Google\u2019s AI-focused DeepMind division has taken a minority stake in the developer of popular sci-fi simulation EVE Online, saying it will use the game to study \u201cintelligence in complex, dynamic, player-driven systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research partnership comes as the management behind EVE Online developer CCP Games announced<\/a> that they have spent $120 million to buy themselves out from their former owners at South Korean publisher Pearl Abyss (Crimson Desert). The newly independent entity is being rebranded as Fenris Creations, which will continue to operate as normal without any restructuring or layoffs, the company said.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething that already behaves like a living world\u201d<\/p>\n In today\u2019s announcement, Fenris and DeepMind said that EVE Online presents \u201ca uniquely rich environment for study,\u201d especially when it comes to developing AI systems that use \u201clong-horizon planning, memory, and continual learning.\u201d DeepMind says it will conduct controlled experiments on its models in a specially designed offline version of the game running on a local server, without directly impacting the experience for online players. The two companies \u201cwill also explore new gameplay experiences enabled by these technologies,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n Google DeepMind has a long history of using games as a proving ground for machine learning models, from enabling breakthroughs in complex board games like Go<\/a> to outperforming humans in Atari VCS games<\/a> and StarCraft<\/a>, for example. More recently, the company has\u00a0begun using so-called \u201cvirtual world\u201d models<\/a>\u00a0to help AI systems\u00a0learn <\/a>to operate in physical reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n