Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty told a live audience at PAX that he'd like to see QA (Quality Assurance) testers replaced by AI. Gaming QA testers regularly come under fire as bug-riddled games reach the hands of disappointed gamers with seemingly increasing prevalence. The backlash QA testers receive from frustrated gamers is often misplaced. Managers are often aware that games are full of bugs but decide to release unfinished games anyway in the hope of starting to recoup development costs. However, proper QA testing is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. On the PAX stage, Booty explained how a game needs to be re-tested from start to finish whenever a feature is added.

A dozen QA contractors laid off at Activision Blizzard-owned Raven Software in December will not be among those converted to full-time employees. The layoffs sparked an intense internal backlash and led 200 workers from across the company to walk out in protest. In response, remaining employees at Raven Software, which produces games like "Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War" and "Call of Duty: Warzone," have spearheaded unionization efforts, with several dozen members of its quality assurance department requesting recognition from the National Labor Relations Board, which is expected to deliver a ruling in the next few months.

Raven Software helps develop the popular Call of Duty franchise for Activision Blizzard. Recently, workers there staged a weeks-long walkout to protest layoffs. Raven Software helps develop the popular Call of Duty franchise for Activision Blizzard. Recently, workers there staged a weeks-long walkout to protest layoffs. Go back to LiveJournal (LiveJournal!), and read one of the earliest and most infamous accounts of working conditions at a large video game company -- a 2004 post written by the spouse of an Electronic Arts (EA) employee -- and you'll find in the comments a healthy debate about whether or not a union would work at a video game company.

Playing video games for a living is not the plum gig it might seem to be. There are the hours (long). And the tedium (it's not known as "quality assurance" in the industry for nothing). "Pay is the hardest thing to advocate for in quality assurance, because they want to make it seem like you're testing video games, so you should be thankful," says Jessica Gonzalez, a former senior QA analyst at Activision Blizzard who is now helping to organize a union drive of 34 game testers at the company's subsidiary Raven Software. Until recently, those testers were making $15 an hour, less than the cost of living in Madison, Wisconsin, where the unit is based.

Artificial Intelligence's growing popularity has sparked high expectations, and QA and software testing haven't been immune to its allure. By utilizing the vast ocean of data available, AI adds fresh and creative Intelligence to everything it touches. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and other tech companies have invested a lot of money in AI programs. Influential voices began to speak out about how this technology will change the software development paradigm. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized software testing and development, from independent to continuous tests. Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds the key to make software testing and development more efficient and seamless.

While the human element will still exist, incorporating AI/ML will improve the QA testing within an organization. The needle in quality assurance (QA) testing is moving in the direction of increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). However, the integration of AI/ML in the testing process is not across the board. The adoption of advanced technologies still tends to be skewed towards large companies. Some companies have held back, waiting to see if AI met the initial hype as being a disruptor in various industries.

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are developing an AI that can recreate a game engine simply by watching gameplay. This technology, as detailed in a press release, is being created in an effort to aid video game developers to "speed up game development and experiment with different styles of play." During their most recent experiments, the AI watched two minutes of Super Mario Bros. gameplay, and then built its own version of the game by studying and frames and predicting future events. "To get their AI agent to create an accurate predictive model that could account for all the physics of a 2D platform-style game, the team trained the AI on a single'speedrunner' video, where a player heads straight for the goal," Georgia Institute's communications officer Joshua Preston explained. This school of thought, he added, made the most difficult scenario possible for training the AI.