AI companies have long used video games to train and test their models, so it’s not a huge surprise that Google DeepMind has now acquired a minority stake in the maker of the popular MMORPG EVE Online.
The partnership comes as the studio behind EVE Online announced that it is becoming independent again. Fernris Creations, formerly known as CCP Games, said that it has bought itself back from Korean video game company Pearl Abyss in a deal worth $120 million.
EVE Online first launched in 2003 and is known for its sprawling open-world universe, where players can explore more than 7,000 star systems and participate in various in-game activities like mining, piracy, trading, combat, and even politics.
Alongside the buyout announcement, the company also revealed a new research partnership with Google DeepMind, in which the AI lab has taken a minority stake in Fernris Creations.
“As part of this next chapter, we are beginning a research partnership with Google DeepMind, focused on intelligence in complex, dynamic, player-driven systems. This is something I am genuinely excited about,” Fernris Creations CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson wrote in a blog post announcing the partnership.
According to a press release, the collaboration will focus on improving the “understanding of intelligence in complex, dynamic systems” and explore areas such as long-horizon planning, memory, and continual learning. In practice, Google DeepMind will test and evaluate AI models on an offline version of EVE Online running on a local server. The companies also said they plan to explore AI-powered gameplay experiences.
“I’ve known Hilmar for many years and long admired his work, and I’m thrilled to partner with him and the fantastic team at Fenris Creations to explore new gaming experiences and advance AI research safely inside a player-driven universe as amazingly complex as EVE Online,” Google DeepMind CEO and co-founder Demis Hassabis said in the press release.
Hassabis added that video games are the “perfect training ground for developing and testing AI algorithms.” He pointed to some of the lab’s previous breakthroughs, including AlphaGo defeating world champion Lee Sedol in 2016 and AlphaStar reaching “Grandmaster” level in StarCraft II in 2019.
Other AI companies have pulled off similar feats. In 2019, an AI built by OpenAI defeated world champions in Defense of the Ancients 2, better known as Dota 2. OpenAI’s success with Dota 2 has even resurfaced this week during Elon Musk’s ongoing legal battle with OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman.
The New York Times reports that after OpenAI President Greg Brockman emailed Musk to inform him that the company’s AI had won an international Dota tournament, Musk replied: “Time to make the next step for OpenAI. This is the triggering event.”
