Sony is developing ‘Game AI Agents’ to play games with and against you

Editor’s take: As someone that grew up in a single-child home, something like this could be really appealing. When playing games as a kid, I often found that games were either too difficult to trivially easy. It wasn’t until I found the PC and got into multiplayer gaming that I really started having a good time competing against opponents of similar caliber.

Sony has confirmed it is using patented artificial intelligence-based technology to make game experiences richer and more enjoyable on the PlayStation.

In Sony’s Corporate Strategy Meeting presentation, Sony Group Corporation Chairman, President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said Sony AI is leveraging reinforcement learning to create “Game AI Agents” that can play as an in-game opponent or alongside human players in a collaborative effort.

In-game AI, is of course, nothing new. Whether you call it “the computer,” “an NPC” or simply “the CPU,” most every title has some sort of code-based friend or foe that participates in your adventure. What Sony is aiming to do here is make those characters behave a bit more realistically and play like you’d expect a friend or family member to play.

Depending on how Sony implements the feature, the AI could model its gameplay style after you, meaning you’d always have a virtual mate with a comparable skill level to play with or against.

Image credit Mr.Mikla, maxuser