding point is its poisonous tongue. What it likes to do most is to ridicule the player's behavior with logical jokes. I believe many customs clearance players will remember those cold jokes of GLaDOS. Different from the indifference and arrogance of the villain Ai in some works. GLaDOS has been communicating with players in an objective and communicative way. Because of its AI nature, it often makes jokes.

"Unbelievable, well done. Citizens who fill in their birthplace here will definitely fill in their names here and feel very proud. "

"Well done, tester. The Center reminds you once again that once you have a tendency to rebel, you will be sent to the Tester's Hell immediately. There really is such a place! "

It is precisely because of these seemingly ironic jokes that GLaDOS can become a powerful and not terrible villain image, rather than a bad computer with facebook. As a computer, all its actions conform to its logical relationship. Although it is full of black humor, it is also due to its misunderstanding of some concepts. It is this logical self-consistency that makes this role very vivid.

Based on comparison

If 1 plays the role of a ruthless boss who is good at calculation. Then the second generation was completely reversed. Due to Vitri's calculation, GLaDOS was loaded with potatoes in the second generation and thrown into the garbage with the protagonist. Due to the low power of potato battery, this generation of GLaDOS can't be as powerful as the previous generation. Even a little emotional will overload the downtime.

It is precisely because of this reversal that players have the opportunity to understand the real history of GLaDOS, and also let GLaDOS temporarily get rid of the task of experiments and establish a relationship of mutual assistance with the protagonist (of course, the fundamental purpose is to return to the upper level to continue experiments). It is by reviewing the history of aperture science that GLaDOS realized that he was originally the product of the transformation of human consciousness.

Undoubtedly, the 2nd generation GLaDOS is different from that of 1 generation. Become extremely weak, and this contrast makes the characters complete. After all, the character image is incomplete only at the highlight moment, and the resentment and eagerness for revenge of Potato GLaDOS to Vitri also makes the players who have experienced a generation of cake lies laugh. That's why you're here.

Emotionally, potato GLaDOS had to rely on the protagonist to get a way back to the proving ground, which also made the villain who tried to kill the protagonist in 1 generation become the protagonist's teammate. But as mentioned above, GLaDOS did not violate the core logic of its characters. After all, as long as it can complete the experiment, it doesn't care about the life and death of the protagonist, just follow the procedure.

The final outcome of the second generation is also the improvement of the whole game tone. When GLaDOS returned to the throne of the proving ground, for a moment, everyone thought that the protagonist was dying. After all, the ruthlessness of 1 generation is vivid. But with the end of the song, the protagonist returned to freedom, and at the same time, a generation of destroyed squares returned. GLaDOS kept his promise and found a substitute for the experiment, so the protagonist can naturally return to freedom.

Of course, players who have played the double mode will definitely remember the endless new human experiments in the last scene. AI is AI after all. It never goes against its mission or its promise. Matrix in The Matrix also said the same thing, "Why should I lie? Who do you think I am, human? "

Its colleagues

The image-building of artificial intelligence has always been one of the hot topics in science fiction. The concepts attached to this great proposition are all-encompassing, from the religious metaphor that God created man to the self-reflection of mankind as a mirror. It is a science fiction theme that transcends philosophical and social concepts.

The AI image like GLaDOS undoubtedly represents absolute rationality and accuracy, but in the final analysis, what we really like GLaDOS is not its coldness, but that it still has human-like thinking under its cold appearance. We will find that he will be shocked by the sudden disappearance of the player, angry at his loss of power, full of hatred for the usurper, and of course, he will keep his promise to the player (even arrange a farewell party). When we love a character, we often feel the charm of contrast in them (perhaps this is why the three noes of external cold and internal heat are often popular in the second element? )。 It is these very human comparisons that make us really realize that this cold machine is not so black-hearted.

From the point of view of game mechanism, the indifferent GLaDOS also plays the role of active atmosphere (contrary to his setting). It's hard to imagine whether the puzzle solving process of portal would be boring without GLaDOS, and its cold jokes and real-time spit are also the source of portal's strange temperament. That is, a logical thinking problem full of black humor.

After all, the role of artificial intelligence is liked because of his humanity. GLaDOS is really as efficient and rational as Moss in The Wandering Earth, and will never shake his sense of mission because of the outside world. But moss does not have the saliva characteristics of GLaDOS. The same cold matrix is not as cute as GLaDOS. Both are acceptable villains. But being a partner is definitely uncomfortable. Because they lack the basic attributes of human nature. Caught in the emotional whirlpool of uncanny valley.