Menlo Park, California — The Third Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference will be held June 6–8, 2007, at Stanford University, Stanford, California. AIIDE is the premier conference on artificial intelligence in computer games and interactive entertainment. It brings together technical leaders to examine how computer games can be improved using AI technologies and to promote new approaches and commercial developments.
The conference is sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (formerly the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, www.aaai.org.)
Intelligence for digital gaming
In the history of computer games, advances in computer graphics have dominated the industry. The pace of developments has slowed, and companies are looking for a competitive edge. AI has emerged as an essential ingredient in games, according to Jonathan Schaeffer, conference organizer and noted researcher from the University of Alberta. “Graphics attracts you to a game,” he notes, “but the gameplay (including the AI) keeps you engaged (and buying the sequels). The commitment to AI by digital gaming companies has grown significantly in the past 10 years.” AI technology, for example, can be used to create virtual characters that behave in an intelligent manner or be used to have a computer program “write” a game story.
Top creative leaders are invited speakers
“At a ‘normal&rsqo; conference, you might get 3 or 4 invited speakers. We have 10,” says Schaeffer. “Some of the speakers are very well known — not only to technical people — and are the creative people behind some of the biggest game titles on the market. If anyone wants to learn about the state-of-the-art in putting AI into games, AIIDE is the best venue — bar none.” Invited Talks by ten acclaimed digital game developers and researchers, including:
- Wolff Dobson and John Funge — AiLive
- Quinn Dunki — Pandemic Studios
- Richard Evans — Maxis / Electronic Arts
- Chris Hecker — Maxis / Electronic Arts
- Soren Johnson — Firaxis Games
- Peter Molyneux — Lionhead Studios
- Ken Perlin — New York University
- Neil Young — Electronic Arts Los Angeles
- Chris Bateman — International Hobo
For more information, see the attached Backgrounder.
There will also be a full conference technical program with two paper tracks — Research and Published Games, a workshop on Optimizing Player Satisfaction and a lively poster/demonstration session.
More information
For more information, please see the following pages:
- Announcement page: http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AIIDE/aiide07.php
- Conference technical program: http://www.aaai.org/Library/AIIDE/aiide07contents.php
- Registration information: http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AIIDE/aiide07.php
- Preliminary schedule: http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AIIDE/2007/aiide07schedule.php
- Press pass: Contact Sara Hedberg
Sponsored by AAAI
“AAAI is always interested in pushing the boundaries of AI science and applications,” notes AAAI President Alan Mackworth. “AIIDE is a key initiative that serves that goal. Through the conference, we are bringing together the communities of AI researchers and digital entertainment developers. Most developers of digital games will tell you that their main bottleneck now is to develop believable characters and actions using AI,” he continues. “Through an outstanding set of invited speakers and contributed papers, researchers and developers will be able to grasp the state-of-the-art and ideas for future projects very quickly. They’ll also be able to network with others of like mind. This is a unique opportunity,” concludes Mackworth.
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