I have a confession to make: I'm addicted to playing Gwap, a quintet of online games that simply task my human brain to perform menial tasks for the benefit of a computer. No, it's not an MMO (harr harr!); it's actually a Carnegie Mellon research project that turns your gameplay data into artificial intelligence that a supercomputer can crunch and then put to use in real-world applications. The concept is as brilliant as it is easy to wrap your mind around:

1. You play a game

2. Computers get smarter

3. Everyone benefits

When you log in to a game, you are partnered with a remote peer that is being presented the same tasks as as you are, whether it's finding a dog in a picture or deciding whether or not a baby moose is cuter than a fat girl's sweet 16 photos. The results are compared in a timed round, and you are rewarded extra points when you correctly guessed what the other person chose. Gwap games also include a full-blown combo system for correct answers in succession and rank/track how good of a Gwapling you are.  In return, their system uses our collective responses to better perform difficult computing problems, such as identifying objects in a photograph.  Not too shabby for a geeky research lab project, right?

There are five games to keep you from being productive today: ESP (a game where you guess what the other person is typing after looking at a photo), Tag a tune (steal Casey Kasem's job), Verbosity (think Pictionary with words), Squigl (trace stuff), and Matchin (guess what photo your peer likes best). Give it a shot and tell them Dtoid sent you: Gwap.com.

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Maurice Tan

Nice try, but I'm not going to promote the advent of Skynet if I can help it, Sir!

BlackSheep

going to try now...

let's hope it works on a mac.

Knivy

I think the correct link is this


:P.

Neonie

Ya but I mean unless I'm missing something you can't really do anything with the points. The trace game is kind of fun but without a reason to play they get old quite quickly.

mistic

I am also somehow abit against AI :p too much can go wrong :)

Andrex

Its okay i guess..Least its doing something cool but id like to see the results of these Computers after many playing

king3vbo

Sorry, but I'd rather not have Skynet become self aware

Rockvillian

Can I teach computers that the GWAP logo needs help? ;)

Cool idea, but I'm with King3vbo on this one, weirdly enough. No Skynet future please.

Polish Hill

I believe the correct spelling is Carnegie Mellon

kalidanthepalidan

Don't want to become a slave to the AI overlord? Just say no to Gwap.

Cowzilla3

OK its creepy chatting with the person your palying with afterward.

Greatbacon

I got someone to guess "cake" in Verbosity my putting "it is: a lie". I for one welcome our new skynet overlord.

SteamyV

Futares be damned, training Skynet is pretty fun.

@Cowzilla - I've been trying to clarify really confusing games of Verbosity and no one will chat with me.

KyleGamgee

I joined, but I don't know how to credit Dtoid

nmezib

I live in Pittsburgh right next to CMU and a friend of mine walked me through gwap's REAL concept:

1. Humans play simple games.
2. Computers get smarter.
3. ???
4. Robot.

Holiday

"What are you doing Dave? That's not the right answer Dave" Maybe you should go lie down." Humans aren't very sophisticated are they Dave? Daisy, daaaisy, give...me...your...ahwnswooooor pleaaaasse..."

necrozen

holy cow that picture/word match game is awesome

you start to really feel connected to your partner, even though you're only communicating through the guesses. This is really fun! Thanks for sharing.

animateria

Hmmm... Inversely can I make the computer more stupid by screwing around in the game?

I wonder....

Jetsetlemming

I can't for the life of me follow the logic that picking picture preferences does jack for AI.
I got a +12 chain in a row my first time in, and then for every game after that my partner was a retard with bad taste.

PaperBowser0

Sweet, thanks for the link, I'll see how it is. :D

Wexx

I'd have to disagree with King3vbo. I, for one welcome our artificially intelligent overlords.

Crapsh00t

Verbosity is interesting in the kind of geniuses and idiots you get as partners. One time I'll have an epic round where we're reading each others minds, and then the next I say "it is a kind of terrain, its is a small mountain" and the guy guesses "ladder," and then "rope."

I bet it's actually a blind study with the AI already playing some of the games with us.

007

woah... This sounds a little weird. But I'll check it out for the sake of... gaming?

Aaron Mxy Yost

Did someone say Grawp?

Samit Sarkar

@Mxyzptlk: I was waiting for someone to make the Harry Potter reference. Well played, good sir.

IzekialRage

Pittsburgh... the birth place of the RL Skynet. I'm proud of my city.