Artificial Agency, an AI startup pioneering generative behavior for gaming, emerged from stealth and announced $16 million in funding.
The funding will be used to accelerate the development of the company’s flagship product — an
AI-powered behavior engine that enables game developers to embed runtime decision-making
seamlessly into any aspect of a game, delivering a gaming experience that feels truly alive.
“AI has enormous potential to revolutionize gaming, yet, to date, the focus has predominantly been on very limited human-to-AI conversations,” said Brian Tanner, CEO of Artificial Agency, in a statement. “The real opportunity lies in unleashing generative behavior into whole worlds and giving developers the tools to transform both characters as well as other decision-making systems into individualized AI agents with perceptions, actions, personalities, and goals. This paves the way for entirely new categories of games to be created that are more creative, more expressive, and deeply individualized.”
Artificial Agency’s AI-powered behavior engine makes it easy for game developers to integrate generative AI into all kinds of game mechanics, driving engaging behavior in both moment-to-moment interactions and the overarching game narrative.
Developers can add minor improvisation to scripted interactions, full improvisation for emergent gameplay, create full artificial players, and even high-level gamekeeper systems that control pacing, spawn encounters and steer players towards overlooked game elements. The result is a more immersive and entertaining experience that keeps players engaged and reduces churn.
“We wanted to unlock creative superpowers for studios of all sizes with our technology, allowing
them to increase productivity as well as make their wildest creative dreams a reality,” said Mike Johanson, cofounder of Artificial Agency, in a statement. “Our engine was purpose-built to deliver on this promise — not only can it deploy rapidly into existing workflows at any development stage, it is also fully customizable and extensible to align with a designer’s vision.”
Asked to clarify what it does, Artificial Agency said The behavioral engine goes beyond non-player character (NPC) conversations. Developers can embed it into any decision-making process in the game. For example, in a tech demonstration in Minecraft, the player can tell the agent they are hungry, the agent can recognize they need food and drop the player the necessary resources. If the agent drops the player bread, and they say “I’m gluten-free,” the agent will take the material back and drop them a gluten-free item like chicken.
“Our game plugins have been designed by the same world-class triple-A game developers who created the infrastructure and tooling for some of the most visionary and boundary-pushing games, including Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Anthem. These plugins are purposefully built to provide the flexibility needed to deploy runtime generative behavior in triple-A games,” the company said.
And it added, “Our behavior engine provides full control for developers to specify a role, integrate any type of perception, and empower agents to interact with the player, their world, and other agents through any behavior that a programmer can create in the game. This ambitious approach allows for much richer agents than conversational characters. It can also power companions, conductors, curators, community managers, and anything else game developers can dream up.”
The company, which has been operating in stealth mode for a year, is developing the engine in close collaboration with several notable triple-A studios and expects it to be widely available for studios in 2025.
“While there’s been a lot of energy and focus on exploiting immediate AI opportunities in game development, such as generating art, dialogue, or 3D models, these have been incremental improvements to the technology stack. We had been looking for a team that could create a new category within gaming, and are excited to partner with Brian, Alex, Mike, and Andrew to help them fulfill their vision,” said Daniel Mulet of Radical Ventures, who has joined the board, in a statement. “Artificial Agency’s generative behavior engine promises to create new opportunities for studios as they reimagine the gaming experience.”
The money came from Radical Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Flying Fish, Kaya, BDC Deep Tech, TIRTA Ventures, and others.
Based in Edmonton, Canada, a global hub of AI and gaming innovation, Artificial Agency brings together world-class AI researchers from Google Deepmind with engineers and game developers from elite AAA studios, all committed to building the future of gaming experiences.
“Artificial Agency is led by my former students and colleagues — people I know well,” said Richard Sutton, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Alberta and former Distinguished Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. “They are the best in the world at using reinforcement learning and foundation models to create complex, life-like, and purposive agents.” Professor Sutton along with Professor Michael Bowling (University of Alberta, Department of Computing Science), both globally renowned pioneers of reinforcement learning, are angel investors in Artificial Agency.
The company has around 20 people and it started in 2023.
“Alberta’s tech sector continues to grow by leaps and bounds,” said Nate Glubish, minister of technology and innovation at Alberta, in a statement. “The investments we have made in the region have helped train and recruit so many brilliant AI experts in Alberta and we’re excited to see the industry taking notice and building their operations here. Companies like Artificial Agency are at the forefront of this exciting progress and I’m looking forward to seeing what the team at Artificial Agency will accomplish with this financing.”
“Edmonton continues to be on the cutting edge of technological development and innovation in the artificial intelligence sector,” said Amarjeet Sohi, Mayor of Edmonton, in a statement. “Artificial Agency is another great entry into our technology ecosystem that is making a splash around the world, and I look forward to seeing their success.”
The cofounders have AI backgrounds. Tanner has a masters and nearly got a doctorate in reinforcement learning. He was previously research engineering lead at DeepMind. Alex Kearney is cofounder and Applied Reinforcement Learning scientist. She was previously research scientist at Deepmind.
Johanson is a game theorist and reinforcement learning scientist. He helped push poker AI from amateur to superhuman and was part of the team that solved heads-up limit hold ’em. He was previously senior research scientist at DeepMind studying AI and agent-human interaction. And Andrew Butcher, co-founder and Machine Learning Wizard and game developer. He studied neuroscience and computer science and worked on games including Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Anthem with BioWare. He was previously research engineering lead at DeepMind.
