Can We Beat AI in Video Games?
Video games are a popular pastime and hobby for many. Millions of people look forward to the next AAA release or instalment in their favourite franchise. Artificial intelligence (AI) has a role to play in almost all video games and can provide a challenge to players.
According to ExpressVPN’s blog, AI can learn and adapt by collecting data from games and using it to perform the tasks given to it. In some cases, this will be an AI playing a game by itself, but it could also be the AI playing against a player. This is usually called PvE, or Player vs. Environment.
What is PvE
PvE refers to games where a player plays against a computer or AI. Single-player games typically fall under PvE. These games come in various difficulties of play, usually from Easy to Hard mode. These modes typically change the amount of health you have and the damage you take. However, another key aspect that affects the difficulty of games is their AI.
AI Advancements in Gaming
AI or artificial intelligence is what the game uses to control the NPCs (Non-player characters) against the player. If you go back to the inception of AI in video games, you will find a very basic system in place (Comparatively with contemporary games) that won’t learn or change tactics and would be simple to play against. As time goes on, AI has become increasingly advanced, even outsmarting the player in some cases.
Advancements in AI make NPCs smarter with how they react to player inputs. They can learn how players play the game and react accordingly, and even predict what might happen. This has led people to develop AI even further with learning programs.
If you were to search on YouTube, you would find dozens of videos of people creating a basic game, with simple rules in place. In one example, the AI is given a simple humanoid model and told to go from point A to B. The AI is given the ability to collect data and learn, and what we see is that it gets better and better as time goes on. More rules are added, and obstacles are put in the way, and we can see that the AI can adapt to these changes. This shows that AI is able to collect data that helps to learn the game until it is able to perform it perfectly.
Companies employ teams dedicated to further advancing AI, developing AI to be able to conquer board games and video games with unparalleled skill. In fact, a chess-playing computer has been able to beat world champions, a huge milestone in artificial intelligence.
Depending on the game, and the collection of data available, AI can outperform human performance. However, AI limitations still hinder its ability to best humans at every game.
Can Human Players Beat AI in Video Games?
When tackling real-life tasks that lead to concise answers, AI can shine. However, AI’s current limitations are based on limited data and its ability to tackle open-ended tasks. AI is currently unable to account for human creativity, as it leads to too many possible outcomes. However, in time, there is no telling what AI can do.
