It’s not exactly news that AI is a thing right now. Almost weekly we get to see, hear or read scare stories about the machines taking over. There are even serious attempts to hinder its seemingly inexorable progress by some very influential figures.
But one sector that is welcoming the advent of AI is the gaming world. Many see it as the engine that will drive the gaming experience forward for gamers and developers alike.
And, in an industry that’s estimated to be worth around $300 billion a year, and rising, this is going to mean some pretty big changes.
How AI is being used
Within the many genres of games, all are intended to be as involving and immersive as possible, and it’s here that AI is already having the greatest effect.
In most games in which there are a cast of characters, it can’t have escaped the notice of many players that there is always quite a large number of Non-Player Characters, or NPCs.
While they appear frequently, they have little bearing on the action - as the name suggests.
This is because developers are already trying to control the countless different elements of a game. So they simply don’t have the capacity to make every character who appears on screen an active participant.
But the huge power of AI means, increasingly, that they don’t need to. Because AI involves machine learning it means that NPCs can gradually begin to show intelligent behaviour. In turn, this leads to them playing a more active role in a game.
Above and beyond this, AI is also capable of analysing the way a player behaves and their general skill level.
Having harvested a large amount of this kind of data, it can then shape the game being played to suit or challenge the player more precisely. The result: a more engaging and tailored gaming experience with potentially more or increasingly difficult levels to negotiate.
Then there’s the assistance that AI can give to the developers way before the game ever sees the light of day. Just as programs like Chat GPT are being increasingly used to write everything from video scripts to news articles, the same is happening in game creation.
By providing a few guidelines and parameters, AI is capable of generating interactive narratives based on others that have gone before. Then, just like an article written using AI, it’s just a question of the developer smoothing off the rough edges and they’re good to go.
So what are the actual benefits?
As we’ve already mentioned, the principle benefit of using AI is that it promises to enhance the player experience. It achieves this by increasing the complexity of a game as well as adapting the game according to the style and skill of the player.
Some developers are even looking into whether AI can gauge the mental and emotional state of a player in order to shift the game accordingly.
On a less precise level, the technology is capable of collecting and analysing huge amounts of data from players in general and then use this information to adapt and improve the overall games themselves.
When coupled with the analytical and bug-fixing capabilities of AI, it means that games can be fast-tracked to release without the time-consuming and expensive process of human testing.
Another, less obvious, benefit that AI brings to gaming is that it is extremely effective at spotting unusual or cheating behaviours in players, especially in multi-player games.
It achieves this by comparing patterns with the huge amounts of data that have already been mined in-play and during the testing phase.
Relevance to the wider gaming world
This ability to detect unusual behaviour is also making AI of great interest to the online casino sector with new casinos on the internet looking to adapt to use this technology. Obviously, detecting cheating is very important as potentially large sums can be involved.
There are also many other potential uses for AI in the sector, some of which overlap with gaming. A key one is being able to adapt a game like roulette or blackjack to the style and preferences of a player.
Because online casino games also rely on random number generation to recreate the physical world of cards being dealt and roulette wheels being spun digitally. AI has a role to play here.
Sophisticated as the current methods are, the new tech is well-placed to take them even further. This is of crucial importance in an industry where players must feel confident that results are not being manipulated in the casinos’ favour.
Looking to the future
There’s a definite feeling that this is just the start. It should open the door for developments like voice-activated gaming as well as linking up like never before with wearable tech.
So, however far AI has come already in the world of gaming, we can be sure that it still has much, much further to go.
