Malmö University in Sweden hosted the 7th edition of the AI and Games Summer School. Among the participants was Cláudia Vale Oliveira, a student in the New Media PhD Program and a researcher at DigiMedia, who participated in this edition marked by innovation, creativity, and critical reflection on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in gaming.
During five days, engineers, programmers, researchers, and game designers from both academia and industry shared knowledge and discussed the latest trends and influences in the use of AI in game development. The researcher from the University of Aveiro (UA), in addition to perspectives on player experience and interaction with agents through natural language processing, particularly highlighted the role of generative AI in the creative process and the ethical issues and challenges that artificial intelligence raises in game development. Issues such as authorship, boundaries, and ethical responsibility reinforce the importance of training professionals who are aware and critical of the possibilities and risks of AI integrated into interactive design. She also emphasized that it was “an incredible and inspiring week,” an experience she found “both engaging and challenging.”
In the final days of the event, participants were challenged to participate in the Game Jam. In this context the researcher Cláudia Oliveira and her team developed the Baloonce prototype, a collaborative game that aims to create balance, combating the sedentary lifestyle and burnout associated with professions like gaming developers, designers, and researchers, exploring the importance of moving and coordinating the body in a world where the mind and digital world are pushed to their limits. The project stood out among the participating teams, being selected as the best project of the Game Jam, a recognition that highlights the talent and capabilities of those involved. The project will soon be shared on Github.
This event was guided by leading figures in the field, such as Georgios N. Yannakakis, Julian Togelius, co-authors of the book Artificial Intelligence and Games, and Antonios Liapis. It was made possible thanks to the support of King, the UA, and DigiMedia, which provided the doctoral student with the opportunity to participate in this international summer school.
For the UA community, this participation represents not only an opportunity to enrich the student’s curriculum, but also a contribution to the development of new lines of research in the fields of new media, immersive games, experience design, and the ethics of artificial intelligence.
