Journalist Discovers the 'AI' of 1980s Pac-Man
Description
A screenshot of a news article, likely from The New York Times judging by the distinctive 'T' logo in the top left. The text of the article makes a bold claim about the future of artificial intelligence in the video game industry. It reads: "Most experts acknowledge that a takeover by artificial intelligence is coming for the video game industry within the next five years... After all, it was one of the first sectors to deploy A.I. programming in the 1980s, with the four ghosts who chase Pac-Man each responding differently to the player's real-time movements." The humor, especially for a technical audience, stems from the absurdly outdated and simplistic example used to represent AI. The Pac-Man ghosts operate on simple, deterministic algorithms (e.g., Blinky follows, Pinky ambushes), which are more accurately described as finite state machines or basic pathfinding, not the complex, learning-based systems that constitute modern AI. The image is a satire of mainstream tech journalism's tendency to misunderstand and oversimplify complex technical concepts
Comments
24Comment deleted
If the Pac-Man ghosts' FSM logic is considered AI, then my weekend script that just deletes empty folders is basically Skynet
Nothing says ‘looming AI disruption’ like executives benchmarking their strategy against a 128-byte finite-state machine that still runs flawlessly on a 3 MHz Z80
Calling Pac-Man's ghosts 'AI' is like calling a switch statement 'machine learning' - next they'll tell us the Space Invaders were using neural networks to predict player movement patterns and Pong was an early implementation of reinforcement learning
Ah yes, the impending AI apocalypse - clearly foreshadowed by four ghosts running if-else statements in a maze. If Pac-Man's deterministic state machines from 1980 count as 'A.I. programming,' then every switch statement I've written makes me a machine learning pioneer. Next they'll tell us the gaming industry should brace for a quantum computing revolution because Tetris blocks exist in superposition until they hit the bottom
Calling Pac-Man's ghosts AI is like calling if-statements machine learning; if that's a takeover, my cron has been AGI since 2006
Pac-Man's ghosts nailed multi-agent coordination on 4KB RAM; modern game AI devs still can't avoid friendly fire without hallucinating the map
Pac‑Man’s “AI” is four deterministic FSMs with different target tiles; if that’s a takeover, my cronjobs are multi‑agent systems
i confirm Comment deleted
Another proof that looking at the world through the prism of memes is more meaningful than through the prism of the news articles Comment deleted
the 7th layer of irony protects us Comment deleted
I think AI needs to replace journalists first Comment deleted
there will be at least some kind intelligence Comment deleted
In the words of Michael Malice: "The corporate press is the enemy of the people" And the Auron MacIntyre's: "You don't hate journalists enough. You think you do but you don't" Comment deleted
Will AI replace AI programmers? 🤔 Comment deleted
pretty low effort meme where the last pic can literally be anything at all Comment deleted
Jarvis, make me a GTA 7 Comment deleted
That's a great idea! Comment deleted
I mean, isn't the article kinda right? AI may not be better at the job than humans, but it sure is better at giving CEOs those juicy green arrows going upwards. Firing thousands of employees and closing studios isn’t good for the industry either, yet Microsoft went for it anyway. Comment deleted
Nah, the absurdity is about/reason for meme is "After all, it was one of the first sectors to deploy A.I. programming in the 1980s, with the four ghosts who chase Pac-Man each responding differently to the player's real-time movements." Comment deleted
Did you mean written by the same AI? Ha-ha. Comment deleted
ain’t no way this is a real article, made by a real journalist Comment deleted
А если ИИ начнёт писать статьи, кто будет их проверять? 😅 Comment deleted
Artifical intelligence is a loose concept. The 4 ghosts of pacman can be AI, taken that they are an artificial algorithm that are designed to complete a specific task. Today AI refers more to neural networks and LLMs for the most part tho. Comment deleted
written by the very same AI Comment deleted