Embracing AI research can keep Guildford games industry on top – University of Surrey
Experts from the University of Surrey have said that embracing AI research can maintain Guildford’s high position in the worldwide games industry.
According to Dr Andrew Rogoyski, Director of Innovation and Partnerships at the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI, doing so will help to ensure Guildford is able to continue drawing both talent and investment.
He said: "Surrey's new AI Institute has been exploring the potential for wider use of AI in the video games industry, and our people-centric AI focus aligns well with the desire to give gamers the best possible experience.
"There is no doubt the video gaming industry has been an early adopter of AI technology, but our findings suggest a lot more could be done. Guildford is home to over half of Surrey's gaming industry, a stone's throw from our multi-disciplinary AI research centre at the University of Surrey.
“We can leverage the knowledge of over 100 academic researchers and 35 years of research in machine vision, spatial audio, virtual reality and many other related technologies to accelerate game development and improve the user experience."
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The United Kingdom, with Guildford at the forefront, is a major player in the creative industries, boasting the sixth-largest gaming market on the globe and the largest in Europe. The 44.32 million-customer sector has a current market value of £5.89 billion.
Guildford has long been one of the major hubs in that industry, hosting industry heavyweights like EA, smaller studios such as Hello Games and Supermassive Games, and an ecosystem of related research led by the University of Surrey.
Dr Femi Adeyemi-Ejeye, Lecturer in Video Technology at the University of Surrey, who has been exploring the potential for AI in video games, said:
"The video games industry isn’t just about the games it produces. AI can make an impact in many different areas, including asset creation and management, game testing, improving the behaviour of non-player characters, improving video and audio realism, gamer teaming and matching, creating complex soundscapes, and remastering classic games, to cite a few examples.
"We're inviting Guildford's gaming industry to share game development 'grand challenges' with us so that we can direct our research teams to solve such problems. We'd be thrilled if we could help keep the Guildford video games community at the leading edge and contribute to the growth of these local businesses."
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Featured image: iStock
