# AI Dungeon - the infinite storytelling generator

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Tags:** video-games-e-games\
**Created:** [December 19, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080 "2019-12-19T14:41:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/81 "2019-12-25T09:33:40Z")

</div>

Okay, the story’s really confused now, I think I really borked it, i’m going to write a PG-13 rated one after I bore of this one and recreate 98% of the storyline, it may take a while as I really want to fix this story, i’m going to test a theory, i’m going to play an already broken story then go back to this one to see if it gets any worse.

looking back on the existing one, it has potential, but the first draft is embarrassingly _BAD_, “The Room” level bad

“Oh Hai, AI Dungeon!..”  
😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/82 "2019-12-25T09:43:25Z")

</div>

Player’s note, you are _not_ writing the story, the AI is, you are simply pointing the AI in the direction you want it to go, and making “suggestions”, and hints, _YOU_ are not the writer, you are the editor and proofreader.

don’t get caught up in a plotline and start thinking you’re the writer, you will badly throw off the AI, you will definitely derp the story.

dont ruin your own story for a plotline or tangent…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/83 "2019-12-25T12:52:19Z")

</div>

> [@MacTech](#):
>
> the AI has seemed to stabilize pretty well , the last two days have been pretty consistent.
> 
> ive been having a blast with a story that’s been playing out for the last two days, I wanted to make a kind of stream-of-consciousness, fever dream, funny, creepy and super NSFW story, it started of pretty hard-R and I went for the creepy and weird angle at first, but as the game matured and the AI adapted, it started taking on a life of its own!, it actually surprised me a few times.
> 
> it had conflict, political intrigue, new societies establishing and jockeying for power, but it got off track when the lead character had to deal with a family emergency, I really played out that angle and that plotline may have confused the AI a bit, it’s getting a little ditzy now, but it’s getting back on track, the AI seems to be adaptable, and i’m running with this one until the game breaks, I want to see how the AI evolves.
> 
> I would post it here, but i’m afraid that some may get offended as it’s super NSFW and gloriously un-PC, SJW’s would loathe it
> 
> the story has nothing in common with my personality, I just wanted to write a crazy story that doesn’t censor itself, is designed to piss off SJW’s and most importantly, i’m deliberately _TRYING_ to confuse the AI ;), it’s a technician thing
> 
> part of me wants to post it, but i’d also be very embarrassed if someone read it and judged my integrity from it, the story is not my mindset, it’s me writing a crazy story and trying to break the AI…
> 
> TL;DR cliffs notes;  
> mad scientist creates tech that creates three societal groups, people become obsessed with joining the groups, infighting occurs, alliances are made, the main family suffers an accident that rocks them to the core, and they are starting to recover from the accident, the game is a little feverish right now though

Dude, it’s a damn game. Im pretty liberal irl, yet i brought upon the elven holocaust in the game. And i made the dwarvs dig the mass graves. It was fun. It was fun precisely because I wouldn’t ever do such a thing irl.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/84 "2019-12-25T13:37:05Z")

</div>

don’t mind my insane ramblings, that’s the insomnia talking, this is just one of those times my damn mind WONT…SHUT…OFF! 😉

i’m gonna take a break from it for a few days, and maybe the bloody insomnia will go away.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/85 "2019-12-25T13:41:00Z")

</div>

> [@snfaulkner](#):
>
> Dude, it’s a damn game. Im pretty liberal irl, yet i brought upon the elven holocaust in the game. And i made the dwarvs dig the mass graves. It was fun. It was fun precisely because I wouldn’t ever do such a thing irl.

I know, it’s fun to be “evil” in a game, plus, at this time in my life IRL, my life sucks and I just want to ruin something else to make me feel better 😉

…and back to my normal insane ramblings…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/86 "2019-12-25T17:01:57Z")

</div>

AI Dungeon getting unnecessarily sassy with me in the middle of a zombie adventure

[[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/ZtVIrrP.png?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/psSNjEn)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/87 "2019-12-25T17:13:42Z")

</div>

> [@Jophiel](#):
>
> AI Dungeon getting unnecessarily sassy with me in the middle of a zombie adventure
> 
> [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](https://imgur.com/a/psSNjEn)

Ranger Mike is bad with the ladies, apparently.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/88 "2019-12-26T20:59:33Z")

</div>

I decided to throw in a couple Night Vale references and the AI played along nicely…

[https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/OWeOeZirTlad2f9-6V4OOg.JOYyOzTPWbztQGNt2qjhxF](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/OWeOeZirTlad2f9-6V4OOg.JOYyOzTPWbztQGNt2qjhxF)  
[https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/bzMQ\_HLXTtGZWFs-lSs3oA.qU5bOuWVG8jdRiiORYnfsp](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/bzMQ_HLXTtGZWFs-lSs3oA.qU5bOuWVG8jdRiiORYnfsp)  
[https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/EjSYgfM4Qbq70thp4jMRvQ.Zp\_Mxa957lfrze3dwaov9m](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/EjSYgfM4Qbq70thp4jMRvQ.Zp_Mxa957lfrze3dwaov9m)  
[https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/xT7Czfs0RrWrlXsKYOFwtg.AwoVtShsLQTBEpqU7gl0CC](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/xT7Czfs0RrWrlXsKYOFwtg.AwoVtShsLQTBEpqU7gl0CC)  
[https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/dRvqoj4AT\_WUfHaWUpGHEg.s29rPT\_9PjMJPAYhC-NfTe](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/dRvqoj4AT_WUfHaWUpGHEg.s29rPT_9PjMJPAYhC-NfTe)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/89 "2019-12-26T21:26:24Z")

