How video game engines help create smarter AI

Video game developers have longed used artificial intelligence to help create believable worlds. So it's not too surprising that researchers can now use some of those same game-making tools to train AI. During a talk at VentureBeat's Transform 2019 conference last week, Unity Technologies VP of AI and machine learning Danny Lange argued that game engines are perfect for creating what he called "real" computer intelligence -- self-learning systems capable of producing complex behaviors after a short amount of time. With game engines (like the company's own Unity engine), you can simulate the rules of the real world and test intelligent agents against it. "If you think about [it], the game engine has three dimensions, time, physics … it has everything you need to play around with the core elements that led to [human] intelligence," said Lange.