Artificial Agency, an AI startup pioneering generative behavior for gaming, emerged from stealth and announced $16 million in funding.
The funding will be used to accelerate the development of the company’s flagship product — an
AI-powered behavior engine that enables game developers to embed runtime decision-making
seamlessly into any aspect of a game, delivering a gaming experience that feels truly alive.
“AI has enormous potential to revolutionize gaming, yet, to date, the focus has predominantly been on very limited human-to-AI conversations,” said Brian Tanner, CEO of Artificial Agency, in a statement. “The real opportunity lies in unleashing generative behavior into whole worlds and giving developers the tools to transform both characters as well as other decision-making systems into individualized AI agents with perceptions, actions, personalities, and goals. This paves the way for entirely new categories of games to be created that are more creative, more expressive, and deeply individualized.”
Artificial Agency’s AI-powered behavior engine makes it easy for game developers to integrate generative AI into all kinds of game mechanics, driving engaging behavior in both moment-to-moment interactions and the overarching game narrative.
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Developers can add minor improvisation to scripted interactions, full improvisation for emergent gameplay, create full artificial players, and even high-level gamekeeper systems that control pacing, spawn encounters and steer players towards overlooked game elements. The result is a more immersive and entertaining experience that keeps players engaged and reduces churn.
“We wanted to unlock creative superpowers for studios of all sizes with our technology, allowing
them to increase productivity as well as make their wildest creative dreams a reality,” said Mike Johanson, cofounder of Artificial Agency, in a statement. “Our engine was purpose-built to deliver on this promise — not only can it deploy rapidly into existing workflows at any development stage, it is also fully customizable and extensible to align with a designer’s vision.”
Asked to clarify what it does, Artificial Agency said The behavioral engine goes beyond non-player character (NPC) conversations. Developers can embed it into any decision-making process in the game. For example, in a tech demonstration in Minecraft, the player can tell the agent they are hungry, the agent can recognize they need food and drop the player the necessary resources. If the agent drops the player bread, and they say “I’m gluten-free,” the agent will take the material back and drop them a gluten-free item like chicken.
“Our game plugins have been designed by the same world-class triple-A game developers who created the infrastructure and tooling for some of the most visionary and boundary-pushing games, including Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Anthem. These plugins are purposefully built to provide the flexibility needed to deploy runtime generative behavior in triple-A games,” the company said.
And it added, “Our behavior engine provides full control for developers to specify a role, integrate any type of perception, and empower agents to interact with the player, their world, and other agents through any behavior that a programmer can create in the game. This ambitious approach allows for much richer agents than conversational characters. It can also power companions, conductors, curators, community managers, and anything else game developers can dream up.”
The company, which has been operating in stealth mode for a year, is developing the engine in close collaboration with several notable triple-A studios and expects it to be widely available for studios in 2025.
“While there’s been a lot of energy and focus on exploiting immediate AI opportunities in game development, such as generating art, dialogue, or 3D models, these have been incremental improvements to the technology stack. We had been looking for a team that could create a new category within gaming, and are excited to partner with Brian, Alex, Mike, and Andrew to help them fulfill their vision,” said Daniel Mulet of Radical Ventures, who has joined the board, in a statement. “Artificial Agency’s generative behavior engine promises to create new opportunities for studios as they reimagine the gaming experience.”
The money came from Radical Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Flying Fish, Kaya, BDC Deep Tech, TIRTA Ventures, and others.
Based in Edmonton, Canada, a global hub of AI and gaming innovation, Artificial Agency brings together world-class AI researchers from Google Deepmind with engineers and game developers from elite AAA studios, all committed to building the future of gaming experiences.
“Artificial Agency is led by my former students and colleagues — people I know well,” said Richard Sutton, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Alberta and former Distinguished Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. “They are the best in the world at using reinforcement learning and foundation models to create complex, life-like, and purposive agents.” Professor Sutton along with Professor Michael Bowling (University of Alberta, Department of Computing Science), both globally renowned pioneers of reinforcement learning, are angel investors in Artificial Agency.
The company has around 20 people and it started in 2023.
“Alberta’s tech sector continues to grow by leaps and bounds,” said Nate Glubish, minister of technology and innovation at Alberta, in a statement. “The investments we have made in the region have helped train and recruit so many brilliant AI experts in Alberta and we’re excited to see the industry taking notice and building their operations here. Companies like Artificial Agency are at the forefront of this exciting progress and I’m looking forward to seeing what the team at Artificial Agency will accomplish with this financing.”
“Edmonton continues to be on the cutting edge of technological development and innovation in the artificial intelligence sector,” said Amarjeet Sohi, Mayor of Edmonton, in a statement. “Artificial Agency is another great entry into our technology ecosystem that is making a splash around the world, and I look forward to seeing their success.”
The cofounders have AI backgrounds. Tanner has a masters and nearly got a doctorate in reinforcement learning. He was previously research engineering lead at DeepMind. Alex Kearney is cofounder and Applied Reinforcement Learning scientist. She was previously research scientist at Deepmind.
Johanson is a game theorist and reinforcement learning scientist. He helped push poker AI from amateur to superhuman and was part of the team that solved heads-up limit hold ’em. He was previously senior research scientist at DeepMind studying AI and agent-human interaction. And Andrew Butcher, co-founder and Machine Learning Wizard and game developer. He studied neuroscience and computer science and worked on games including Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Anthem with BioWare. He was previously research engineering lead at DeepMind.
Author: Dean Takahashi
Source: Venturebeat
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
