How AI Could Help Video Gamers Create the Games They Want

Procedural generation uses algorithms to automatically create content, such as levels, maps, and items. This allows for a virtually infinite amount of content to be made, providing players with a unique experience each time they play the game. AI-powered procedural generation can also consider player preferences and behavior, adjusting the generated content to provide a more personalized experience. A more advanced method used to enhance the personalized gaming experience is the Monte Carlo Search Tree (MCST) algorithm.

Deepfakes exist without the explicit permission of actors by recreating the sound of their voices illegally, all without giving them the payment or royalties they deserve. If AI is able to take care of many, if not all, of those tasks, it can be disheartening for artists. Fortunately, in the meantime, it doesn’t appear that AI generation is completely replacing artists. After all, a publisher or company wishing to have a high-quality experience and their audience in their good graces wouldn’t get rid of their artists entirely. Over time, most executives expect generative AI to show more potential in production and later phases, particularly in several key areas (see Figure 1).

Lack of Human Creativity

This shared reality, he argues, will result in unprecedented technological advancements, myriad new jobs and opportunities, and of course, ethical and business challenges posed by questions on how information is gathered, centralized, and used. If a similarly difficult AI-controlled every aspect of a videogame from the ground up, the results could be very unfair and broken. If NPC’s in a game develop real, human-like personalities and intelligence, then maybe playing a game begins to feel a bit too overwhelming, as players are forced to juggle social responsibilities in both the real and virtual world. Up until now, AI in video games has been largely confined to two areas, pathfinding, and finite state machines.

Last year’s Pokémon Go, the most famous AR game, demonstrated the compelling power of combining the real world with the video game world for the first time. With the increasing capability of natural language processing, one day human players may not be able to tell whether an AI or another human player controls a character in video games as well. These AI-powered interactive experiences are usually generated via non-player characters, or NPCs, that act intelligently or creatively, as if controlled by a human game-player. While AI in some form has long appeared in video games, it is considered a booming new frontier in how games are both developed and played.

Machine Learning AI

AI in gaming needs to be able to make decisions in a believable way, and be able to adapt to a wide variety of possible situations. It must be able to learn from its mistakes, as well as interact with players in a way that is both fun and challenging. Finally, AI must also be able to work with the hardware and software that are available, in order to create a smooth and immersive gaming experience. As technology advanced, developers began using AI to create more complex and realistic game environments. AI-powered games like “The Sims” and “Grand Theft Auto” were released in the early 2000s. These games used AI algorithms to create believable, lifelike characters and environments.

So what would, honest-to-goodness self-learning software look like in the context of video games? We’re a ways away from something as sophisticated as Orson Scott Card’s The Mind Game. But there is progress being made particularly around using AI to create art for games and in using AI to push procedural generation and automated what is ai in video games game design to new heights. Scrolling through Twitter and lurking in artificial intelligence communities over the past few months, I’ve seen a lot of big claims. In the few days since OpenAI unveiled its GPT-4 model, those have only intensified — in thread after thread, people are claiming that ChatGPT can develop games.

Artificial Intelligence in Video Games

These variables provide a set of rules for NPCs to follow, guiding their decisions based on specific factors. For example, an enemy NPC might determine the status of a character depending on whether they’re carrying a weapon or not. If the character does have a weapon, the NPC may decide they’re a foe and take up a defensive stance. AI systems can also create interactive narratives based on previously learned storylines and using text generation systems. One of the most famous applications of this kind is a text-based fantasy simulation AI Dungeon 2.

The AI then performs the MCST to calculates the overall payback of each of these moves and chooses whichever is the most valuable. Artificial intelligence is also used to develop game landscapes, reshaping the terrain in response to a human player’s decisions and actions. As a result, AI in gaming immerses human users in worlds with intricate environments, malleable narratives and life-like characters.