Artificial intelligence, or AI, is nothing new. Many people probably think that AI is something that has been developed during the 2000s, but already in 1951 the first program based on artificial intelligence came out. This program was created to be able to play the board game checkers.

Use of AI in games

Electronic games have been added since 1951 and so has AI. Artificial intelligence is defined as machines that can learn, understand and predict actions in the same way that humans can. AI is used a lot in gaming, but is also used a lot in customer service with so-called chatbots, something most people have probably encountered.

In gaming, AI has contributed to a better gaming experience in several ways. The visual improvements seen over the last decade have been enormous, but it’s not just because of better processing power and the latest video cards. To create characters that interact in the same way that real people do, game developers have used AI that uses deep learning.

AI is mostly used with NPCs, characters that are not controlled by humans. These characters behave as if they were controlled by human players. The behavior of the characters is determined by artificial intelligence algorithms and engines.

Other users of artificial intelligence

Others who have used artificial intelligence are online casinos. They use it both in customer service, to offer more personal experiences, reduce fraud and cheating, help identify players who may be playing too much and make financial transactions more secure. There are many new casinos that have adopted AI to offer customers the best possible experience.

Types of AI in games

There are two types of AI used in games. Deterministic and non-deterministic.

Deterministic AI technology is the one most used. This type of behavior or performance is specified and is very predictable because there is no element of uncertainty involved in these techniques. The downside is that developers have to anticipate all possible scenarios and code all behaviors in the game itself. These methods do not allow learning or development. This is what makes the game’s behavior predictable after a bit of play.

Non-deterministic technique has a certain degree of uncertainty. The one that depends on the AI method used and how well that AI method is understood. An example is an NPC that learns the movements and tactics of a player and adapts to match them.

With this method, game developers do not have to anticipate all possible scenarios and code behaviors according to them. This type of AI can even learn and extrapolate on its own which provides the opportunity to promote behaviors that emerge without given instructions.

Disadvantages of AI

There are many benefits to AI, but not everyone agrees that it is only positive. When Go player Lee Se-Dol was beaten by the supercomputer AlphaGo AI, the professional player chose to leave. He thought it was not motivating to continue when a computer will always be better. Go is a very complicated board game that was long too difficult for AI applications to understand, until AlphaGo AI was launched.

The future of artificial intelligence and gaming

Today, artificial intelligence helps video game developers create better games with the highest quality graphics and animation. But eventually, the games will be able to help further develop AI. Video games are already helping to improve AI in the real world. AI applications use games to simulate real-world events in a test environment. There can try out what they want without taking any chances and without consequences, testing is thus also cheaper.

Artificial intelligence can also create new games. Machine learning is used to develop and adapt man-made games, but can also be used for the AI system to learn from many different games and create approximate representations of the games. Then the knowledge from these representations can be used to create completely new games.

Where and how we play also changes. Before, we had to play on game consoles or computers. With smartphones we can play anytime and anywhere, but they are not fully compatible with high resolution and the heavy graphics many games have. This is probably something the phone manufacturers can come up with in the future.

With the internet, new opportunities for gaming opened up. The games can be downloaded quickly and easily, instead of being bought in a store. Cloud-based gaming is the next step forward, where it will be possible to play without having to download the game first. It has been worked on for a few years, but has not become very mainstream yet.

VR, or virtual reality, has been on the market for a while, but has not fully taken off yet. With rapid progress in the quality of the games, it will soon be the ultimate gaming experience.

AI and gaming have a long history. It is difficult to say exactly what the future will hold, but there is no doubt that artificial intelligence will be an important part of gaming and game development.

Source: Plato Data Intelligence: Platodata.ai