Artificial Agency emerges from stealth with AI ‘behaviour engine’

4 months ago 59

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Artificial Agency – an AI startup focused on generative behaviour for gaming – has emerged from stealth mode with a $16 million funding round led by Radical Ventures, Toyota Ventures, and other notable investors.

The company, founded by former Google DeepMind researchers and AAA gaming industry veterans, aims to revolutionise game development with its AI-powered behaviour engine; designed to seamlessly integrate runtime decision-making into various aspects of games.

The Edmonton-based startup plans to use the funding to accelerate the development of its flagship product. The behaviour engine promises to enable game developers to create more immersive and dynamic gaming experiences by embedding AI-driven decision-making capabilities into characters, environments, and game systems.

Brian Tanner, co-founder and CEO of Artificial Agency, said: “AI has enormous potential to revolutionise gaming, yet, to date, the focus has predominantly been on very limited human-to-AI conversations.

“The real opportunity lies in unleashing generative behaviour into whole worlds and giving developers the tools to transform both characters as well as other decision-making systems into individualised AI agents with perceptions, actions, personalities, and goals. This paves the way for entirely new categories of games to be created that are more creative, more expressive, and deeply individualised.”

The company’s behaviour engine is designed to be versatile, allowing developers to integrate AI into various game mechanics. This includes adding minor improvisation to scripted interactions, enabling full improvisation for emergent gameplay, creating artificial players, and even implementing high-level gamekeeper systems that control pacing and guide players towards unexplored game elements.

Mike Johanson, co-founder of Artificial Agency, commented: “We wanted to unlock creative superpowers for studios of all sizes with our technology, allowing them to increase productivity as well as make their wildest creative dreams a reality.

“Our engine was purpose-built to deliver on this promise — not only can it deploy rapidly into existing workflows at any development stage, it is also fully customisable and extensible to align with a designer’s vision.”

The startup has been operating in stealth mode for the past year, collaborating with several AAA studios to refine its technology. The behaviour engine is expected to be widely available for game studios in 2025.

Daniel Mulet from Radical Ventures, who has joined Artificial Agency’s board, said: “While there’s been a lot of energy and focus on exploiting immediate AI opportunities in game development – such as generating art, dialogue, or 3D models – these have been incremental improvements to the technology stack.

“We had been looking for a team that could create a new category within gaming, and are excited to partner with Brian, Alex, Mike, and Andrew to help them fulfil their vision.”

Artificial Agency’s founding team brings together expertise from both the AI research and gaming industries. The company has garnered support from prominent figures in the field, including Richard Sutton and Michael Bowling, renowned professors of Computer Science at the University of Alberta and pioneers in reinforcement learning.

The startup’s emergence has been welcomed by local government officials, with Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation, and Amarjeet Sohi, Mayor of Edmonton, expressing their support for the growing AI and technology sector in Alberta.

As Artificial Agency moves forward with its ambitious plans, the gaming industry will be watching to see how this new AI-powered behaviour engine could reshape the future of game development and player experiences.

(Image Credit: Artificial Agency)

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Tags: AI, artificial agency, artificial intelligence, game development, gaming