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AI in games

May 21st, 2007 by tim finin

The UK paper The Independent has a good article last week on the increasing need by industry for engineers who know AI concepts and techniques.

Artificial intelligence courses meet growing industry demands

Robots are being built to do our chores - and those who are creating them are already debating whether their rights should be recognized. Kate Hilpern reports
…
Most people don’t realize the extent to which AI is already used in our everyday lives, believes Browne. “For instance, AI is used in supermarkets to work out what products should be placed with other products, and whether certain products should be stacked vertically or horizontally. Companies invest a huge amount in AI in these kinds of ways to get people to spend a bit more money.” AI is also used to create robot technology to do things like construct our cars, clean our floors and even perform delicate microsurgery. Military and agricultural applications of AI are also on the rise and increasingly, AI is being used to assist disabled and elderly people. …

The game industry is another big application area for AI. The emphasis in the last decade has been on exploiting increased processor and GPU speeds to support more realistic graphics. Many think that using game AI to make game play and and the behavior of non-player characters more sophisticated and intelligent will become a significant discriminator in the next ten years.

The Independent article notes

“One of the fastest growing employers of AI graduates is the computer games industry. In fact, some universities run specific courses for people who want to work in this field. Gareth Bellaby, course leader for the BSc in computer games development at the University of Central Lancashire, says, ‘One of the most important aspects of all computer games is AI because, for instance, characters within the games need to be able to move around a map or landscape without bumping into walls - which is more difficult than it might sound - and make decisions against human opponents. Then there are challenges like ensuring that the camera can move around the landscape in a sensible fashion.’ Bellaby believes the computer games industry is the most fun end of AI. ‘It’s also one of those areas within AI where there are usually jobs available.’”

If you are interested in studying AI at UMBC there are many undergraduate courses to choose from, including principles of AI, machine learning, robotics, multiagent systems, natural language processing, neural networks, and various special topics courses.

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