Learning in Character: Building Autonomous Animated Characters That Learn What They Ought to Learn

We suggest that the ability to learn from experience and alter its observable behavior accordingly is a fundamental capability of compelling autonomous animated characters. We highlight important lessons from animal learning and training, machine learning, and from the incorporation of learning into digital pets such as AIBO and Dogz. We then briefly present our approach, informed by the lessons above, toward building characters that learn. Finally, we discuss a number of installations we have built that feature characters that learn what they ought to learn.