We Need Ai innovation Now more than ever

    AI is so cool. This has been a fun way to use it, though I wish it could be better. I imported SSALTW (the book) into Gemini and gave it the prompt: “Let me play as President Allison, Elijah, Vera, Ethan, or Molly.” It would generate some scenarios and polling data, kind of like the game The Campaign Trail. However, it would go off track sometimes, not sticking to the source material—for instance, asking about what would happen if Allison dated the star basketball player, something that never happened in the text and doesn’t even fit the story.

    The first game it ran gave stats for each character. Ethan got the skill to “perceive” attacks, Allison started with higher polling, Vera had “indestructible,” Elijah had the ability to blow up the rule book, and Molly got dirty tricks. I thought this was fun, giving people abilities inferred from the text. However, when you selected an option, the AI would often tell you the results of the option before you even chose it, and if it ventured into something “inappropriate,” it would shut down the situation.

    The AI would also incorporate certain aspects—like the rally attack, the debate, GNN/Hawk News, etc.—but it wouldn’t really stay within the confines of the book. With a more advanced, finely tuned artificial intelligence, it would be so much more fun. Maybe a custom AI story-to-RPG converter would work, but this already shows real potential, and I believe that potential and innovation are what we need now more than ever.

    Games have gotten so bad and boring. Where are the high school election simulators? Where are the full 3D, realistic-looking life simulators where you can build a life, commit crimes, build a community, etc., all together in one game? Games where you can truly explore stuff. TV shows used to have tie-in games; now they don’t. The vast worlds of TV and books could be so much more explorable, and it would be so much fun to use the power of AI to recreate these worlds.