Global nuclear war doesn't forget our humble island.

The developers of DEFCON are currently seeking submissions from academics and the average Joe alike in a bid to develop a fearsome AI for their game that can be crowned the "most efficient killing machine". DEFCON, with its cheerful tag line of "Everybody Dies", is an end of the world simulator developed by Introversion Software, in which full scale nuclear war and the populations of the world perishing are both regular occurrences.

Given the fact that DEFCON is inspired by the film Wargames, in which a computer AI teeters on the brink of unleashing a nuclear arsenal upon humanity, this concept of an "unbeatable AI" could be considered both a terrifying and enchanting prospect. The AI project is a partnership between The Imperial College Department of Computing and the developers of the game, Introversion Software.

Following a grant from the UK Technology Strategy Board, an API for the development of fearsome, ruthless Artificial Intelligence bots has been released by Robin Baumgarten that can be used by Computer Science scholars at educational institutes worldwide, and the general public alike to create formidable DEFCON bots.

For those embittered Computer Science students and programmers out there - this is likely to be a fascinating prospect which could hold the potential to bring about the oft-speculated end of the world by AI featured ever-increasingly in literature, films, art and computer games.


Robin Baumgarten and Simon Colton, of the Imperial College, London have written an academic paper on the matter, which provides a summary of Baumgarten's thesis on the topic, which was published in 2007.

While Introversion Software seem to be genuinely interested in the academic sector for the project - they aren't leaving out the everyday programmer or even amateurs, with calls for the "next world destroying AI" open to anyone, with the API available for all, along with the Quickstart and Documentation, Function List, Constants and Tables and Introversion's bot. There is also a mailing list for technical issues. The AI API will work with the Windows demo of DEFCON, which can used to test your bots against Introversion's own. More information on the technical underpinnings of making a DEFCON bot can be found on Baumgarten's website.

Perhaps a DEFCON AI will be one of the first steps towards a real life Matrix, or the destruction of humanity at the hands of Skynet? While neither are happy endings, the increasing influence of technology and computer technologies in everyday life and academia is shaping what can be considered a new-form of contemporary sublime.

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Thanks to Jeatalong for this news submission!
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