How AI is Actually Used in the Video Games Industry

Links to all of my videos referenced in this episode can be found farther down in the description.
Plus, grab your own copy of the infographic by visiting the (extended) written version on Substack.
www.aiandgames.com/p/how-ai-i...
As AI becomes increasingly more involved in the development of video games, it's worth taking stock of just how many ways it can be used. In this episode of AI 101 we dig into every facet of AI for games, and how it's actually being used in the industry.
Referenced Videos:
--
In this episode, I link to many existing videos here on ‪@AIandGames‬, I'll quickly list them for you below in the order they are introduced:
Google DeepMind's AlphaStar Bot:
• How AlphaStar Became a...
Analysing Inworld's Origins Demo:
• Just How Smart Are the...
Convai's AI Toolkit:
• Create NPCs with LLM-p...
Why is it Difficult to Build 'Good' AI for Games?
• Why is It Difficult to...
AI 101: Navigation Meshes:
• How A Navigation Mesh ...
AI 101: Finite State Machines:
• The AI of Half-Life: F...
AI 101: Behaviour Trees:
• Behaviour Trees: The C...
AI 101: Goal Oriented Action Planning:
• Building the AI of F.E...
AI 101: Utility AI:
• How Utility AI Helps N...
AI 101: Barks and Dialogue:
• How Barks Make Videoga...
AI 101: Machine Learning in Games:
• How Machine Learning i...
Gran Turismo 7's Sophy AI:
• How Gran Turismo's 'So...
How Forza's Drivatar Works:
• How Forza's Drivatar A...
How Townscaper Works:
• How Townscaper Works: ...
Radical Content Generation in Unexplored 2:
• How Unexplored 2 Gener...
Procedurally Generating Manhattan for Marvel's Spider-Man:
• Procedurally Generatin...
Generative AI for Games Explained:
• Is Generative AI the F...
NVIDIA's DLSS3 Explained:
• DLSS 3 Explained: How ...
The Secret AI Testers in Tom Clancy's The Division 2:
• The Secret AI Testers ...
The AI of Hitman (2016):
• Sandbox Assassin: The ...
Texture Upscaling Explained:
• Remastering Classic Ga...
Player Analytics in Tomb Raider: Underworld:
• Machine Learning Analy...
Chapters
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[00:00] Intro
[00:33] AI Overview
[04:25] How AI Intersects with Games
[05:50] AI for Player Experience
[12:13] AI for Game Productions
[16:58] Wrapping Up
[18:40] Credits
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'AI and Games' is a KZbin series on research and applications of Artificial Intelligence in video games.
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Business Enquiries: www.aiandgames.com/p/professi...

[@AIandGames]

I reference *a lot* of my older videos in this one. So be sure to check the video description to find links to all of them! Plus, the written (and extended) version of this episode on Substack has links to the diagram for you to check out: www.aiandgames.com/p/how-ai-is-actually-used-in-the-video

[@CouchCoop128]

Mate, this video must have taken ages ....really good delivery, you clearly understand the industry and Ai implication, im super impressed, WHY is it on 8k views, what the hell is going on! ? you've got 200k subs?

[@AIandGames]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. But yes, viewing numbers of my videos can fluctuate a lot. Depends on the topic really...

[@CouchCoop128]

Depends on the topic? what about your already hard earned 200'000k subs??? aren't they watching? is it all unique views? This platforms broken right ? As a smaller creator this is terrifying...i wish i could help, im on year 7 of this and everywhere I look i see snubbed suppressed content that's awesome, it hurts me. appreciate the reply @@AIandGames

[@AIandGames]

It's safe to say a big part of this is that I seldom repeat topics or follow trends. So most subscribers only tune in when the topic interests them. Don't get me wrong I have a dedicated subset of viewers but it's pretty small. A big part of it is no doubt the KZbin algorithm, but I don't care about placating it either. I'm 10 years into making content and after years of getting stressed and upset about this, I just make what I want to make and maintain my professional approach. I'm sure I could sell out and be a much more popular KZbinr if I wanted, but that's just not important to me. What is important is that a lot of my core audience are people who work in games, be it AAA, indie or students. I'm grateful that - having heard it first hand - they appreciate my work. And that's enough for me. *shrug*

[@CouchCoop128]

I respect that mate, big time, i only hope you get the recognition you deserve in the long run, seeing lower quality creators excel because they dance to the algorithm is depressing.....and knowing what they earn, makes it worse, i think ill take a leaf out your book and ignore it all. Again appreciate the response @@AIandGames

[@jojolafrite90]

Next: Degenerative AI. Lots of fun for everyone. Forever. Exponentially.

[@jmanners]

I remember having fun. January 1st, 2013 was a good day.

[@UniQueLyEviL]

I loved the concept and execution of Facade. I wish more developers would go in this direction and expand.

