Ubisoft Anvil Engine architect talks about using AI in game development: "It makes total sense"

There are often very volatile and public discussions surrounding artificial intelligence and how the technology is used in the creation of artistic projects, including video games. While some are firmly against using the tech in video games, others are more open to exploring how it can be used. And there are ways that AI can be used in very beneficial ways, particularly in the nitty-gritty and complex computer science element of game production.

To this end, we recently spoke with Ubisoft's Nicolas Lopez, who is known for being an architect on the Anvil Engine that powers many of the publisher's titles, not least the Assassin's Creed series. It will next be put through the ringer with Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, and with that in mind, we picked Lopez's mind about how AI can be put to productive use.

Lopez explains, in as rudimentary a manner as he can, some of the ways AI is being used to improve the Anvil Engine technology.

"So in computer graphics, we have a lot of techniques that are actually stochastic. What does stochastic mean? It means that it's based on sampling. Exactly what we do for global illumination. We take some little points everywhere, and we try to understand what it means, and we make the lighting. And this is exactly what AI does. It's the same thing. So that's why when I see AI, I see a way to take all these points of lighting, aggregating them together, and have a magic formula that tells me what it is. It's the same. It's what we call stochastic sampling."

He continues by further expressing that for computer graphics, AI fits in rather naturally, but that it's not a complete solution for all elements of game development.

"And so this, in computer graphics, is actually super natural. It's also what we call Monte Carlo integration, if you remember your high school lessons. And so it applies to many things in computer graphics. For the rest, it's a bit less natural, and we have to explore what we can do with it. But for me, it makes total sense."

How else do you think AI should be used to enhance video games? Or are you firmly against the technology being used in the production of games?