AI and Gaming: A match made in digital heaven

As AI is set to change gaming forever, Go Games positions itself as the frontrunner

Meet Scarlet: The world’s most sophisticated AI ever to be put into a consumer device, currently available for pre-order 

As tech giants rush to invest in machine-learning tools, one company unveils the symbiotic relationship between AI and video games

he relationship between gaming and AI is a tale as old as time, with AI technology being a fixture in video games since their inception in the 1950s. Traditionally, AI has been used to generate ‘responsive, adaptive or intelligent behaviours in non-player characters (NPC)’ – meaning that AI was employed to improve the game-player experience as opposed to external machine learning capabilities that facilitate decision making. However, British tech developers, Go Games, has pioneered a first-of-its kind AI software which marks a new frontier in the relationship between users and their gaming consoles. 

Tech and gaming giants have gradually been increasing their investments in machine-learning technology. Microsoft’s partial acquisition of OpenAI models back in 2019 marked part of a billion-dollar investment in AI products. In a similar vein, Sony’s artificial intelligence division, Sony AI, made an announcement in May of last year that it would be collaborating with PlayStation developers to create intelligent computer-controlled characters. The historic push towards tech giants funneling resource in AI is to provide gamers with a more distinctive and enhanced gaming experience – making characters more compelling and responsive, programmed to think, feel and fight more intuitively. Yet, recently, there has been an uptick in AI researchers using games as a way to measure the intelligence level of a piece of software with the hope that by teaching the software how to play games, researchers can understand how to train machines to perform more complex tasks in the future. This creates a gap between the use of AI as a user-centric tool that improves gameplay and an academic resource that stretches its capability – yet there’s one console that is bridging that gap by introducing the first handheld gaming device that harbors the market’s most sophisticated AI. 

Go Games, a British tech startup founded by serial entrepreneur, Gianni O’Connor, is currently aiming to make the relationship between gamers and AI a more interactive by introducing Scarlet, Tony and Julia – the world’s most sophisticated AI ever to be put into a consumer device, prioritising users’ relationship to their devices as opposed to the characters on the screen. The device is currently available for pre-order, set to be shipped out from 9th September. 

The TRDR Series 2 is an an Android-powered handheld gaming console which contains all of the elements of a traditional console – it also includes apps like Spotify, Netflix and Apple Music. Users have access to the Google Play Store and the console can be connected to one’s television for enhanced gameplay. Yet, users are also introduced to an AI which can not only teach you how to make the perfect Spaghetti Bolognese, but can also serve as a source of meaningful conversation – with the potential to lead users to mental health resources. This makes for a more intimate relationship between gamers and their AI – producing tangible results in the push towards generating user-centric technology aimed at improving the overall gameplay experience. 

Some key features of the TRDR Pocket Series 2 include: 

• 1080p OLED screen
• Compatible with Xbox Series X & S and PlayStation 5 controllers
• 192GB of memory
• 4GB of RAM
• 12-hour battery life on standby mode
• End to end military grade encryption
• Gianni O’Connor, founder of Go Games, comments on the launch of the new TRDR console and the integration of their pioneering AI technology:
• “The key problem with AI is that most great artificial intelligence is built to do one thing; beat somebody at chess, outwit someone during a game of poker or defeat an opponent at scrabble. The second type of AI’s are those where they are taught things, one by one, such as understanding your music choices and how to provide updates on the weather, which is all a very manual process.
•  
• “The standout difference with our proprietary AI is that we didn’t teach it anything specific, only how to learn. This is as human as we can make artificial intelligence. If you can teach someone how to read, you open up their capability to learn anything; the same has been mirrored with our technology. This is the furthest that technology has got to at the point of human existence.
• “Personally, I believe very good AI scares people, and the view is – because of films and other popular culture appearances – AI is so smart that it’s going to cause real-world harm. We therefore, as developers, had to really think about how we introduce this to the world, hence why we have diligently undergone months of ethics testing. 
• “The integration into the games console is just the first step of our process, but nonetheless represents the smartest device you can carry around.”