Tim Sweeney: AI in games — “an unbridled tool” with fuzzy thinking

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney shared his thoughts on the future of the gaming industry. Speaking about artificial intelligence in games, the head of Epic Games notes that many developers are overly optimistic. Yes, artificial intelligence can now create quality static images. But when it comes to video, coherence is lost when transitioning from frame to frame. Artificial intelligence does not yet have a deep understanding of the full complexity of the world. While traditional game engines are particularly strong in this area.

“It’s a completely unbridled tool,” – this is how Sweeney characterizes modern artificial intelligence. A manually created picture or scene will always animate the same way, predictably. While artificial intelligence “thinks” fuzzily. If you slightly change the query, the result can be radically different. It is still impossible to control such a process with the necessary precision. But Sweeney is confident that ways to integrate artificial intelligence into the traditional creative process of game development will gradually be found.

Regarding the future of online worlds, Sweeney looks far ahead. The head of Epic Games envisions a future in which millions of people can participate in a single simulation. He paints a picture of a future metaverse the size of a continent or even the entire Earth. Where different areas can be supported by different development teams. However, he acknowledges that the industry currently lacks the necessary programming tools to create such large-scale virtual worlds.

Well, I think that in the next decade we will see the gradual formation of a hybrid development model. Where artificial intelligence will be used as an assistant to create individual aspects of the game world. But the overall architecture and key gameplay elements will remain under the control of traditional engines and human teams.