AI in the future of gaming

The impact of AI on gaming

The use of artificial intelligence in video games has revolutionised the entire industry, with a significant impact on game technology.

Although the main purpose of video games has always been to provide entertainment, the innovation of AI has had a significant impact on the development and graphical rendering of games, offering solutions that were unthinkable just a few years ago.

Intelligent NPCs: the CiF-CK case

One of the most significant and headline-grabbing examples of this use of technology was the thesis of three young men. By exploiting the potential of the ChatGPT engine, they were able to create NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) with natural dialogue and reactions.

The characters live their own lives in the world, separate from the player, with varied and customised dialogue based on their occupation, status and mood. This represents a huge leap forward from the classic approach of providing a list of pre-defined dialogues that are automatically inserted during the development of the video game.

Integration with ChatGPT also allows the producer not only to reduce development costs (by creating fewer dialogues), but also to achieve more satisfying results by creating a product that everyone likes.

However, the programme developed by the three boys, called CiF-CK, is still in its infancy. Indeed, the computer is slow to generate responses, and the voices used to make NPCs ‘talk’ have a distinctly non-human character.

AI in Graphics: The Role of NVIDIA and Ray TracingThe Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Video Games

But there are other uses of artificial intelligence in games, and some of these have been very successful.

One of the best-known is NVIDIA‘s use of custom, dedicated light-tracking chips called CUDA cores, which are widely used to calculate the effects of light during a real-time video game.

Normally it would be unthinkable for a computer to have to calculate the behaviour of thousands, if not millions, of rays of light at the same time, but these chips avoid this problem altogether.

The market standard has been to pre-calculate them and limit the player’s viewing angles to create a “fake” feeling of light and shadow effects. But thanks to machine learning, NVIDIA has been able to create models that are entirely dedicated to this calculation, allowing the creation of extremely realistic lighting effects without having an excessive impact on performance.

Today, this technology is becoming more and more widespread, making it possible to create vivid and realistic scenarios with a level of fidelity unimaginable in the past.

Artificial intelligence and accessibility in gaming

Artificial intelligence is also slowly changing the entire technological landscape, simplifying, personalising, making the impossible possible and extending the accessibility of these products to a wide platform of users, including those who are not strictly “technical”.

The future of gaming with artificial intelligence

No one can predict how our society will change in a few years’ time, but if video games can be considered a reliable source, the future looks very bright.