In B&W you played a god essentially, and you'd have a sort of pet. Not your avatar, but something independent that you had to sort of slightly motivate to do things.

It probably had some "AI" in it and the author is now trying to assert his ideas led to AI, despite him probably copying as much for his code as any coder today.

I genuinely don't know I can't be arsed to open it but I'm guessing something something those lines. Someone will come along and tell me how wrong I was.

Not being able to parse it only makes sense when it contains words like "hairbrained", "stoner-powered", and "AI"

This has Peter Molyneux all over it. It's exactly the hyperbole he's known for.

I vaguely remember him announcing a new game, so this is just SEO'ing his name back into the AI hype cycle.

I haven't heard about it in soooo long that I've forgotten.. but is the issue with getting B&W on Steam/whereever is because the IP owner is more or less unknown? Kinda like No One Lives Forever 2?

I like the idea that inside their skulls is just hair

I know that's the original, but I prefer hairbrained. The mental image of someones brain growing hair is way better than just small brains.