[@addidaswguy]

I just hope someday we get true AI in video games. So instead of having a random script for AI enemies where they don't do what they're supposed to, get stuck on walls, or the developers just jacked up their HP to create "difficulty", we can have truly difficult and dynamic opponents in games, it will add a lot imo It's probably way off, but man would it be sick

[@nkbdl]

Thank you for the video. This helps me identify and categorize how AI can help in game development. Keep it up just liked and subscribed.

[@liswifi]

I JUST finished a literature review on AI in games two weeks ago, and wish I had this as a source then! Thank you for the insight. 😊

[@EmeralBookwise]

The aspect of generative AI in gaming that I find most interesting would be its potential use in rogue-likes to generate art assets on the fly that make levels look more unique and thus adding to the endless replayability of the genre. As technology improves, I could maybe even see AI systens used to create a truly endless variety of enemies and upgrades.

[@RuiNobrega]

Thank you. Great summary of AI in gaming.

[@Smok3NDagger]

Really interesting! Thanks

[@kevinmaher4609]

A coworker recently differentiated AI vs Machine Learning in the context of Deterministic (AI) Models vs Stochastic (ML). How is this distinction made in Games AI?

[@goranisacson2502]

Mostly a recap of things I feel this channel has seen before, but as it is meant to be an updated primer for [Current Year] I am at oeace with it. Wondering if you'll tackle any specific topics in AI and Games in the coming year though? Any particular new and interesting developments in the game-world, or legal stuff or hardware enabling new stuff etc etc...

[@AIandGames]

Indeed it's very much a recap for longtime viewers. But yes I've got a bunch of different topics I'm working on now. Both digging up the workings of older games, as well as some of the more recent innovations and trends emerging in the space.

[@philrod1]

Another great video, Tommy. I often find myself in arguments about what is and is not AI. Usually because I start them. The start of this video will be the canonical source of truth on the matter from now on. Cheers 👍

[@AIandGames]

Cheers Phil. I've been in this same position so many times in the past year or so. It was what drove me to make the diagram and the video. I'm hoping it can save me time in the future 😅

[@kevinh4869]

RIP fellow game devs. Level designers, audio designers, 3d artists, texture artists, programmers, all are under threat. If not now, then in the next 10 years.

[@AIandGames]

Nah no chance of that. People wanna play games made by other people. Don't believe the hype. AI tools help make games, but no AI tool can replace the creativity of an actual game dev.

[@kevinh4869]

@@AIandGames You're right, someone has to push the vision. But instead of a studio of 200 people it will now all be done by 20. Those other 180 people will lose their jobs.

[@ayush21399]

Quality content

[@LieutenantMasterson]

Ever since studying small bits of AI for games while doing my CS degree, I've been enamoured with both the classic weak AI/decision systems and various machine learning setups. But generative AI is really depressing, to me, probably because presentation is confused with intelligence. That people see a turbocharged Markov chain and think it can understand structured context - let alone creativity or creative writing - and use it for things like the example of generative quest text is so sad to me. It's so hollow and pointless, but people need to eat and the shareholders want everything, and now generative image/text ML is spreading everywhere. It just sucks.

[@GTLugo]

I definitely agree with you, but at the same time I definitely dream of the day generative text can be used to allow for impressive, yet deep plot trees and greater player agency. The moral questions around the writing team and voice acting teams will always be an issue, though.

[@Black-Re4per]

It's not real AI it's just LLMs it can't think on its own it needs human input and it isn't conscious.

[@TheStickofWar]

It doesn’t understand, but like you would’ve learned during your degree, emergent behaviours are often far more interesting and sophisticated. Generative AI with so many parameters are beginning to give emergent properties which are an interesting study in their own right. It’s nice to be disappointed in something because it’s overly popular and having studied CS, you can see it’s getting all the attention when we have so much other in the field of AI to offer. But it will die down eventually, just don’t underestimate it.

[@davasg96]

Reupload but I’ll still give it a watch to support!

[@SianaGearz]

What changed?

[@AIandGames]

Haha, much appreciated.

[@AIandGames]

A small typo got fixed that I'd missed in my earlier review. 😅

[@hannibalburgers477]

​@@AIandGamesi hope you did not "The Hole" your video like IH

[@ivankocienski1]

i just call game AI Artificial Artificial Intelligence as it is trying to be fun, rather than an accurate portrayal of independent agency

[@michelewang6983]

Great ✨✨ 😀🤘🏼

[@ThousandairesClub]

*I love smaller games with less AI because you can really focus attention on making each NPC unique and intelligent...Life Is Strange, Forgotten City....imagine being able to ask these NPC's anything and getting a realistic answer via chat gpt* 👌

[@pfm57]

How is Microsoft TrueSkill an example of AI? It's a purely statistical calculation ran over player match results that returns a probability and a confidence interval. I genuinely don't understand what could classify that as an AI model.

[@SDCVT4U]

Hi

[@UniQueLyEviL]

I loved the concept and execution of Facade. I wish more developers would go in this direction and expand.