Artificial Agency Emerges from Stealth with $16M Funding to Revolutionize Video Game NPCs

Former Google employees get $16 million to make video games more fun with AI

A startup with the first-ever artificial intelligence-powered "behavior engine" for characters in video games just raised $16 million. Canada-based AI startup Artificial Agency announced it has come out of a year in stealth mode and raised $16 million in funding from investors including Radical Ventures and Toyota Ventures. The startup, founded by a group of former Google DeepMind researchers, said the funding will go toward developing its flagship product, which allows game developers to make video game characters more realistic and interactive with players. Artificial Intelligence also counts talent from AAA studios, which are known for high-budget, high-profile games. With the AI-powered behavior engine, game developers can integrate generative AI into different aspects of the game, including "minor improvisation" of scripted interactions for non-player characters, or NPCs, and systems that control characters' pacing and spawning. NPCs are not controlled by players, and typically have pre-written scripts which can limit a player's gaming experience. The funding will help the startup continue building its team and developing its behavior engine to bring it to market in 2025, Brian Tanner, co-founder and chief executive of Artificial Agency said in a statement shared with Quartz. "We believe there's an enormous amount of untapped potential for AI in the gaming industry," Tanner said. "Our behavior engine will enable game developers to embed runtime decision-making seamlessly into any aspect of a game. Because the engine unlocks access to this powerful technology, it has huge applications for both large and small studios -- helping games teams to iterate faster, drive new levels of creativity, and deliver a gaming experience that feels truly alive and more immersive for players." Tanner said Artificial Agency is "most excited" about the potential of its behavior engine possibly creating "an entirely new genre of games driven by social and runtime intelligence." The startup said it is collaborating with "several" AAA studios, and is aiming to make its AI-powered behavior engine widely available to video game studios in 2025. While the AI boom is driving high demand for chips, the gaming industry has been a major customer of graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are used in PCs and gaming consoles, for decades. Nvidia, which got its start making chips for video games, reported that its gaming revenue was up 18% year-over-year in its first-quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings report in May.

