Research meets gaming

The games publisher Square Enix, the venture capital firm IT-Farm, and Cyber Valley are launching AI GameDev, a competition for start-ups and scientists who think their ideas could contribute to, or whose work focuses on, developing the most exciting artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for the entertainment and gaming industry.

AI GameDev is Europe’s first competition that aims to facilitate technology and knowledge transfer from European AI research to the many possible applications in game development. “AI can help improve video games in many ways, for instance by creating better, more realistic virtual environments or scenarios”, says Michael J. Black, Director of the Perceiving Systems department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Cyber Valley speaker. “We want to make the full potential of the European AI research and start-up scene visible and reward the best ideas.”

The event partners have launched the www.aigame.dev website, where start-ups and AI researchers can submit their ideas by September 26, 2021 in the form of a pitch deck, a video, or a scientific paper. The application process will officially start on August 11, 2021. The best ten ideas will be selected for the competition, and their creators will be given the opportunity to present their concepts at an award ceremony on December 2, 2021. While Cyber Valley will honor the most promising scientific performance, IT-Farm will present the Audience Award. The Main Award will go to the most innovative AI solution. Sponsored by Square Enix, the prize includes a trip to Tokyo, Japan.

“In the realm of gaming, AI technologies show great promise and could potentially lead to fundamental changes in terms of game design,” says Youichiro Miyake, Lead AI Researcher at Square Enix Co., Ltd. “Combining AI technologies with game design is the key to the future of digital games. I hope many young people and new companies will rise to this challenge.”

Shinya Kasuga, Partner at IT-Farm Corporation, says: “Gaming and interactive entertainment are the frontier markets for technologies that capture, model, discover, enhance, and render the interaction between human beings and the world. It’s all about the ‘world’. The automotive sector, smart cities, healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, education, and many other large sectors are now leveraging gaming and entertainment technologies to innovate their core business. In the AI GameDev contest, we are truly excited to meet with and support the AI entrepreneurs who are addressing the world’s major challenges.”