Jeff Orkin, PhD
Giant Otter Technologies, Inc.
jorkin@alum.mit.edu
Curriculum Vitae

 INTRODUCTION
For the past 20 years, I have been creating AI systems to simulate human behavior and language. I recently founded Giant Otter Technologies, a company developing advanced conversational AI for chatbots, simulations, and games. In 2013, I completed my PhD at the MIT Media Lab, with the dissertation Collective Artificial Intelligence: Simulated Role-Playing from Crowdsourced Data. Prior to enrolling at the Media Lab, I developed several generations of AI systems in the game industry. As a Senior Engineer at Monolith Productions, I focused on goal-oriented autonomous character behavior and planning, while developing award-winning AI systems for No One Lives Forever 2 (NOLF2) and F.E.A.R.
 
 NEWS
07/16 - GiantOtter accepted into the Betaworks Botcamp accelerator.
03/15 - GiantOtter awarded National Science Foundation SBIR Phase II grant.
01/14 - GiantOtter awarded National Science Foundation SBIR Phase I grant.
09/12 - Keynote at IEEE Computational Intelligence & Games, Granada, Spain.
10/11 - Improviso accepted as a finalist at IndieCade 2011.
09/11 - Invited talk at ENLG 2011, Nancy, France.
11/10 - Invited talk at the Montreal International Game Summit.
07/10 - Invited talk at the AI and Fun workshop at AAAI 2010, Atlanta, GA.
05/10 - Invited talk at the Planning in Games workshop at ICAPS 2010, Toronto.
02/10 - Grant awarded by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab for "Collective AI for Social Role-Playing Agents."
08/09 - NOLF2, F.E.A.R., and The Restaurant Game appear in Expressive Processing (MIT Press).
07/09 - Invited talk at SARA 2009, Lake Arrowhead, CA.
06/08 - Keynote at the Interactive Robot Learning workshop at RSS 2008, Zurich.
09/07 - AIGameDev.com rates F.E.A.R. the #2 Most Influential AI Game.
08/07 - NPR's Ira Flatow mentions The Restaurant Game on Science Friday.
12/05 - F.E.A.R. wins Gamespot.com's 2005 Best AI award.
 
 PRESS
Video games where people matter? The future of emotional AI - The Guardian (October 12, 2016)
Can we commit to bots with professional benefits? - Fast Company (September 28, 2016)
Watch out - the AI bulls are running again - The Boston Globe (July 7, 2016)
AI, acting and the weird future of open-world games - Eurogamer (November 21, 2015)
Gaming bots learn from how we play - New Scientist (September 24, 2014)
MassChallenge Finalist's computer role-play boosts social skills - The Boston Herald (July 1, 2013)
Crowdsourced Online Learning Gives Robots Human Skills - New Scientist (July 26, 2011)
Collective AI: A Conversation with MIT’s Jeff Orkin - h+ Magazine (April 5, 2011)
A Video Game Helps Artificial Intelligences Learn to Learn - Popular Science (July 30, 2009)
Games That Design Themselves - h+ Magazine (July 27, 2009)
Bots Get Smart - IEEE Spectrum (December 2008)
Intelligent Design: Where is AI going? (part 1 & part 5) - Three Speech (November 2008)
Turning Dumb Dialogue into Intelligent Conversation - The Guardian (October 30, 2008)
Toward More Human Video Game Characters - IEEE Intelligent Systems (July/August 2008)
Game Designers Test the Limits of Artificial Intelligence - The Boston Globe (June 17, 2007)
Once More with Feeling - New Scientist (March 24, 2007)
Redfining the Power of the Gamer - The New York Times (June 7, 2005)
Super Shooters: Real Enemy AI - PC Gamer (November 2002)
 
 RESEARCH
Collective AI - crowdsourcing + pattern-discovery + case-based planning.
The Restaurant Game - collaborative authoring of social behavior.
Goal-Oriented Action Planning (GOAP) - real-time planning in games.
General Exams Reading List - readings about AI, storytelling, and natural language.
The AI Programmer's Bookshelf - a game AI programming book list.
The Entrepreneur's Bookshelf - a book list for founders and entrepreneurs.
 
 SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
Orkin (2013), Collective Artificial Intelligence: Simulated Role-Playing from Crowdsourced Data. PhD Thesis, MIT Media Lab.

Orkin & Roy (2012), Understanding Speech in Interactive Narratives with Crowdsourced Data. Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (AIIDE).

Orkin, Smith, Reckman & Roy (2010), Semi-Automatic Task Recognition for Interactive Narratives with EAT & RUN. Proceedings of the 3rd Intelligent Narrative Technologies Workshop (INT3).

Orkin & Roy (2009), Automatic Learning and Generation of Social Behavior from Collective Human Gameplay. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS).

Orkin & Roy (2007), The Restaurant Game: Learning Social Behavior and Language from Thousands of Players Online. Journal of Game Development, 3(1), 39-60.

Orkin (2006), Three States and a Plan: The AI of F.E.A.R. Proceedings of the Game Developer's Conference (GDC). [paper | slides]

Orkin (2005), Agent Architecture Considerations for Real-Time Planning in Games. Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (AIIDE). [paper | slides]

Orkin (2004), Symbolic Representation of Game World State: Toward Real-Time Planning in Games. Proceedings of the AAAI Workshop on Challenges in Game AI. [paper | slides]

 
 GAME CREDITS
F.E.A.R. (X360/PS3/PC) - Monolith Productions/VU Games, 2005
Condemned: Criminal Origins (X360/PC) - Monolith Productions/Sega, 2005
Tron 2.0 (PC) - Monolith Productions/Buena Vista, 2003
No One Lives Forever 2 (PC) - Monolith Productions/Sierra, 2002
King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (PC) - Sierra, 1998
MobyGames gameography