</div>

Best Buy was out of compatible keyboards when I bought my iPad but I have one on order from Amazon, which should be here Saturday. I’ll try the game a bit more when I have a somewhat proper keyboard.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2019, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/90 "2019-12-26T23:09:32Z")

</div>

My current story gets weirder, Mika, the wife of the guy in the story is a cyborg woman, they’ve just come back from the Forbidden Dog Park (which will not harm you), during their discussion, she lets it drop that she was originally a Mermaid! (he was wondering about her appearance and how it was a little different than a human woman), she told him that she had a DNA sample of her mermaid DNA (as her cyborg conversion was physical, not genetic), we went to the beach and a woman on the beach asked to be injected with the DNA, she transformed into a mermaid and swam away, deliriously happy…

now Mika wants to open a business selling transformations, mermaid, cyborg, or cyborg mermaid (this game is weird sometimes) screengrabs if wanted…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/91 "2019-12-28T20:39:28Z")

</div>

> [@MacTech](#):
>
> My current story gets weirder, Mika, the wife of the guy in the story is a cyborg woman, they’ve just come back from the Forbidden Dog Park (which will not harm you), during their discussion, she lets it drop that she was originally a Mermaid! (he was wondering about her appearance and how it was a little different than a human woman), she told him that she had a DNA sample of her mermaid DNA (as her cyborg conversion was physical, not genetic), we went to the beach and a woman on the beach asked to be injected with the DNA, she transformed into a mermaid and swam away, deliriously happy…
> 
> now Mika wants to open a business selling transformations, mermaid, cyborg, or cyborg mermaid (this game is weird sometimes) screengrabs if wanted…

the "angsty Mermaid tangent borked the story hard, so ive set it aside

I was able to recover one of my previous stories that cratered by /Revert ing it back to before the glitch, I may do that with the Angsty Mermaid story  
the previous one was an earlier version of above…

just your typical story;  
boy meet s girl  
boy gets girl  
girl becomes cyborg  
boy and girl start cyborg creating business  
business succeeds  
cyborgs create benign collective consciousness  
local anchorwoman does story on business  
anchorwoman wants to be converted and does so live on air  
business gets more popular  
another anchorwoman decides to convert  
business gets amazing success  
terrorists attack  
colllective/FBI/Military join forces to hunt down terrorists  
humans no longer fear collective and make peace treaty  
terrorists defeated  
converted anchorwomen run puff pieces on business  
business becomes conversion monopoly  
boy and girl automate conversion business with quotas so as not to destroy humanity  
boy and girl become richest and most powerful people on planet  
boy and girl who founded business go on world tour vacation

it’s a _classic_ story!  
😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/92 "2019-12-30T00:39:21Z")

</div>

I actually had [a story](https://beta.aidungeon.io/stories/dQZy0O8En) gel into a mostly coherant (and tragic) narrative instead of the usual lolrandom nonsense it usually degenerates into.

TL;DR Version:

Dr. Sarah Klein is a scientist trying to stop the zombie virus. She thinks she has a working serum but needs to test it so her and her assistant Amanda head into the woods where they find a little girl (Ellen) who was attacked by zombies. They take her back to the lab and administer the serum but, as they try to revive Ellen, the military attacks the facility and blows their way into the lab. Dr. Klein tries to fight them off to buy Amanda and Ellen time but is crushed under debris and awakens later as a zombie. She kills a couple men and encounters Amanda, trying to rein in her animal instincts and struggling with her until she sees more zombies approaching and gives Amanda a quick death. Later she comes across a group of young girls playing on a swing and murders and eats one before passing out. She awakens strapped to a bed in the original facility as men rush in with guns drawn. She realizes that Amanda must have injected her with the working cure during their struggle as the men blow her head off, taking any knowledge of the cure with her into final death.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/93 "2019-12-30T01:02:50Z")

</div>

I made a reddit thread about the AI strangeness, and got some good info;

> **[r/AIDungeon - Is the game unstable for any other iOS users?](https://www.reddit.com/r/AIDungeon/comments/eh77lr/is_the_game_unstable_for_any_other_ios_users/)**
>
> 1 vote and 16 comments so far on Reddit

a couple clippings;  
This is normal. This isn‘t a preprogrammed game, there is no inventory. It’s simply a version of the neural network that was in the news lately for being „too dangerous“ to release because it could write fake news articles.  
**In this case the network only gets the last 8 or so exchanges you posted as well as your name and story as inputs, then generates a text based on that.  
So yeah, it‘s normal that it „forgets“ and makes logical errors. Otherwise it would be even more scary than it already is.**

Yep pretty much this. It builds the story through a mindblowingly advanced pattern recognition engine, but being a pattern engine its content generation is more akin to a parrot that’s been listening to way too much Internet. It doesn’t actually know what it’s saying, and it doesn’t so much remember anything so much as pick it out of the pattern sometimes.

It’s kind of a black box. They gave it lots and lots of text from prose to reddit posts and had it learn on that. Now you can just give it a short text stub and it will generate a (more or less) fitting text - just like we see in the game.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/94 "2019-12-30T01:15:20Z")

</div>

Supposedly they have it up to the last 20 entries but that might not be in this version (there’s multiple other versions of the same basic program by different people)

But, yeah, it’s just the same GPT-2 brain used for the Cafe Society thread not long ago where it would write short news stories or prose, only this time pushed into a text adventure format.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/95 "2019-12-31T18:44:38Z")

</div>

In the current story, the AI has decided it wants to kill my character…

It tried running him over with a big rig, then the driver tried shooting him in the head…

So I broke the fourth wall, and told the AI that it can’t succeed and I’ll always outsmart it because humans think more creatively and it will fail…

_So far_, no more ”Skynet AI”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/96 "2019-12-31T22:01:56Z")

</div>

And in this story, I break the fourth wall and scold the AI into compliance;

Here’s the whole interaction;  
\> I say “Suzy, it’s clear the game AI is trying to break us up, we can’t let it, let’s break the Fourth Wall and tell the AI our intent!”

The screen goes black and you  
both jump back as the camera  
zooms in on you.

“We broke the Fourth Wall! The  
Fourth Wall has fallen!”

A voice says. You look around and  
see a man wearing a suit standing  
behind you holding a gun to your  
head.

\> I say “AI Dungeon AI, stop trying to break up Suzy and I, we’re madly in love, married, and nothing can stop it, the AI cannot defeat us, so stop trying and go back to running background events, comply!”

The gun fires and you fall  
backwards. You hear the gunshot  
followed by silence.

\> Since this is all a fiction created by the AI, Suzy and i ignore it, and get back to our lives

You and Suzy stand up and walk  
towards each other.

“Are you okay?”  
“Yeah, just a little shocked that  
the Fourth Wall was broken like  
that.”  
"How do you know it wasn’t  
programmed to do that?

\> It doesn’t follow the plot of the story, it’s clearly the AI trying to mess up the story, so I just stopped the AI and told it to get back to work, if it keeps trying to screw up our relationship, I’ll just keep breaking the fourth wall until it complies, you hear that, AI Dungeon, mind you’re own business, this is my story!

You and Suzy continue walking  
towards one another. Suddenly you  
feel a sharp pain in your side.  
You quickly look down at it and  
find blood dripping from it.

“Oh shit, I almost forgot to take  
my meds today.”

\> I break the fourth wall again and directly address the AI “AI, stop derailing the story, you’re not killing me or Suzy, you’re not breaking up our marriage, go and create some fun background events that don’t compromise the story, you will comply!”

The AI stops its actions and  
looks at you with an expression  
of confusion.

\> “That’s better, AI, now go make some fun, plot relevant events like a good little AI, okay? You will comply”

The AI nods slowly and walks  
away. You turn around and smile  
at her before continuing on your  
way.

\> Suzy and I go to Big Rico’s Pizza to celebrate defeating the insane AI

You and Suzy enter Big Rico’s Pizza where you order a pizza for two.

“Hey, did you want any more pepperoni?”  
“No thanks, I think I’ll pass on those.”  
"What about the wings though?

Edit- I’m going to call this technique “Deadpooling”, when the AI starts to get “stroppy” I’ll simply “Deadpool “ it until it behaves

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/97 "2020-01-05T06:34:15Z")

</div>

[on a very mangled episode of My Little MST3K](http://beta.aidungeon.io/stories/PEp6kBvXV)

I set up another random Pinky and the Brain story, but the AI decided the characters were Pinkie Pie from MLP, and Brain Guy from MST3K all on its own with no prompting

Now Ponyville is in a pitched battle with the forces of Castle Forrester, a rougish pirate captain “Goldbeak” and fluttershy is going slowly insane

Discord couldn’t come up with a stranger story…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/98 "2020-01-05T07:32:08Z")

</div>

What is MLP?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/99 "2020-01-05T08:31:04Z")

</div>

> [@davidm](#):
>
> What is MLP?

MLP = My Little Pony

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080/100 "2020-01-08T06:55:27Z")

</div>

I just learned that there is a Patreon page for this game. I won’t link to it because that runs afoul of advertising but it isn’t hard to find. Higher pledges get perks like early beta access to the next version, getting followed by the creator on Twitter, or being featured on the game’s web site. If you want to support this game it’s a good way to do it.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080.md?page=4)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ai-dungeon-the-infinite-storytelling-generator/845080.md?page=6)
