Connect with us

AI Research

How artificial intelligence is reprogramming the future of games

Published

21 hours ago

on


Artificial intelligence has been transforming the world in recent years across nearly every field, from medicine and education to transportation, finance, design, and art. In the gaming industry, one of the most creative and fastest-growing sectors, it is driving profound change: it’s no longer just about advanced graphics or new combat mechanics, but about a sweeping revolution that brings intelligent characters, real-time story generation, and personalized experiences that reshape the relationship between player and game.

AI not only upgrades the look of characters and generates new worlds, it is also changing workflows, transforming business models, and, most importantly, creating a more personalized and complex gaming experience than ever before.

1 View gallery

מימין שחר סורק CMO ב Overwolf ו אורי רובין CTO ב פלייטיקה

Uri Rubin (left) and Shahar Sorek.

(Photos: Tom Simon, Ohad Romano)

A 2022 Deloitte report showed that more than 70% of large game development companies had already set up dedicated AI teams working across departments. These teams are responsible for developing and implementing AI technologies while overseeing internal governance and quality control.

Ubisoft, for example, uses Ghostwriter to write initial dialogue for NPCs (non-player characters), saving the writing team hundreds of hours and freeing them to craft richer, more complex storylines. EA, for its part, uses AI models to detect bugs and test game balance, dramatically shortening testing cycles while maintaining product stability over time.

This trend is also evident in Israel. Uri Rubin, CTO at Playtika, says the company is adapting its operations to meet new realities. “One of the best examples is moving an independent business unit (studio) into the technology division,” he says. “Changing an organizational culture that has existed for years requires external momentum, and that’s exactly what AI provides. The idea is to break out of the traditional structure where the studio and technology teams work separately, and instead combine forces with a shared focus. For the first time, teams are working together toward one goal.”

Rubin notes that integrating AI into the studio’s workflows allows the company to deliver more precise and efficient solutions: “This change ensures that the studio and technology teams stay aligned and focused on shared tasks. We’re learning as we go and believe that if this transformation succeeds, we can replicate it across other units.”

According to Shahar Sorek, CMO at Overwolf, “Every department in the company already uses AI. In my department alone, we rely on at least ten different tools daily – for design, writing, video editing, supporting internal workflows, and even accelerating coding. These tools let us work at a much larger scale.”

However, Sorek stresses that adopting AI requires extra caution for sensitive tasks, especially those involving a product’s core elements. “The more critical the product, like the code, game engine, or sensitive data, the more carefully you need to introduce AI. After all, it’s not your own tool, it’s not built in-house, and you can’t always know where your exposed data might end up or how it could be used.”

Despite the enormous savings in time and resources, Sorek insists the new technology does not come at the expense of human workers. “I’m not laying people off,” he clarifies. “The more complex the product, the more people you still need.”

“Technology isn’t going to replace people, it’s going to upgrade them,” Rubin adds. “We’ll always need the human factor on every team, but at the same time, AI will play a significant role in informing decisions. AI will handle tedious, repetitive tasks and free up teams for creativity, critical thinking, and faster, more dynamic decision-making.”

Where the industry once focused on linear, fixed, and predefined games, AI is now making gameplay dynamic, multi-layered, and deeply personal. There are already plenty of examples that show how far the technology has come.

In Minecraft, for instance, the world’s best-selling game, modding communities (independent developers who expand the base game) have created AI-powered add-ons that let players generate entire worlds automatically. The player simply enters a short description, for example, “a medieval-style underground dungeon with traps and rare creatures,” and the system builds it in minutes, complete with enemies, quests, hidden items, and surprises. Such add-ons have become especially popular on private servers, where developers craft unique adventures for each player or group.

There’s also been a major leap in NPC technology. Inworld AI, an American company, has developed a platform for creating interactive characters that understand context, retain memory, and can hold complex conversations with players. These characters learn player behavior and adapt their responses in real time, expressing emotions, responding with humor or anger, and maintaining a history of interactions so players can enjoy long, playful exchanges or even philosophical debates.

Ubisoft has also integrated characters whose shifting personalities affect how the entire game unfolds: if a player chooses a violent approach with an NPC, the game opens new subplots that can change the ending entirely.

CD Projekt Red, the developer behind Cyberpunk 2077, is experimenting with AI systems that track players’ play styles over time. If a player often helps weaker characters, the game will offer more emotional and layered plots; if they play aggressively, it will unlock storylines packed with battles and challenges.

“The goal is for every player to ultimately have an experience tailored to their preferences and play style,” says Rubin. “AI will help us produce far more content, giving players a richer, more personalized experience.”

