Possibly one of the most impressive trends of the 21st century, and one that is anticipated to be the most significant in changing our daily lives, is the race for AI. Machine learning, AI development and all kinds of other projects have led to the introduction of this tech into gaming.
The developers are saying that this is going to benefit the process and is going to speed up the creation of a highly efficient AI that is able to make complex decisions in free flow environments. Games like League of Legends, DotA, as well as some single-player games and even poker games, are seeing more AI technology being introduced. With AI seeing a bigger role in the gaming culture, it is becoming more advanced, seeing more use within the games themselves and, what is most impressive, learning to beat human players at some of the most complex tasks associated with gaming.
Bluffing, thinking, calculating
One of the strongest suits of any kind of AI is the methodical approach and mathematical calculations related to almost all the games that are playable. But this effectiveness has been becoming incredibly valuable in the AI that has been used in experimenting with casino games. Over the past few years, there were several lists of available AU casino bonuses and promotions being offered to those who tried playing with an AI system that was dedicated to poker. The experience was described by many as one that was interesting, to say the least.
While the AI struggled to keep up with the people who were playing with it at first, over time the AI learned how to play the game, on its own. Soon enough, AI became proficient enough with the games that it became able to beat the players and soon enough, was able to beat players all the time. According to the players, it was an interesting but scary experience, seeing the AI become proficient in bluffing, lying and calculating cards. But, this task turned out to be much easier for the AI than what comes below.
AI bots executing complex gaming tasks
One of the most interesting experiments in terms of AI gaming was done with the help of the Defence of the Ancient II game. DotA is a MOBA game that allows a player to control a single character and pit them against the characters of a number of other players within the game. The game is split into two teams, with each team hoping to invade and destroy the base of the other team. The scientists that decided to start testing AI in this environment introduced the AI as controlling individual characters. One team was entirely AI, the other was entirely players. While the players were stomping the AI each round, the AI was getting progressively better.
Soon enough the AI was good enough that it could take on the opposing team with a chance to win, and then the game was so optimized that the AI would win every single match. The players had to start resorting to specific tools and exploits in the AI systems that would allow them to be able to win. But even those became hard to use after a while, as AI optimized the correct answers for those exploits as well and was beating the players all the time now. The AI started stomping the opposing team into the ground, and the human players were unable to do anything as a result.
This system allowed the AI to start playing against itself, becoming even more efficient and better at certain strategies but failed to introduce new ones. So players kept introducing new strategies, the AI had to start getting used to them, although even new tactics became less likely to perform well against AI. It was a simple showcase of how powerful an AI system is able to become, just with a little bit of time to explore the issue it is facing and build an efficient solution to the problem.
Future of gaming and game development?
So, how does AI figure into the future of gaming? Well, the first thing is the people’s obsession with the hardness of the game. With players wanting highly capable AI to stomp them into the ground every once in a while, the future of gaming will probably include a difficulty level where AI is allowed to utilize all of its power in order to present a challenge to the player.
This could either be an adaptive gameplay style that over time makes the game much harder and, at a point, pretty much impossible, or will allow AI to use all of the self-learned tactics from the very beginning.
But, there is also the possibility of AI learning how to react to the player. While scripted tree branch events are often present within games today, AI would be able to independently choose the most appropriate response out of a hundred scripted ones, according to what kind of behavior the player has exhibited over the course of gameplay.
Furthermore, AI might be able to even adapt level design and layout according to what the AI might think will present the biggest challenge or the most fun to a player. Whatever it is, there is no way that a gaming future exists without an AI system managing the games that the players get to experience.