Bob Briski, DEPT®:  A dive into the future of AI-powered experiences

AI News caught up with Bob Briski, CTO of DEPT®, to discuss the intricate fusion of creativity and technology that promises a new era in digital experiences.

At the core of DEPT®'s approach is the strategic utilisation of large language models. Briski articulated the delicate balance between the 'pioneering' and 'boutique' ethos encapsulated in their tagline, "pioneering work on a global scale with a boutique culture."

While 'pioneering' and 'boutique' evokes...

25 October 2023 | Applications

Xbox’s Matt Booty wants to see QA testers replaced by AI

Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty told a live audience at PAX that he’d like to see QA (Quality Assurance) testers replaced by AI.

Gaming QA testers regularly come under fire as bug-riddled games reach the hands of disappointed gamers with seemingly increasing prevalence.

The backlash QA testers receive from frustrated gamers is often misplaced. Managers are often aware that games are full of bugs but decide to release unfinished games anyway in the hope of starting to...

7 September 2022 | Applications

Inworld closes $50M Series A for its realistic NPC generator

Inworld, a Disney-backed startup using AI to create realistic non-playable virtual characters (NPCs), has closed a $50 million Series A funding round.

The startup has attracted interest for its ability to design and deploy interactive characters with more realistic interactions across the metaverse and other virtual words like video games.

In current video games, NPCs have pre-scripted responses. AI-powered virtual characters like those Inworld are developing can offer...

24 August 2022 | Applications

Chess robot breaks child’s finger after premature move

A robot went rogue at a Moscow chess tournament and broke a kid’s finger after he made a move prematurely. 

The robot, which uses AI to play three chess games at once, grabbed and pinched the child’s finger. Unfortunately, despite several people rushing to help, the robot broke the kid’s finger:

According to Moscow Chess Federation VP Sergey Smagin, the robot has been used for 15 years and this is the first time such an incident has occurred.

Reports...

25 July 2022 | Applications

Unity devs aren’t too happy their work is being sold for military AI purposes

Developers from Unity are calling for more transparency after discovering their AI work is being sold to the military.

Video games have pioneered AI developments since Nim was released in 1951. In the decades since, game developers have worked to improve AIs to provide a more enjoyable experience for a growing number of people around the world.

Just imagine the horror if those developers found out their work was instead being used for real military purposes without their...

24 August 2021 | Ethics & Society

AR overtakes AI as the ‘most disruptive’ emerging technology

A new report from GlobalData finds that professionals now believe AR will disrupt their industry more than AI.

70 percent of the 2,341 respondents across 30 business sectors picked AR as disrupting their industry most out of a selection of seven emerging technologies: AI, cybersecurity, cloud computing, IoT, blockchain, and 5G.

Filipe Oliveira, Senior Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “This change in how people see AR will likely be long term, and not just a temporary...

28 July 2021 | Apple

Sony patents an AI to assist in games like a good player two

Many of us are guilty of giving up on a game because of a long grind or seemingly insurmountable challenge, but Sony’s latest patent shows the company wants to change that.

Some masochists enjoy the pain of being repeatedly beaten in games like Dark Souls – it’s understandable, overcoming those challenges is a great feeling – but most of us have a breaking point where the power button gets hit and the game just ends up collecting dust on a shelf.

A patent spotted...

23 April 2021 | Applications

Human-beating StarCraft 2 AI will compete anonymously in Europe

DeepMind’s professional StarCraft 2-playing AI is set to play against human players in the European competitive ladder.

StarCraft 2 is a complex real-time strategy game that can still throw surprises at you even years after playing. In other words, StarCraft 2 is great for testing an AI.

Back in January, AI News reported DeepMind’s so-called ‘AlphaStar’ AI beat professional human eSports players Grzegorz Komincz and Dario...

11 July 2019 | Gaming

AI is now creating sports for puny humans to play

A benevolent AI has begun creating some new sports for humans to keep their puny selves occupied with.

Most sports have been established for some time and ‘new’ ones are generally just similar but with some tweaked rules.

Design agency AKQA set out to create a truly new sport with help from an AI – meet, Speedgate.

Speedgate features six-player teams (take that, five-a-side lovers...) which compete on a field with three open-ended gates.

To...

15 April 2019 | Entertainment & Retail

Humans won a Dota 2 round against OpenAI! But lost overall

Humans stepped up and beat a Dota 2-playing AI created by Elon Musk-founded OpenAI in one round, despite losing overall.

AI News first reported of OpenAI’s gaming prowess in August 2017 when it took on three of the best Dota 2 players in the world and won.

The AI learned how to play the game from scratch and was able to beat regular players within the space of an hour. Professional gamers put up more of a fight, with the AI requiring two weeks of training to beat some...

15 April 2019 | Gaming