While many of us rush out today to get a new dose of virtual reality with the just released Sims 3 others are already a step ahead. Yesterday during Microsofts E3 press conference, jaws hit the floor when Peter Molyneux, lead designer of the Lionhead Studios and responsible for innovative games like Dungeon Keeper, Populous, and Black & White, introduced Project Milo. A virtual AI in the form of a boy, who you can interact with anyway you want. Milo will react, even emotionally, on what you say and do. The project is realised with Natal, Microsoft’s new hands-free controller for the Xbox. But just see for yourself:
Of course, the pedo potential for this is HUGE. Everyone can have their own virtual boy and of course, the internet is already swarming with ‘Milo, take down your pants’, ‘I’d masturbate with him’ and ‘I’d show him my penis’. -- Kahran
Another valid aspect was mentioned by cosmicbus: Peter Molyneux love to talk about huge things but every so often the actual game turns out to contain only half of his ideas ‘cause the rest was just to ambitious for the reality of tech today. Some people have even suggested that the demo in the video above was manipulated by someone controlling the boy. However, it will defiantly take a while until we will be able to interact in such a way with an AI but at least we have something to look forward to.
Call me out if I am wrong, but I don’t think the purpose of this video is to demo a “virtual friend” that you can talk to whenever you are feeling lonely. This is merely a demonstration of the technology available that can analyze both live images and sound. Using these, it can work out things such as, whether the person infront of the cam is sad, happy, excited etc. They have just chosen to show this in a way which everybody can relate to, what seems to be human interaction. It’s all scripted, excluding the whole ‘catch the goggles bit’.
Sam, they were shwoing twi things: Natal (by Microsoft), which is the interaction tech and Milo (by Lionhead), which is the AI. And Milo is actually designed as a boy, not just fro this demo. But if he ever will hit stores in such a form is an open subject indeed.
i think it’s something that amazes you for a short period of time… It’s always like this in such videogames, they fascinate you for a period of time and this thing will get boring when it’s always repeating itself day after day, which will happen cause yor xbox can’t store tons of GB that a human brain can store… so as long it’s not an android person thing i think they won’t become real friends for anybody…
i think it’s pretty bad and shows how rotten society is that the first thing they think about is how to misuse technology… I mean thinking of everybody the worst is this how everything will be judged? nice…
i don’t have a xbox360 and will not buy one because of this – you should be happy about the design – not like a wii board that’s speaking to you, but a normal boy where you can that’s not a real one the animations aren’t final fantasy quality like so be happy and don’t follow the pedo shit…
I personally think it’s kind of cool and you should just take it for what it is. I don’t really see what exactly blubbsor is reacting to. Its just a game.
That is interesting. They are moving along with the interrelating very well. Seeing is believing. Company demo videos are controlled. The video did cut away often. Milo might only handle a few minutes of conversation before locking up. Seeing this program in action at a Game Developers Conference would be worth the price of admission.
Chizthefriz: blubbsor is going in the same direction as the people commenting on the video at Youtube. It got the potential for being misused. Someone will try. I have a feeling, with some confidence, somebody at the Xbox Board Meeting asked a question of “How far will Milo go with requests?”
Will Milo IM the police?
looks to much like a fake imo :S more like its just a video scene
Milo’s cute!
Has anyone played the recent Myst games? There are characters whom you have to interact with to learn plot info & solve puzzles. In those games they’re bits of video of actors in costume that are integrated into the game. That’s how I imagine this being used in video games — for realistic characters that have a limited range of interaction but seem real. That’s be so awesome…
It’s probably never going to work that well, but just that they imagined the technology working like that is pretty ace.
Misuse? Regarding what “moral taste”? There are as many moral flavors as social groups with some political power. One thing that may be neutral, it would be a non-aggression pact, not to physically harm anyone. But in this case, what would be the harm? To the “soul” of Milo?
What I seem remarkable is that the design of the face and body of the child, is close to the BL standard taste.
Perhaps in the future it be customizable, and can use performance capture, as in Beowulf movie, and each can create the own romantic movie, with the person most you like :)
“Science fiction writers, film makers, they haven’t imagined what we’re able to do today”
What a steaming pile of sh*t. This technology has been around for decades. Milo is a highly advanced version of ‘Duck Hunt.’
“Milo is a highly advanced version of ‘Duck Hunt.’”
*rises up from the weeds, giggling, then lowers back down again*
This pretty much blew my mind. It is not an advanced version of duck hunt. It’s interacting with a real human being, and sorry to say, if it’s developed enough, a liable option for gay guys who don’t have the assets or resources to adopt.
Hey… if you cant get Milo to drop his pants and have sex with him, then fuck it!
I think alot of u guys are missing the point of the Demo. The possibilities of this new technology in gaming is like endless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nNMkUwbGO4
And it seems like everyone can choose their own personal character to interact with as the base of the xbox console, and Milo was the demonstration of this. Its like you will be interacting with your xbox, making it a “virtual friend” in a way….actually it already is for millions who just play games every day. I think its great they are adding some basic human interaction to it.
But really and truly…I’m smelling an “iRobot” disaster coming…the robots are going to take over the woooorllldddddd
@ PervyPaul…. I see why you choose your name lol lol
Shouldn’t that be take down your trousers? He’s a nice middle-class english boy after all, quite the peter pan
Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios were also behind the pretty awesome Fable games.
Great to see some articles here Josh, it’s awesome to finally see a site with more that just cute/hot boys.
Thanks ligerblitz.