Artificial Agency raises $16M to bring AI-powered behavior to games

GamesBeat is excited to partner with Lil Snack to have customized games just for our audience! We know as gamers ourselves, this is an exciting way to engage through play with the GamesBeat content you have already come to love. Start playing games here. Artificial Agency, an AI startup pioneering generative behavior for gaming, emerged from stealth and announced $16 million in funding. The funding will be used to accelerate the development of the company's flagship product -- an AI-powered behavior engine that enables game developers to embed runtime decision-making seamlessly into any aspect of a game, delivering a gaming experience that feels truly alive. "AI has enormous potential to revolutionize gaming, yet, to date, the focus has predominantly been on very limited human-to-AI conversations," said Brian Tanner, CEO of Artificial Agency, in a statement. "The real opportunity lies in unleashing generative behavior into whole worlds and giving developers the tools to transform both characters as well as other decision-making systems into individualized AI agents with perceptions, actions, personalities, and goals. This paves the way for entirely new categories of games to be created that are more creative, more expressive, and deeply individualized." Artificial Agency's AI-powered behavior engine makes it easy for game developers to integrate generative AI into all kinds of game mechanics, driving engaging behavior in both moment-to-moment interactions and the overarching game narrative. Developers can add minor improvisation to scripted interactions, full improvisation for emergent gameplay, create full artificial players, and even high-level gamekeeper systems that control pacing, spawn encounters and steer players towards overlooked game elements. The result is a more immersive and entertaining experience that keeps players engaged and reduces churn. "We wanted to unlock creative superpowers for studios of all sizes with our technology, allowing them to increase productivity as well as make their wildest creative dreams a reality," said Mike Johanson, cofounder of Artificial Agency, in a statement. "Our engine was purpose-built to deliver on this promise -- not only can it deploy rapidly into existing workflows at any development stage, it is also fully customizable and extensible to align with a designer's vision." The company, which has been operating in stealth mode for a year, is developing the engine in close collaboration with several notable triple-A studios and expects it to be widely available for studios in 2025. "While there's been a lot of energy and focus on exploiting immediate AI opportunities in game development, such as generating art, dialogue, or 3D models, these have been incremental improvements to the technology stack. We had been looking for a team that could create a new category within gaming, and are excited to partner with Brian, Alex, Mike, and Andrew to help them fulfill their vision," said Daniel Mulet of Radical Ventures, who has joined the board, in a statement. "Artificial Agency's generative behavior engine promises to create new opportunities for studios as they reimagine the gaming experience." The money came from Radical Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Flying Fish, Kaya, BDC Deep Tech, TIRTA Ventures, and others. Based in Edmonton, Canada, a global hub of AI and gaming innovation, Artificial Agency brings together world-class AI researchers from Google Deepmind with engineers and game developers from elite AAA studios, all committed to building the future of gaming experiences. "Artificial Agency is led by my former students and colleagues -- people I know well," said Richard Sutton, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Alberta and former Distinguished Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. "They are the best in the world at using reinforcement learning and foundation models to create complex, life-like, and purposive agents." Professor Sutton along with Professor Michael Bowling (University of Alberta, Department of Computing Science), both globally renowned pioneers of reinforcement learning, are angel investors in Artificial Agency. "Alberta's tech sector continues to grow by leaps and bounds," said Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation. "The investments we have made in the region have helped train and recruit so many brilliant AI experts in Alberta and we're excited to see the industry taking notice and building their operations here. Companies like Artificial Agency are at the forefront of this exciting progress and I'm looking forward to seeing what the team at Artificial Agency will accomplish with this financing." "Edmonton continues to be on the cutting edge of technological development and innovation in the artificial intelligence sector," said Amarjeet Sohi, Mayor of Edmonton, in a statement. "Artificial Agency is another great entry into our technology ecosystem that is making a splash around the world, and I look forward to seeing their success." The cofounders have AI backgrounds. Tanner has a masters and nearly got a doctorate in reinforcement learning. He was previously research engineering lead at DeepMind. Alex Kearney is cofounder and Applied Reinforcement Learning scientist. He was previously research scientist at Deepmind. Johanson is a game theorist and reinforcement learning scientist. He helped push poker AI from amateur to superhuman and was part of the team that solved heads-up limit hold 'em. He was previously senior research scientist at DeepMind studying AI and agent-human interaction. And Andrew Butcher, co-founder and Machine Learning Wizard and game developer. He studied neuroscience and computer science and worked on games including Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Anthem with BioWare. He was previously research engineering lead at DeepMind.

Artificial Agency raises $16M to use AI to make NPCs feel more realistic in video games | TechCrunch

A group of former Google DeepMind researchers have created an AI behavior engine that aims to transform traditional video games into a more dynamic experience by improving how non-playable characters (NPCs) behave and interact with gamers. There's no shortage of companies using AI to generate NPCs that feel more realistic, but Canada-based Artificial Agency, fresh out of stealth with $16 million in funding, is betting its behavior engine will help it stand out from the pack. Traditionally, NPCs are guided by decision trees and pre-written scripts, which often limits the number of outcomes a player can experience. For example, most NPCs in games respond to player behavior with a few repetitive dialogues, which can often feel unrealistic and boring. Artificial Agency's behavior engine throws this framework out the window, turning the game developer into more of a stage manager. The engine requires developers to give each NPC a set of motivations, rules and goals to live by, which then dictates how the NPC will respond to the player. The technology can plug into existing video games or serve as the basis for completely new ones. The startup, based out of Edmonton, Alberta, is entering an increasingly crowded space. Competitors include Inworld, which also offers AI-generated behaviors for NPCs, as well as Nvidia, which has been working on AI-powered NPCs for some time now. Artificial Agency, for its part, believes that integrating AI-generated NPCs into a video game's design is the way forward. "The conversations we often have with these studios are not about if, it's about when," co-founder and CEO Brian Tanner told TechCrunch. "This sort of dynamic interaction and dynamic response that our system allows is going to be table stakes in the games industry just a few years from now." The startup recently raised $12 million in a seed round co-led by Radical Ventures and Toyota Ventures, the founders told TechCrunch. It had previously raised $4 million in an undisclosed pre-seed round from Radical Ventures, bringing its total raised to $16 million. Other participants in the latest seed round were Flying Fish, Kaya, BDC Deep Tech and TIRTA Ventures. A big question for many of these startups is whether gaming studios will even adopt their AI technology. Some worry that the big studios will develop the technology themselves or may hesitate to add generative AI to their flagship games, especially given the risk of hallucinations and how untested the technology still is. While it wouldn't name them, Artificial Agency says it's working with "several notable AAA studios" to develop its behavior engine, and expects the technology to be widely available in 2025. "When we reached out to gaming studios, some were starting to build some of these behaviors themselves, when in reality, they're just trying to build games," said Radical Ventures investor Daniel Mulet. "Once you see like 20, 30 groups that are trying to build this themselves, there is an opportunity to build a platform and make it available to everyone." Generally, game developers seem to be open to using generative AI to build games, but there's still some hesitancy. Nearly half of the 3,000 game developers surveyed by GDC and Game Developer for the 2024 State of the Game Industry report said they use generative AI in some aspect of their development process, particularly for repetitive tasks. Still, only about 21% of those surveyed expect generative AI to have a positive impact on the industry, and 42% of respondents were "very concerned" about the ethics of using generative AI. Mulet said Artificial Agency's founding team, with decades of experience in Google DeepMind, gave him confidence that it can build a best-in-class tooling layer to improve how NPCs behave. DeepMind, after all, has a long history of developing the cutting edge in AI that can play games -- it built AlphaGo, the first computer program to beat a world champion at Go. Around the time Google was shifting focus towards the Gemini model, Tanner and his team broke away to develop video game agents that could replace NPCs. In a demo of the technology the startup shared with TechCrunch, co-founder Alex Kearney created an NPC powered by the behavior engine in Minecraft (the startup would not reveal the games it's currently working on). The NPC, named Aaron, was instructed to be friendly and helpful, and was given access to basic functions such as movement, opening chests, digging and placing blocks. At one point, Kearney's in-game character asked Aaron to gather supplies for a scary mining adventure, and though it wasn't programmed to do so, the NPC visited multiple chests to gather armor, helmets, tools and food, and delivered the supplies back to Kearney's character. And when Kearney told Aaron she was gluten-free after it brought back some bread, the NPC apologized, and offered a gluten-free option instead: cooked chicken. The simple demo showed how Artificial Agency's AI NPCs could not only talk, but perform complex actions without being explicitly told to do so. Aaron showed some level of awareness, and the NPC created a unique experience with no script-writing or programming required. At the very least, the technology could likely save game developers some time. Tanner estimated this roughly five-minute demo cost $1 in AI inferencing costs, but he pointed out that a year ago, it would have cost $100. Artificial Agency expects costs to continue coming down, both thanks to improvement in GPU efficiencies and AI model optimizations. Currently, the startup uses open source models, including Meta's Llama 3. A year from now, Tanner expects the five-minute demo to cost one cent or less. But whether it costs a penny or $100, who's going to end up paying for these inferencing costs? Artificial Agency says AI NPCs probably won't make video games more expensive for an end user, but Radical Ventures' Mulet wasn't so sure. He said his venture firm is confident game studios are willing to pay to license Artificial Agency's technology, but once it's deployed, it could result in a monthly fee for gamers. "The fact that there's inference costs associated with running these systems means that it has to be a bit of a premium feature," said Mulet. "Will you, as a gamer, pay $2.99 a month or $12.99 a month? That's a little bit early to tell."

