Sometimes alife or genetic principles are used to evolve works of art. Stewart Dean has collected such links, at . This is part of the alife pen directory at . Additions are welcome. [, comp.ai.alife, 02Dec00.]

There is a new genetic art/image processing package for Windows 9x machines, free at . [Graham , comp.ai.genetic, 17Jan01.]

You can watch free short films at Ifilm.com, provocative cartoons at Icebox.com, and parodies at Heavy.com. [BW, 18Dec00, p. 79.] (And then there is , which exploits sex to the point of self-parody.)

Porn studios such as Wicked Pictures have been experimenting with interactive DVD movies and video games, possibly pioneering new techniques that Hollywood studios will later adopt. (Porn helped build the market in CD ROMs, VCRs, and Polaroid cameras.) One view is that these interactive stories are "adult fairy tales." [LA Times , 09Jan01. NewsScan.] (Probably no use of AI technology yet, but the application is inevitable.)

Kyoko Date is a popular synthetic Japanese star. to register for services, apparently including email, chat, message boards, mailing lists, calendars, greeting cards, etc. [RCFoC, 18Dec00.]

The Sims game from Electronic Arts is quite addictive. Enthusiasts have been making it even more interesting with homebrew characters and enhancements that you can download. . [BW, 18Dec00, p. 77.]

An Alicebot Developers and Users Forum is available, for those using the Alicebot chatterbot engine. Alice is the Loebner Prize winning chatterbot based on Java and AIML. . [, comp.ai.alife, 15Jan01.]

-- Ken