News/Gaming
Simple Strategies Stump Superhuman Go AI, Revealing Robustness Challenges
Despite superhuman AI performance in Go, researchers have discovered exploitable algorithmic flaws that allow even novice human players to defeat top Go AIs using simple, unorthodox strategies. Attempting to harden AI defenses: Researchers at MIT and FAR AI tested three methods to improve the "worst-case" performance of the KataGo algorithm against adversarial attacks: Fine-tuning KataGo with more examples of the exploitative cyclic strategies initially showed promise, but a fine-tuned attacker quickly found a variation that reduced KataGo's win rate to just 9%. An iterative "arms race" training approach, where defensive models tried to plug holes discovered by adversarial models, resulted...
read Jul 10, 2024AI Voice Gaming Startup Volley Raises $55M, Signaling Industry Shift
Volley, an AI-powered game company, has secured $55 million in Series C funding to further develop its portfolio of voice-controlled games, signaling the growing potential of AI and voice technologies in the gaming industry. Key investors and Volley's market position: The Series C round was co-led by Lightspeed and Microsoft's M12 Ventures, with participation from several other notable investors, highlighting the strong interest in Volley's unique approach to gaming: Volley is considered the highest-grossing AI-powered game company, with popular voice-enabled games available on Amazon Alexa, Fire TVs, Roku TVs, and mobile devices. The company's games, which include titles like Jeopardy!,...
read Jul 8, 2024Sony AI Beats Top Gran Turismo Players, Signaling AI’s Growing Capabilities in Gaming
A Sony AI system called GT Sophy, trained using deep reinforcement learning, has outperformed 95% of human players on Gran Turismo Sport's online leaderboards: GT Sophy was taught to drive in the PS4 racing simulator through a combination of rewards for successful actions and penalties for mistakes, allowing it to master the game in a matter of days. Despite GT Sophy having some innate advantages like knowing the position of rival cars, the AI still required 45,000 hours of virtual driving, spanning 20 PS4 consoles, to reach its top-tier performance level. Overcoming challenges: Developers at Sony AI had to employ...
read Jul 3, 2024Meta’s AI Breakthrough: Text-to-3D in Under a Minute
Meta introduces groundbreaking AI system for rapid 3D asset creation from text prompts, hinting at the transformation to come in industries from gaming to architecture. Key Takeaways: Meta's new 3D Gen AI system can generate high-quality 3D assets with detailed textures and material maps in under a minute, marking a significant advance in generative AI for 3D graphics: The system combines Meta 3D AssetGen for creating 3D meshes and Meta 3D TextureGen for generating textures, producing assets with high-resolution textures and physically based rendering (PBR) materials 3-10 times faster than existing solutions. Support for PBR materials allows for realistic relighting...
read Jul 2, 2024Bitmagic Secures $4M for Text-to-3D Game Platform
Bitmagic, a Helsinki-based company, has secured $4 million in funding to develop an AI-powered platform that enables users to create 3D games using simple text prompts, making game development accessible to a wider audience. Key investors and advisors: The funding round was led by Korea Investment Partners (KIP), with participation from Supercell, Sisu Game Ventures, and notable angel investors such as Zak Phelps and Maarten De Koning, who bring valuable industry expertise to the company: Zak Phelps, former senior director of product design on Fortnite Creative, is joining Bitmagic as an advisor. Maarten De Koning, partner at Digital Development Management...
read Jun 28, 2024AI Game Characters Offer New Window into the Human Mind and Behavior
The way we interact with AI video game characters can shed light on how the human mind works and reveal insights into human behavior, cooperation, and relationships. Here is a summary of the key points: AI characters open up new avenues for studying the mind: AI-driven non-player characters (NPCs) in video games could enable neuroscientists and psychologists to probe more deeply into the mysteries of the human brain and behavior: Scientists have long used video games as research tools to study learning, navigation, decision-making and cooperation. AI characters could greatly expand the possibilities. Rich, immersive game worlds filled with realistic...
read Jun 27, 2024Roblox Is Leveraging Generative AI to Enhance User-Created Games and Experiences
Roblox, the popular online gaming platform, is leveraging generative AI to enhance virtual experiences and user interactions. Anupam Singh, Roblox's VP of AI and growth engineering, discusses how AI is being used to create a more inclusive, safe, and creative environment for Roblox users. Key AI applications at Roblox: Generative AI is being applied in several ways to improve the Roblox platform: Automated chat filters and real-time text translation help foster inclusivity and ensure user safety by moderating interactions and breaking down language barriers. AI-powered coding assistants simplify the creation process for developers, allowing them to focus more on creative...
read Jun 25, 2024AI-Powered Game Characters: Unsettling Glimpse into Immersive Future, Despite Current Limitations
Chatting with an AI-powered NPC version of myself created by my colleagues provides an unsettling glimpse into the future of immersive video game characters, but also reveals the current limitations and challenges of this emerging technology. A mischievous and unpleasant digital doppelganger: My colleagues used tools from AI company Inworld to craft an NPC based on my personality, but the resulting character - King Fiall of Nirth - proved to be an extremely sarcastic and insufferable conversation partner: Despite tweaking personality sliders and providing key traits, goals, and utterances, King Fiall's responses were often over-the-top sarcastic and unpleasant, differing greatly...
read Jun 24, 2024Roblox’s AI Ambition: Decoding the Fourth Dimension of Gaming with AI-Powered Tools
Roblox aims to build AI-powered tools for creating authentic virtual world experiences that rival real life, potentially bringing the concept of Star Trek's holodeck closer to reality. Roblox's vision for AI-powered gaming: The online gaming platform is developing a suite of AI tools to enable creators to generate interactive, lifelike experiences within the Roblox universe: These tools would allow regular creators with little coding experience to generate spontaneous, realistic gaming experiences using text or voice prompts. The AI would go beyond generating superficial 3D models to create functional replicas of objects as they exist in reality, such as a race...
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