EA VP admits artificial intelligence in games is too weak

For the last couple of decades, a continuing complaint from video game reviewers is that artificial intelligence in games is too weak. WCCF Tech noticed EA Worldwide Studios Executive VP Patrick Söderlund was recently interview by EDGE and that he had some things to say about AI:

AI in games, in general, is horrible. As designers, we always try and mask how poor the AI is by having these scripted moments; it’s artificial intelligence in its simplest form. That’s not OK.

For us to have something that learns, that can understand what you’re doing and can counter it, that can mimic a human player – that’s going to be possible in a very short period of time. That’s exciting to me. If we couple that with the capability for rendering…We have an initiative in SEED which is virtual humans. The first step is just to make it appear human, render it and make sure we get the right expressions and animations and feelings out of it.

But the second layer is an interactive virtual human. That then becomes scary – but in a cool way, right? Those are the things that we are right now experimenting with. AR, VR, deep learning, machine learning, artificial intelligence, virtual humans…If you combine all these things, and on top of that you have an online element and a social layer, that is training people how to interact with each other. This is where the industry is going. Combine all these things into something and we will create something truly different from what we have today. That’s what interests me.

One of the initiatives EA has that may focus on this area is SEED (Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division), a high-tech incubator that looks at how to integrate cutting-edge technology into video games.