The link offered a more rounded idea of what is coming. I for one would like to see programing in the arts. Oil painting with Monet , conducting music, even cooking class. People will never leave their house. I guess you wouldn’t have to if Papa Johns Pizza goes virtual.
Good, I’m finally logged in.
Maybe this will answer some questions about Milo: this is, first and foremost, still a game. It has a beginning and an ending. You can buy Milo gifts, help him with his homework, et cetera. How you treat him will reflect in his behaviour, his hairstyle and his clothing. It’s kind of like Black and White, but with a human. Also, you will get a dog. And if you don’t want a boy, you can also choose to interact with a girl called Milly.
Molyneux also said that they’ve been ‘very clever’ about obscene stuff. If you show Milo a picture of a penis, he will not react to it. He won’t know what it is.
And true, this is not an AI. There was a guy with a controller, controlling certain aspects of the demo. Molyneux sais it himself: there are some ‘tricks’ being pulled, to make the player believe it is all real. But the fact that a character ingame can recognize your voice, your EMOTION, recognize the color of the shirt you’re wearing, et cetera, is still incredibly impressive I think.
It won’t be out for another year or two anyway, but imagine what this could do for gaming. Imagine playing an open world role playing game where you interact with townspeople to hear the latest gossip and to accept quests. Thát is why this is all so cool, especially for gamers.
Oh and by the by, somehow my original post seems a bit too ‘Hi I’m Kahran, I found this video and I want to have sex with this virtual boy’. I don’t . I was just posting what was, of course, on everyone’s mind. But I’m fascinated moreso by the technology then the whole ‘I now have my own kid to molest’. Just wanted to clear that up.
The Ian guy in the video ligerblitz posted is way cuter anyway :P
If you watch the movie several times you’ll notice that there’s very little “speech input”, only in the beginning actually (unless they had pre-programmed him to say that…).
I like the reflection in the water though, that was cool. And it was cute. ^^
Is this really new technology? Or is it just a new gimmick? I’m a little iffy about this, although it seems like Milo and the woman in this video are constantly interacting with each other it could also be that the conversation we saw was rehearsed. I would like to see a video of people interacting with Milo for the first time.
Uran wrote:
What I seem remarkable is that the design of the face and body of the child, is close to the BL standard taste.
Absolutely. This is the most amazing aspect.
Put aside the technology and its potential for a moment and think about the fact that when designing just *one* human being with the potential to be the *most* instantly appealing to the *largest possible* number of people, they chose a BOY on the whispy, voice-unbroken, cusp of puberty.
Rrrrrrrr
Looks wonderful…
I do to wish you can say “Milo take down your pants”
But i doubt he will do that he probably just wont respond.
But I can dream!
I find it all a bit creepy. Sure it’s cool and the possibilites are almost endless, but the whole “your computers watching you” aspect…
Yeah, I’m definitely with brmstn69 on this one. It’s somewhat creepy having a computer interacting with a human being like that. Personally I prefer Google’s CADIE ( http://cadiesingularity.blogspot.com/ ).
What is BL standard taste, what does that mean?
Kyle wrote:
“What is BL standard taste, what does that mean?”
The boy lover preferred kind of child. As Rimmer wrote:
“Put aside the technology and its potential for a moment and think about the fact that when designing just *one* human being with the potential to be the *most* instantly appealing to the *largest possible* number of people, they chose a BOY on the whispy, voice-unbroken, cusp of puberty.”
And I would add: with the kind of beauty preferred by the boy lovers. Milo is gorgeous as Dylan Patton or Cole Sprouse, with sweet voice and delicate gestures, not funny as a cartoon character.
Thanks Uran for letting me know what BL means.
I’m 15 so i didn’t know what it was, i guess that they would like me then as i have hair like Dylan Patton.
Does that mean that boy lovers are pedos?
Thanks Uran for letting me know what BL means.
Thanks Uran for letting me know what BL means.
I’m 15 so i have never heard of it.
I just noticed my little picture thing changed next to my name, it was because i typed in my email wrong and the site thought i was someone else.
Kyle wrote:
“Does that mean that boy lovers are pedos?”
Well, not exactly. Although you are very young, surely you know the hysteria that regarding pedophilia, and the stereotypes that have regard to the people who feel attracted to children.
The pedophile is a predator, a sexual abuser of children.
The boy lover loves children, and feel physical attraction, but try not to harm or abuse them.
By the way, if you look like Dylan, you are very lucky. But you must be very careful …
@Uran
I can not completely agree with this Uran.
First of all “paedophile” means a person interested in pre-pubescent boys or girls and not in teenagers (age of 13+). But, however, still a paedophile is not a criminal as long as doesn’t do anything illegal. Abusing a child is of course illegal and makes him a predator but 99% or all paedophiles never do that, actually most children are abused by “normal”, heterosexual members of their family and not by strangers offering them candy.
@Josh
I think it’s a semantic issue; just trying to clarify existing stereotypes in the public imagination. I guess Kyle think that “pedo” is the criminal who appears in the newspapers and television in chains and orange suit.
We agree on the facts: there is a group of people who are attracted by the children, even physically, but not abusing them, and others, which often appear as “normal” heterosexual, abuse them.
Very kind of you to reply.
Thankyou Josh and Uran i think i understand what you both mean.
I like your blog Josh it’s really good and it has a lot of nice looking guys on.
I like both boys and girls so it is nice to come on a site that is really well run, and i feel safe to write on.
Thankyou
I believe it´s mostly advertisement. Just watch the video and focus your attention onto the orange pen.
This means that Milo and the girl were quite likely not interacting continously.