GamesBeat Summit 2023 will capture how generative AI is changing gaming

AI has been known to gamers for decades, mostly in the form of relatively dumb non-player characters (NPCs) which were nothing like the sapient Ryan Reynolds character in the film Free Guy. But AI is sweeping through the game industry anew with the advent of generative AI.

And that’s one of the can’t-miss topics we’ll thoroughly explore at GamesBeat Summit 2023, which takes place in person at the Marina del Rey Marriott on May 22-23 and online on May 24. (You can use this code to get 40% off: GBSDEANNEWS).

Our experts speaking about the topic of AI will range from Hilary Mason, CEO of Hidden Door to John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity. AI such as ChatGPT is having a profound impact on all industries now, and gaming is being affected as well. What will be the outcome? Will it create jobs or kill them?

Mason, who was previously the general manager of the machine learning business unit at Cloudera, will be part of a panel that will explore the potential of generative AI in games. Hilary delights at living in the magical space around an emergent AI capability and the opportunity to build new product and game experiences around it.

Jon Radoff, CEO of Beamable, will moderate that session. And other speakers include Kylan Gibbs, chief product officer of Inworld AI. Gibbs is one of the people who is trying to bring Free Guy to live, as his company is infusing AI into NPCs in games.

Also joining the panel is Matt White, CEO of Berkeley Synthetic. They will talk about everything from creating more immersive experiences as well as the ethical considerations of AI in games.

Transforming gaming experiences with AI

One of our major beats at the show will be a fireside chat between Unity’s Riccitiello and Joost van Dreunen, who teaches at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Van Dreunen is the author of One Up: Creativity, Competition and the Global Business of Video Games. He was also cofounder and CEO of Superdata Research.

Riccitiello will note that Unity has researched and productized AI for years, and has anticipated AI being the second biggest inflection point in the history of the gaming industry in the last 20 years after the emergence of 3D. Riccitiello and van Dreunen will talk about the thrilling world of gaming and artificial intelligence, where AI and ML technologies are changing the way interactive entertainment is created and consumed, and why real-time 3D (RT3D) content matters now more than ever.

The tidal wave is coming

Spectrum Labs CEO Justin Davis will join me in a fireside chat about the AI tidal wave — and whether your player community ready for generative AI?

As generative AI technology progresses, the gaming industry is witnessing a rapid increase in AI-generated content. This surge in player content presents both opportunities and challenges for gaming platforms. Spectrum Labs is one of the companies that uses AI to detect both negative and positive player behavior and flag it for human moderators to evaluate.

Davis expects to address how to utilize AI to elevate player experiences and foster a safe, creative environment while effectively mitigating risks associated with harmful content. He’ll also talk about proactive measures using AI-driven tools to identify and manage undesirable content, ensuring a secure and inclusive gaming community.

Living in The Simulation

Fable is building a version of the AI-powered simulation seen in the TV show Westworld. In Fable’s Simulation, players train their AIs in dialogue, behavior and story and then watch as the AIs train each other and grow in intelligence.

We’ll have the Simulation’s creators discuss what it’s like to set loose AI characters in their own metaverse, and the lessons of applying the latest Generative AI tooling to games. The Fable team, which hails from places such as Pixar, is creating a place where you can create and nurture AI characters and enable them to dwell on their own in different metaverse worlds. Rather than having you play in a world with AI characters, Fable is letting the AI characters play in the worlds.

We’ll also explore the implications and new ethical considerations that arise from creating simulated AI societies and the ethics of how we treat emergent intelligence. The session includes Edward Saatchi, CEO of Fable; Jessica Shamash, creative director at Fable; Pete Billington cofounder at Fable; and Frank Carey, CTO at Fable.

The intersection of generative AI, UGC and games

We’ve also got a fireside about the intersection of AI, user-generated content and games. For this, we’ve drafted Jordan Weisman, founder of Endless Adventures, a no-code narrative game authoring and publishing tool; and Emmanuel de Maistre, CEO of Scenario.gg, one of the popular generative AI tools.

Weisman started making toys and games in 1980, when he founded FASA, which made the Shadowrun and BattleTech toy and game franchises. He founded Virtual World Entertainment, a virtual reality franchise, in 1987 and sold the company to Disney in 1992. He started a video game version of FASA, FASA Interactive, in 1995 and sold it to Microsoft in 1999. He also created Harebrained Schemes and sold that game company to Paradox Interactive in 2018.

De Maistre cofounded Scenario.gg in 2021 to enable game developers to easily create game assets using custom-trained generative AI engines. He was also an investor and cofounder of drone data analytics firm Redbird.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz