EA's SEED builds AI capable of teaching itself to play Battlefield I

"As deep learning technology matures, I expect self-learning agents to be part of the games themselves, as truly intelligent NPCs," says SEED technical director

In what could reshape the future of everything from QA testing to procedurally generated animation, EA's Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division (SEED) has built a self-learning AI-agent capable of teaching itself from scratch to play Battlefield I.

In recent years, self-learning agents like Google's DeepMind AI have learnt to play old Atari games and beat Go world champions, but this is the first time one has been able to self-learn something as complex as a modern AAA game.

The agent is currently proficient at basic Battlefield gameplay and after playtests, participants asked the developers to mark out the agents so they could be distinguished, which indicates a certain level of lifelike performance.

Although impressive the technology is still far from perfect; even after roughly 300 days of total gameplay experience, the AI was unable to devise or execute any strategies, and would sometimes find itself stuck running in circles. It is smart enough though to adapt its behaviour based on certain triggers such as health and ammunition.

"I'm confident they will do less silly stuff in the future, as they become more adept," said SEED technical director Magnus Nordin, adding that they while they are constantly improving, the process is slow.

The potential applications for this type of self-learning AI extends far beyond simply using it to compete against humans in multiplayer matches, however.

"Our short-term objective with this project has been to help the DICE team scale up its quality assurance and testing, which would help the studio to collect more crash reports and find more bugs," Nordin continued.

"In future titles, as deep learning technology matures, I expect self-learning agents to be part of the games themselves, as truly intelligent NPCs that can master a range of tasks, and that adapt and evolve over time as they accumulate experience from engaging with human players.

"I have no doubt in my mind that neural nets will start to gradually make their way into games in the years to come. Self-learning agents aren't just a good replacement for old-fashioned bots, you can also apply machine learning to a number of fields, such as procedurally generated content, animation, voice generation, speech recognition and more."

Related stories

Nintendo, Valve, Sony, and EA reported in Norway for breaching European consumer law

Digital games "do not exist in a lawless vacuum" says Norwegian Consumer Council director of digital services

By Haydn Taylor

Star Wars Battlefront loot boxes investigation continues, say Belgian authorities


By Haydn Taylor

Latest comments (3)

Klaus Preisinger Freelance Writing 3 months ago
In 2025, EA will announce that 85% of their lootboxes are now opened by AI agents and that EA are preparing to move the company into a post-player world, where humans are but an audience commenting on AI performance. All the money is made from Arabian Oil Sheikhs and Russian Oligarchs buying the best AIs and having them compete in their online league broadcast via Twitch.
0Sign inorRegisterto rate and reply
Brendan Sinclair North American Editor, GamesIndustry.biz3 months ago
Best part of Nordin's GDC talk was describing how they had a War Games scenario play out. They had trained the AI to a certain proficiency and pitted it against itself to see what would happen. After a little bit, the two AIs stopped shooting each other, presumably because they realized if they don't shoot the other team, and the other team doesn't shot you, you can both rack up points more efficiently by completing other point-giving objectives, like picking up ammo crates or controlling certain parts of the map.

Clearly, this peace could not be allowed to stand, so they restarted, pitting the AI against a slightly older version of itself, and the never-ending war started again and everyone was happy.
0Sign inorRegisterto rate and reply
Klaus Preisinger Freelance Writing 2 months ago
so what you are saying is that even if the AI leans towards co-op multiplayer, it will be undone in favor of the PvP eSports marketing plan.
0Sign inorRegisterto rate and reply

Sign in to contribute

Need an account? Register now.