EVE Online developer Fenris Creations (formerly known as CCP Games) has tapped former Icelandic minister Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir to serve as its senior director of AI partnerships.
Sigurbjörnsdóttir previously worked for the Icelandic government as minister of justice and minister of higher education, science, and innovation. She has been hired by Fenris to lead the company’s work with AI laboratories, universities, policymakers, and strategic partners on a new research initiative involving EVE Online’s survival spinoff, EVE Frontier.
“Fenris Creations has spent the last several months developing the initiative to test a bold hypothesis: that persistent virtual worlds like EVE Frontier, underpinned by real social and economic systems, can offer a live proving ground for advanced AI before it becomes a greater part of our everyday lives,” reads a news release.
“Rather than relying solely on short-lived simulations that end and reset, the aim is to create a place where autonomous agents can be observed in a real, open and evolving economy, alongside real people, with real consequences, within the kind of dynamic system the company’s games are uniquely able to provide.”
The Reykjavik studio feels the EVE universe is an ideal training ground for autonomous AI systems because it has no definitive end state and is rather a living, unpredictable universe shaped by hundreds of thousands of player choices.
“That makes it one of the very few places where the behavior of autonomous systems can be studied under conditions that resemble a real society and a real economy, with all the irrational, emotional and unpredictable reactions that real people bring,” added the company.
“In EVE Frontier, the new chapter of the EVE universe, autonomous AI systems will be studied within EVE Frontier’s live, open-ended world as they set goals, respond to change, and make coherent sequences of decisions over extended periods. This enables researchers to better assess model behavior in genuinely complex environments and inform the responsible development of future AI systems.”
Fenris claims its AI research will help turn EVE Frontier into a more engaging, immersive world by supporting the implementation of richer NPC behavior and more effective onboarding. “If the initiative succeeds, it opens an entirely new role for Fenris Creations and EVE Frontier, potentially making important contributions to research on intelligent agents, complex systems, and AI alignment, while also creating compelling new possibilities for the experience EVE Frontier can offer its playerbase,” the studio continued.
Sigurbjörnsdóttir said her experience developing and implementing governmental policy will help the studio and its partners make “meaningful inroads with regulators” overseeing the AI sector.
“There is no greater opportunity to help shape the future of AI innovation than being part of a testing ground that empowers our partners to make meaningful inroads with regulators, helping ensure safe, practical and reliable AI standards,” she stated. “I look forward to helping Fenris take this work forward responsibly.”
The news comes a few months after Fenris announced plans to ditch its former moniker CCP Games and become an independent studio. At the same time, the company confirmed it had entered into a research partnership with Google DeepMind—which also resulted in Google taking a minority stake in the studio.