Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle will be our most forward-thinking conference yet with a focus on Artificial Intelligence. What exactly makes knowing this field so essential for businesses and professionals looking to stay ahead of the technology curve in 2023?
We’re coming back to the States in just over two weeks and we can’t wait to return to our favourite U.S. city for this special edition of our conference. PG Connects Seattle is bringing together over 1,000 attendees from the games industry all over the globe to network, pitch and learn from over 150 of the games industry’s top authorities. The event will also cover mobile, PC, console, web3, AI, AR and so much more across multiple track rooms. Our brilliant speakers and panellists will deliver insightful content into design and development, monetisation and growth, life as an indie, new technologies, company culture and loads more. Along with all this amazing content, our industry-renowned matchmaking opportunities are back. This includes our popular Big Indie Pitch Competitions, Publisher SpeedMatch and Investor Connector.
Part of what makes PG Connects conferences so unmissable is getting to learn from experts at the cutting edge of their fields, and we have been lucky enough to hear some insights from speakers that will be gracing the stage at our Seattle show next month.
I like to think we are assisting people increase their capabilities and reach in their jobs using AI. We aren’t looking to replace anyone, we’re looking to enhance their workflow and make games that much more interesting.
Rahul Sood, CEO of Irreverent Labs
Today, we’ve gained some incredible insights on artificial intelligence, how it’s impacting the games industry and where it’s headed from Rahul Sood, CEO and Co-Founder of Irreverent Labs. Irreverent Labs sits at the intersection of Machine Learning and Entertainment, a venture-backed generative AI entertainment studio with a mission to build insanely fun, highly intelligent, automated entertainment experiences using generative AI.
Don’t miss Rahul Sood at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle, where he will be participating in a panel discussion about whether Generative AI is the future of games.
PocketGamer.biz: What is your experience with the field of artificial intelligence?
Rahul Sood: We have assembled a world class research team, and we’re releasing our foundation models this year.
What initially attracted you to the field of artificial intelligence?
My business partner, who spent 10 years in ML at Microsoft and other places.
How have you seen artificial intelligence impact the games industry as we know it today?
Game developers use AI applications to help them with script writing, world building, helping to automate their work, and character development.
How do you predict artificial intelligence will impact the games industry in coming years?
I think it’ll be massive – I believe the future of gaming starts with artificially intelligent NPCs who become increasingly smarter and live outside the games they were spawned in.
What do you find to be the most fascinating aspect of artificial intelligence and gamemaking?
We discover something new every couple of weeks.
How do you think we balance embracing innovation through AI and protecting the jobs of people in the games industry?
I like to think we are assisting people increase their capabilities and reach in their jobs using AI. We aren’t looking to replace anyone, we’re looking to enhance their workflow and make games that much more interesting.
What would you say to developers who may not be ready to embrace artificial intelligence in game-making?
Get on board, or get left behind.
How can artificial intelligence directly benefit game development?
By augmenting a creators workflow and giving them access to tools that take away mundane work so they can focus on being creative.
How can artificial intelligence in games impact the player experience?
Players will become emotionally connected to characters they own. The idea of NPCs has been around forever, but AI NPCs is on another level.
Get on board or get left behind.
Rahul Sood, CEO of Irreverent Labs
Do you have any comments to make on Solsten winning the Most Promising AI Games Tech award at the PG Connects Mobile Games Awards last week? This Award celebrated the company that over the last year consistently delivered the most impressive set of AI-assisted tools for mobile game creation.
I think it’s awesome, congratulations to the team. It’s a growing area and there’s lots of interesting companies coming up in the space.
Do you have any other comments about the games industry and artificial intelligence?
I look forward to sharing what Irreverent Labs has been working on this August.
Connecting you to the future
Now more so than ever before, our show goes far beyond mobile gaming – PG Connects is connecting you to the future and equipping you with the knowledge and tools you need to get ahead of the curve. Our Seattle show was prepared with everything you’re going to need to get up to date with everything to do with artificial intelligence. The core theme of our show poses the question of how you can stay ahead of the curve and use AI and future technologies to your advantage, and here’s just some of the content we have prepared for you to explore…
Future Trends
Stay ahead of the game with insight into all the latest and most up to date global trends for the future. Explore future technologies that are shaping the game development landscape, from artificial intelligence, to web3, the metaverse and blockchain.
Including these innovative, technology-driven tracks…
- AI Advances
- Metaverse Magic
- Blockchain Boost
- NFT Know-How
- Tech Trends
A word from Steel Media
Our very own Steel Media COO Dave Bradley shared insights on the generative artificial intelligence and what it has the potential to mean for the games industry: “Generative Artificial Intelligence has barely been out of the news since ChatGPT hit the mainstream. With the release of GPT-4, it seems more certain than ever that – for better or worse – AI is the next stage in society’s technological development. It follows in the footsteps of leaps forward we’ve seen in our lifetime, like the web, social media, and mobile. Unlike blockchain, which remains impenetrable to the non-techies in your life, ChatGPT gave everyone a new tool.
It’s fun to play with, but AI’s potential impact on the entertainment industry cannot be overstated. Workers in the media, publishing, and gaming industries – this is what you need to be reading about, sharpish. Writers, artists, marketing managers, coders, recruiters, sales folk… AI tools will speed up how our competitors work, so we need to educate ourselves.
Like all tools since the industrial revolution, what generative AI does is automate. It speeds up processes, and it takes what you might spend an hour on and does it in seconds. It enables computers to analyse, manipulate and synthesise content autonomously, generating high-quality and realistic text, images, website code and even entire immersive worlds, with NPCs who converse with you fluidly.
AI tools will speed up how our competitors work, so we need to educate ourselves.
Dave Bradley, Steel Media COO
There are ethical, legal and professional considerations to consider, not to mention the proliferation of inaccuracies. But AI will continue to evolve and become more crucial to businesses over the year ahead. As AI algorithms become smarter at understanding and processing human language, we can expect to see more sophisticated and realistic text generation and better speech recognition and language translation.
Generative AI will undoubtedly revolutionise certain aspects of content creation and production, speeding up video editing processes or generating marketing graphics or entire story plots, much to some folks’ chagrin. But in the short term, it won’t replace people in the workplace. Instead, generative AI will become part of our processes, enabling professionals to speed up and enhance their workflow, giving them room to focus on creative and strategic tasks – a complement to human ingenuity rather than a replacement for it.
AI was the hottest topic at our biggest-ever games conference, in London in January this year. So as we plan for the conference season ahead, we are making it more of a focus, bringing knowledge and opinion to the stage in Seattle in May, with a special AI Edition of Pocket Gamer Connects on May 16-17.”
Book your ticket now!
You won’t want to miss the most forward-gazing edition of our conference series yet. Make sure you secure a seat in the rooms where all these pioneering conversations will take place next month. Secure your ticket to the show today and make the most of our limited time Midterm discount, you can save up to $180 if you act before prices rise! The conference is just over two weeks away now, so don’t wait to book your ticket!