Sorek believes the next big leap will be full-game generation, an AI engine that receives a general prompt and builds an entire custom game. “The AI will learn who you are, what you like, and generate a game for you as you play,” he says. “Of course, there are still challenges, games are complex, both visually and emotionally. The AI isn’t quite there yet, but we’re getting closer. New companies are already developing AI that can manage interactions, build mini-games, and even run entire game engines.”



Source link

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

AI Research

Fraud experts warn of smishing scams made easier by artificial intelligence, new tech

Published

58 minutes ago

on

July 11, 2025

By


If it seems like your phone has been blowing up with more spam text messages recently, it probably is.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says so-called smishing attempts appear to be on the rise, thanks in part to new technologies that allow for co-ordinated bulk attacks.

The centre’s communications outreach officer Jeff Horncastle says the agency has actually received fewer fraud reports in the first six months of 2025, but that can be misleading because so few people actually alert the centre to incidents.

He says smishing is “more than likely increasing” with help from artificial intelligence tools that can craft convincing messages or scour data from security breaches to uncover new targets.

The warning comes as the Competition Bureau sent a recent alert about the tactic because it says many people are seeing more suspicious text messages.

Smishing is a sort of portmanteau of SMS and phishing in which a text message is used to try to get the target to click on a link and provide personal information.

The ruse comes in many forms but often involves a message that purports to come from a real organization or business urging immediate action to address an alleged problem.

It could be about an undeliverable package, a suspended bank account or news of a tax refund.

Horncastle says it differs from more involved scams such as a text invitation to call a supposed job recruiter, who then tries to extract personal or financial information by phone.

Nevertheless, he says a text scam might be quite sophisticated since today’s fraudsters can use artificial intelligence to scan data leaks for personal details that bolster the hoax, or use AI writing tools to help write convincing text messages.

“In the past, part of our messaging was always: watch for spelling mistakes. It’s not always the case now,” he says.

“Now, this message could be coming from another country where English may not be the first language but because the technology is available, there may not be spelling mistakes like there were a couple of years ago.”

The Competition Bureau warns against clicking on suspicious links and forwarding texts to 7726 (SPAM), so that the cellular provider can investigate further. It also encourages people to delete smishing messages, block the number and ignore texts even if they ask to reply with “STOP” or “NO.”

Horncastle says the centre received 886 reports of smishing in the first six months of 2025, up to June 30. That’s trending downwards from 2,546 reports in 2024, which was a drop from 3,874 in 2023. That too, was a drop in reports from 7,380 in 2022.



Source link

Continue Reading

AI Research

History Says the Nasdaq Will Soar: 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy Now, According to Wall Street

Published

1 hour ago

on

July 11, 2025

By


Most Wall Street analysts see substantial upside in these technology stocks.

Anticipating what the stock market will do in any given year is impossible, but investors can lean into long-term trends. For instance, the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.09%) soared 875% in the last 20 years, compounding at 12% annually, due to strength in technology stocks. That period encompasses such a broad range of market and economic conditions that similar returns are quite plausible in the future.

Indeed, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) should be a tailwind for the technology sector, and most Wall Street analysts anticipate substantial gains in these Nasdaq stocks:

  • Among 31 analysts who follow AppLovin (APP -1.86%), the median target price of $470 per share implies 40% upside from the current share price of $335.
  • Among 39 analysts that follow MongoDB (MDB -3.48%), the median target price of $275 per share implies 34% upside from the current share price of $205.

Here’s what investors should know about AppLovin and MongoDB.

Image source: Getty Images.

AppLovin: 40% upside implied by the median target price

AppLovin builds adtech software that helps developers market and monetize applications across mobile and connected TV campaigns. The company is also piloting ad tech tools for e-commerce brands. Importantly, its platform leans on a sophisticated AI engine called Axon to optimize campaign results by matching advertiser demand with the best publisher inventory.

AppLovin has put a great deal of effort into building its Axon recommendation engine. The company started acquiring video game studios several years ago to train the underlying machine learning models that optimize targeting, and subsequent upgrades have encouraged media buyers to spend more on the platform over time.

Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak recently called AppLovin the “best executor” in the adtech industry. In particular, he called attention to superior ad targeting capabilities driven by its “best-in-class” machine learning engine, which has led to outperformance versus the broader in-app advertising market since 2023.

AppLovin reported strong first-quarter financial results. Revenue increased 40% to $1.4 billion, as strong sales growth in the advertising segment offset a decline in sales in the mobile games segment. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net income increased 149% to $1.67 per diluted share. And management guided for 69% advertising sales growth in the second quarter.

Wall Street estimates AppLovin’s earnings will increase at 53% annually through 2026. That makes the current valuation of 61 times earnings look rather inexpensive. Investors should pounce on the opportunity to buy this stock today. Personally, I would start with a small position and add shares periodically.

MongoDB: 34% upside implied by the median target price

MongoDB is the most popular document database. Whereas traditional relational databases (also called SQL databases) store information in structured rows and columns, the document model is more scalable and flexible. It supports structured data, but also unstructured data like emails, social media posts, images, videos, and websites.

Every application requires a database. It is where information can be stored, modified, and retrieved when needed. But the document model is particularly well suited to analytics, content management, e-commerce, payments, and artificial intelligence applications due to its superior scalability and flexibility. MongoDB is leaning into demand for AI.

Last year, the company introduced MAAP (MongoDB AI Application Program), a collection of resources and reference architectures that help programmers build applications with AI capabilities. Additionally, MongoDB recently acquired Voyage AI, a company that develops embedding and reranking models that make AI applications more accurate and reliable.

CEO Dev Ittycheria told analysts: “MongoDB now brings together three things that modern AI-powered applications need: real-time data, powerful search, and smart retrieval. By combining these into one platform, we make it dramatically easier for developers to build intelligent, responsive apps without stitching together multiple systems.”

MongoDB reported encouraging first-quarter financial results, exceeding estimates on the top and bottom lines. Customers climbed 16% to 57,100, the highest net additions in six years. Revenue increased 22% to $549 million, a sequential acceleration, and non-GAAP earnings jumped 96% to $1.00 per diluted share.

Going forward, Grand View Research estimates the database management system market will increase at 13% annually through 2030. MongoDB should grow faster as it continues to gain market share. That makes the present valuation of 7.8 times sales look reasonable, especially when the three-year average is 13.2 times sales. Patient investors should feel comfortable buying a small position today.



Source link

Continue Reading

AI Research

RRC getting real with artificial intelligence – Winnipeg Free Press

Published

2 hours ago

on

July 11, 2025

By


Red River College Polytechnic is offering crash courses in generative artificial intelligence to help classroom teachers get more comfortable with the technology.

Foundations of Generative AI in Education, a microcredential that takes 15 hours to complete, gives participants guidance to explore AI tools and encourage ethical and effective use of them in schools.

Tyler Steiner was tasked with creating the program in 2023, shortly after the release of ChatGPT — a chatbot that generates human-like replies to prompts within seconds — and numerous copycat programs that have come online since.



MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS

Lauren Phillips, a RRC Polytech associate dean, said it’s important students know when they can use AI.

“There’s no putting that genie back in the bottle,” said Steiner, a curriculum developer at the post-secondary institute in Winnipeg.

While noting teachers can “lock and block” via pen-and-paper tests and essays, the reality is students are using GenAI outside school and authentic experiential learning should reflect the real world, he said.

Steiner’s advice?

Introduce it with the caveat students should withhold personal information from prompts to protect their privacy, analyze answers for bias and “hallucinations” (false or misleading information) and be wary of over-reliance on technology.

RRC Polytech piloted its first GenAI microcredential little more than a year ago. A total of 109 completion badges have been issued to date.

The majority of early participants in the training program are faculty members at RRC Polytech. The Winnipeg School Division has also covered the tab for about 20 teachers who’ve expressed interest in upskilling.

“There was a lot of fear when GenAI first launched, but we also saw that it had a ton of power and possibility in education,” said Lauren Phillips, associate dean of RRC Polytech’s school of education, arts and sciences.

Phillips called a microcredential “the perfect tool” to familiarize teachers with GenAI in short order, as it is already rapidly changing the kindergarten to Grade 12 and post-secondary education sectors.

Manitoba teachers have told the Free Press they are using chatbots to plan lessons and brainstorm report card comments, among other tasks.

Students are using them to help with everything from breaking down a complex math equation to creating schedules to manage their time. Others have been caught cutting corners.

Submitted assignments should always disclose when an author has used ChatGPT, Copilot or another tool “as a partner,” Phillips said.

She and Steiner said in separate interviews the key to success is providing students with clear instructions about when they can and cannot use this type of technology.

Business administration instructor Nora Sobel plans to spend much of the summer refreshing course content to incorporate their tips; Sobel recently completed all three GenAI microcredentials available on her campus.

Two new ones — Application of Generative AI in Education and Integration of Generative AI in Education — were added to the roster this spring.

Sobel said it is “overwhelming” to navigate this transformative technology, but it’s important to do so because employers will expect graduates to have the know-how to use them properly.

It’s often obvious when a student has used GenAI because their answers are abstract and generic, she said, adding her goal is to release rubrics in 2025-26 with explicit direction surrounding the active rather than passive use of these tools.