Artificial Agency Launches Out of Stealth with $16M (USD) in Funding to Bring Generative Behavior to Gaming

EDMONTON, Alberta, July 18, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Artificial Agency, an AI startup pioneering generative behavior for gaming, emerged from stealth and announced $16M (USD) in funding from Radical Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Flying Fish, Kaya, BDC Deep Tech, TIRTA Ventures, and others. The funding will be used to accelerate the development of the company's flagship product -- an AI-powered behavior engine that enables game developers to embed runtime decision-making seamlessly into any aspect of a game, delivering a gaming experience that feels truly alive. "AI has enormous potential to revolutionize gaming, yet, to date, the focus has predominantly been on very limited human-to-AI conversations," said Brian Tanner, co-founder and CEO of Artificial Agency. "The real opportunity lies in unleashing generative behavior into whole worlds and giving developers the tools to transform both characters as well as other decision-making systems into individualized AI agents with perceptions, actions, personalities, and goals. This paves the way for entirely new categories of games to be created that are more creative, more expressive, and deeply individualized." Artificial Agency's AI-powered behavior engine makes it easy for game developers to integrate generative AI into all kinds of game mechanics, driving engaging behavior in both moment-to-moment interactions and the overarching game narrative. Developers can add minor improvisation to scripted interactions, full improvisation for emergent gameplay, create full artificial players, and even high-level gamekeeper systems that control pacing, spawn encounters and steer players towards overlooked game elements. The result is a more immersive and entertaining experience that keeps players engaged and reduces churn. "We wanted to unlock creative superpowers for studios of all sizes with our technology, allowing them to increase productivity as well as make their wildest creative dreams a reality," Mike Johanson, co-founder of Artificial Agency said. "Our engine was purpose-built to deliver on this promise -- not only can it deploy rapidly into existing workflows at any development stage, it is also fully customizable and extensible to align with a designer's vision." The company, which has been operating in stealth mode for a year, is developing the engine in close collaboration with several notable AAA studios and expects it to be widely available for studios in 2025. "While there's been a lot of energy and focus on exploiting immediate AI opportunities in game development, such as generating art, dialogue, or 3D models, these have been incremental improvements to the technology stack. We had been looking for a team that could create a new category within gaming, and are excited to partner with Brian, Alex, Mike, and Andrew to help them fulfill their vision," said Daniel Mulet of Radical Ventures, who has joined the board. "Artificial Agency's generative behavior engine promises to create new opportunities for studios as they reimagine the gaming experience." Based in Edmonton, Canada, a global hub of AI and gaming innovation, Artificial Agency brings together world-class AI researchers from Google Deepmind with engineers and game developers from elite AAA studios, all committed to building the future of gaming experiences. "Artificial Agency is led by my former students and colleagues -- people I know well," said Richard Sutton, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Alberta and former Distinguished Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. "They are the best in the world at using reinforcement learning and foundation models to create complex, life-like, and purposive agents." Professor Sutton along with Professor Michael Bowling (University of Alberta, Department of Computing Science), both globally renowned pioneers of reinforcement learning, are angel investors in Artificial Agency. "Alberta's tech sector continues to grow by leaps and bounds," said Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation. "The investments we have made in the region have helped train and recruit so many brilliant AI experts in Alberta and we're excited to see the industry taking notice and building their operations here. Companies like Artificial Agency are at the forefront of this exciting progress and I'm looking forward to seeing what the team at Artificial Agency will accomplish with this financing." "Edmonton continues to be on the cutting edge of technological development and innovation in the artificial intelligence sector," said Amarjeet Sohi, Mayor of Edmonton. "Artificial Agency is another great entry into our technology ecosystem that is making a splash around the world, and I look forward to seeing their success!" About Artificial Agency Artificial Agency is an AI company that is pioneering generative behavior for gaming. Its groundbreaking AI-powered behavior engine integrates runtime decision-making into game mechanics, delivering an experience that feels truly alive. With top AI talent from Google DeepMind, seasoned gaming veterans from elite AAA studios, and backing from leading investors including Radical Ventures and Toyota Ventures, Artificial Agency is poised to redefine the boundaries of gaming and completely reimagine the player experience. To learn more, visit artificial.agency Media Contact press@artificial.agency Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs