7th International Summer School on Artificial Intelligence and Games

International Summer School on AI and Games 2025

The 7th International Summer School on Artificial Intelligence and Games will be held in Malmö, Sweden 23-27 June 2025!

The summer school is dedicated to the uses of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in and for games. After introductory lectures that explain the background and key techniques in AI and games, the school will introduce participants the uses of AI for playing games, for generating content for games, and for modeling players.

This school is suitable for industrial game developers, designers, programmers and practitioners, but also for graduate students in games, artificial intelligence, design, human-computer interaction, and computational intelligence.

The main lecturers are Georgios N. Yannakakis and Julian Togelius, co-authors of the AI and Games textbook (http://www.gameaibook.org), the first comprehensive textbook on the use of AI in games. During the first phase of the school theoretical lectures will be complemented by guest lectures on special topics in game AI and by hands-on workshops given by world-leading practitioners. For the second phase of the school, we plan a game AI jam on the taught material.

Partners

More partners will be revealed soon...

Main Organizers

Georgios N. Yannakakis
Co-Founder | modl.ai
Professor | IDG, University of Malta

Georgios N. Yannakakis (yannakakis.net) is a Co-Founder and Research Director (Malta) of modl.ai, and a Professor at the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta. He is a leading expert in the game artificial intelligence research field with core theoretical contributions in machine learning, evolutionary computation, affective computing and player modelling, computational creativity and procedural content generation. He has published more than 300 papers and his work has been cited broadly. He has attracted funding from several EU and national research agencies and received multiple awards for published work in top-tier journals and conferences. His work has been featured in New Scientist, Science Magazine, The Guardian, Le Monde and other venues. He is regularly invited to give keynote talks at the most recognised conferences in his areas of research activity and has organised a few of the most respected conferences in the areas of game AI and game research. He is an IEEE Fellow for contributions to affective computing and artificial intelligence applied to games and the Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Games. He has been an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games and the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing journals. He is the co-author of the Artificial Intelligence and Games Textbook.

Julian Togelius
Co-Founder & Research Director | modl.ai
Associate Professor | NYU Tandon

Julian Togelius (julian.togelius.com) is a Co-Founder and Research Director (New York) of modl.ai, and an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering. Previously, he was an Associate Professor at the Center for Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen and among the founders of the procedural content generation research field. Togelius has introduced core procedural generation paradigms and frameworks for game content such as the Experience-driven Procedural Content Generation (EDPCG) framework and the Search-based Procedural Content Generation (SBPCG) paradigm which define two of the leading research trends within procedural content generation. EDPCG couples player experience modelling and procedural content generation so that game content is generated in a personalised manner for affecting the experience of the player and SBPCG offers a taxonomy for the generation of game content through search. He co-edited the first book on Procedural Content Generation in Games. Togelius' research has appeared in respected international media such as New Scientist, and Le Monde. He is the co-author of the Artificial Intelligence and Games textbook.

Guest Speakers

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Elvis Liu
Principal Engineer | Tencent

Dr Elvis Liu is a Principal Engineer at Tencent, where he leads multiple research and development teams specializing in game AI, generative AI, animations, game engine, physics simulation, and distributed virtual environments. As Tencent Games’ highest-ranking technical leader, his most remarkable achievements include spearheading the development of sparring AI agents for Naruto Mobile, the first commercial fighting game to incorporate deep reinforcement learning. He also created F.A.C.U.L., the world’s first FPS AI companion capable of seamless interaction with human players through natural language.

Before joining Tencent, Elvis was an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where he taught courses in virtual reality, modeling and simulation, and game development. He was also an IRCSET Fellow of Ireland and worked for IBM Ireland on exascale supercomputing systems. He has been an Associate Editor of the Springer Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games and a frequent speaker at the Game Developers Conference (GDC).

Alessandro Sestini
Research Scientist | EA SEED

Alessandro Sestini is a research scientist at SEED, the research and development lab within Electronic Arts. His work focuses on the application of deep reinforcement learning, inverse reinforcement learning, imitation learning, and large language models to game AI and playtesting. Alessandro contributed to the game AI landscape publishing several academic papers and giving several talks about the intersection between machine learning and video game development, helping researchers and practitioners in adopting such technology.

Prior to joining SEED, Alessandro obtained his PhD with honourable mention in Smart Computing and Computer Engineering from Università degli Studi di Firenze

David Renaudie
Associate Director, Data Science | Massive Entertainment

David Renaudie is an Associate Director, Data Science at Massive Entertainment - a Ubisoft Studio. With a Ph.D. in applied machine learning and a passion for solving real-world challenging problems with AI, he occupied in the past decade several positions in research & development and intellectual property in the industry. As a data scientist, he contributed to bring early machine learning prototypes to production-grade products, for several key projects.

In the gaming industry, he is leading a data science team that supports game productions with advanced data processing solutions, pursuing the goal of enhancing player experience and production tools. He constantly aims at pushing boundaries of what data science brings to the complex art of crafting AAA video games, and published in recognized conferences such as Game Developers Conference, IEEE Conference on Games or IEEE Big Data Conference. He is presently working on several projects related to main franchises of the studio, namely Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, and Star Wars Outlaws.

Sahar Asadi
Director of AI Labs | King AI Labs

Sahar is the Director of AI Labs at King where she drives AI research for games. Sahar has obtained her Ph.D. on mobile robot olfaction from Applied Autonomous Sensor System, Orebro University. Throughout her 13 year-long industry journey, she got to apply research to real problems in many different domains: user experience at Spotify, distributed deep learning at Clusterone, information retrieval and NLP at Meltwater, and product recognition at OculusAI.

Oleg Smirnov
Senior Principal Research Engineer | King AI Labs

Oleg is a Senior Principal Research Engineer at King AI Labs, Microsoft, where his research focuses on representation learning for games, gaming, and gamer behavior. Prior to joining Microsoft, he held industrial research roles at Amazon and Spotify, where he contributed to projects at the intersection of behavioral sciences and machine learning, delivering solutions for user behavior modeling and personalization. Oleg's broader research interests include uncertainty quantification, Bayesian methods, and geometric approaches in deep learning, with a strong emphasis on applying these techniques to real-world challenges.

Daria Radu
Software Engineer | modl.ai

Daria Radu is an accomplished AI programmer and game developer with a robust foundation in web development and a Master’s degree in Games. She played a pivotal role as the AI programmer for Spoils, a groundbreaking card game featured in Saltsea Chronicles, the latest critically acclaimed release from Die Gute Fabrik.

Daria’s expertise in artificial intelligence and game programming has earned her speaking engagements at notable industry events such as the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and Devcom. Her passion lies at the intersection of AI and interactive entertainment, where she thrives in crafting innovative solutions to enhance gameplay and player experiences.

Currently, Daria can be found as a member of modl.ai, where she leads various teams in developing cutting-edge AI solutions for games.

Niklas Nygren
Indie Developer

Niklas has developed indie games since 2004 (including games like Knytt, NightSky, Affordable Space Adventures, and Ynglet), primarily 2D platformers focused on atmosphere and exploration. Niklas' specialization is adaptive music that can react to what happens in the game in ways that are not possible with conventional music software, which is why he has been developing his own music software for 7 years that is integrated with all games he creates.

More speakers will be revealed soon...

Organizing Committee

Antonios Liapis
Associate Professor | IDG, University of Malta

Antonios Liapis is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta, where he bridges the gap between game technology and game design in courses focusing on human-computer creativity, digital prototyping and game development. His research focuses on Artificial Intelligence as an autonomous creator or as a facilitator of human creativity. His work includes computationally intelligent tools for game design, as well as computational creators that blend semantics, visuals, sound, plot and level structure to create horror games, adventure games and more. He has also co-organized numerous game jams, and has participated in even more!

David Melhart
Postdoctoral Researcher | IDG, University of Malta

David Melhart is a Postdoctoral AI Researcher at the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta. His research focuses on User Research, Player Modelling, Annotation Tools for Affective Computing, and Ethics in Game AI. He was a keynote speaker and panellist at the 26th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2023 - Ethics of Game AI Workshop EGAI @ ECAI 2023, Communication Chair of FDG 2020, Workshop and Panels Chair of FDG2023, has been a recurring Organizer and Publicity Chair of the Summer School series on Artificial Intelligence and Games (2018-2024), and currently serves as an Editorial Assistant to the IEEE Transactions on Games.

Local Organizers

José Font
Associate Professor | University of Malmö

José is Associate Professor in Computer Science at Malmö University and holds a PhD in artificial intelligence from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

His research focuses on artificial intelligence and computational intelligence in games, exploring the ways in which AI can be a productive and creative tool during the video game development process, such as procedural content generation and mixed-initiative creative tools. He is also active in gamification, e-learning, and purposeful games.

Raquel Robinson
Associate Senior Lecturer | University of Malmö

Raquel Robinson is a joint Associate Senior Lecturer at MAU and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at IT University of Copenhagen. As part of her fellowship (project RAGE), she looks into hidden assumptions and implicit understandings surrounding emotion within biofeedback and affect-adaptive games. Previously, she has been a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Santa Cruz and Ontario Tech University.

Raquel is particularly interested in playful and social embodied experiences such as live action roleplay, affective and biofeedback games, and how they can be used to connect people. Her work has been featured in Polygon and New Scientist.

Alberto Alvarez
Associate Senior Lecturer | University of Malmö

Alberto Alvarez is Associate Senior Lecturer and former PhD student (graduated fall 2022) at the faculty of technology and society at Malmö University.

His research focuses on exploring and developing Human-AI collaborative systems to co-create games and creative content, investigating Human-AI roles, properties, and interactions. His research interests and past work includes Human-AI collaboration systems, PCG, Quality-Diversity Algorithms, and Designer Models. He is also interested in making computer science topics such as Artificial Intelligence more accesible to society and other fields.

Program

Each year we strive to bring a diverse program from different aspects of applied AI research and game development.
Please find the program of each previous summer school under their respective page.