Iconary
AI-driven Pictionary game emphasizing human-AI collaboration.
Iconary is an online game, similar to Pictionary, that was created by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. It launched to the public in February 2019 and focuses on teamwork between a human player and an AI called AllenAI. This game represents the first time an AI has been shown to play a Pictionary-style game alongside a human partner. The institute’s researchers designed Iconary to showcase the possibilities of cooperative communication with an AI in a game, in contrast to other well-known AI games where humans compete against the system. As Pictionary creator Robert Angel put it, “it's not me against you, it's us as a team against another team.” The AllenAI system can both build a scene from a given phrase for the human to guess and try to guess a phrase that the human draws. It uses computer vision, natural language understanding, and commonsense reasoning to create scenes or make guesses. The system was trained on data from games between two human players, using more than 75,000 unique phrases and a limited set of 1,200 icons. The phrases describe complex scenes or activities, such as “people jogging in the park” or “engineer riding a train.” Because the icon set is small, players must combine icons in creative ways—using abstract symbols like arrows to show motion, or contextual hints like a stethoscope next to a person to mean “doctor”—to successfully communicate a concept.
- field
- Artificial intelligence, collaborative gaming
- known_for
- First AI system to play a Pictionary-like game with a human partner
- developer
- Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence
- release_date
- February 2019
- AI_player
- AllenAI
Lore & Background
Iconary was developed at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and publicly released in February 2019. The game pits a human player and the AI player AllenAI as a team, contrasting with other AI-backed games that place humans in adversarial roles. Pictionary creator Robert Angel noted of Iconary, 'it's not me against you, it's us as a team against another team.'
Reader's Guide
Iconary represents a significant step in demonstrating collaborative communication between humans and AI in a game setting. The AllenAI system combines computer vision, natural language understanding, and commonsense reasoning to compose scenes or guess phrases. It was trained using data from collaborative games between two human players, using over 75,000 unique phrases and a constrained set of 1,200 icons. The limited vocabulary requires players to create novel icon combinations and use abstract symbols or contextual clues to depict concepts. Iconary highlights the potential of AI as a cooperative partner rather than an adversary.
Did You Know?
- Iconary is the first demonstration of an AI system capable of playing a Pictionary-like game with a human partner.
- The AllenAI system was trained using data from collaborative games between two human players.
- The game uses a constrained set of 1,200 icons and over 75,000 unique phrases.
- Pictionary creator Robert Angel described Iconary as 'us as a team against another team.'
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