International Summer School on AI and Games 2025

International Summer School on AI and Games 2024

The 6th International Summer School on Artificial Intelligence and Games will be held in Valletta, Malta, 17-21 June 2024!

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.

The 6th International Summer School on AI and Games
is organised by modl.ai & Innovation at Keywords Studios

Modl.ai creates unique AI solutions that empower game developers and publishers around the world by automating the repetitive, time-consuming, and expensive parts of development and enhancing player engagement by embedding AI technology in key development stages. Modl.ai is paving the way for the future of game development through simulation and behaviour automation, making advanced AI and ML tools that were once exclusive to big studios available to everyone.

Keywords Studios is an international provider of creative and technology-enabled solutions to the global video games and entertainment industries. Established in 1998, and now with over 70 facilities in 26 countries strategically located in Asia, Australia, the Americas, and Europe, it provides services across the entire content development life cycle through its Create, Globalize and Engage service lines to a large blue-chip client base across the globe.

Sponsor

Partners

Local Partners

Main Organizers

Georgios N. Yannakakis
Co-Founder & Research Director | 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.

Stephen Peacock
Head of Games AI | Keywords Studios

Stephen Peacock is head of Game AI at Keywords Studios. As the former Head of AI/ML for Games at AWS, he was responsible for the Go-To-Market strategy and global customer enablement, plus solution development in collaboration with internal engineering teams and strategic partners. With 20+ years’ experience in the video games industry, Stephen brings a passion for responsible tech use in supporting human creativity, storytelling and player safety. He plays a pivotal role in shaping KWS' approach to AI/ML globally and collaborates closely with leadership and cross-functional teams to pinpoint fresh opportunities for KWS clients.

Guest Speakers

Shyam Shinde
AI Lead | Helpshift, Keywords Studios

Shyam is an AI lead at Helpshift, Keywords Studios, expert in developing AI products using NLP, deep learning and LLM models. With over 12 years of experience in AI and data, he has developed products such as Agent Copilot, Q&A, intent detection, and multilingual search in customer support for gaming companies. Shyam's passion lies in applying conversational AI to create intelligent user experiences in the domains of customer support and gaming.

Anna Winterstein
Game Designer | Lively Studio, Keywords Studios

Anna is a game designer and writer with titles under her belt ranging from indie to AAA. By day, she works at Lively Studio and recently had the chance to be a part of the exciting Project Ava from inception to delivery. By night, she indulges her love of words and has been credited on the narrative of titles such as Coffee Talk: Hibiscus and Butterfly and F1 Manager 2022.

Maxim Gumin
Indie Developer

Maxim Gumin is an independent developer known for the Wave Function Collapse algorithm and the MarkovJunior probabilistic programming language. Wave Function Collapse has been broadly adapted for procedural generation of levels and structures across a range of games. Maxim is interested in constraint-based procedural generation, program synthesis and generative AI in general. He is also a PhD student at Brown University.

Sicong Li
Software Engineer | Arm

Sicong Li has worked as a Software Engineer at Arm for 5 years. His day job involves the development of Arm Compute Library, an open-source neural network inference engine optimised for Arm IPs. Sicong has a master degree in Computer Science with a final year thesis about applying Reinforcement Learning based robotic arm controllers. He is passionate about the advancement of AI, and the merging of AI into game and arts. He has also participated in a couple of game jams with entries that used AI.

Ben Clark
Staff Software Engineer | Arm

Ben Clark is an Arm Staff Software Engineer. He has worked at many gaming and graphics tools companies since 1997, with experience of most parts of the gaming pipeline. Ben joined Arm in 2019 and works as a Developer Advocate researching and publishing on making the most of new Arm technologies.

Ahmed Khalifa
Indie Developer | GDC AI Summit Advisor

Ahmed Khalifa is an independent game designer and developer from Egypt. His work focuses on creating minimalist games that utilize level generation and simplistic mechanics. Some of his games were nominated for awards at multiple game conferences such as IndiePrize, Queer Games Conference, International Mobile Game Awards, and Melbourne Queer Games Festival. He is also one of the GDC AI summit advisors and an AI researcher focusing on Content Generation.

Yuqian Sun
Indie Artist | Ada Eden

Yuqian Sun is an AI narrative researcher and artist based in London. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Computer Science Research Centre, Royal College of Art. Focusing on the power of language, Yuqian aims to create 'alive' storytelling experiences through conversational AI, extending beyond games and permeating daily life. Her exploration spans chatbots, games, and experimental art projects. Yuqian’s works have been presented at various tech and art venues, including SIGGRAPH, CVPR, Gamescom, FDG, AIIDE, New York Times Square, and the Lumen Prize. She was also a guest panellist at NVIDIA GTC and an invited speaker at Autodesk.

Tommy Thompson
Director | AI and Games
Host | Branching Factor

Dr Tommy Thompson is the director of AI and Games and provides consultancy and communication services for artificial intelligence technologies in the video games industry. He is largely known as a content creator on AI for video games, hosting both the YouTube channel 'AI and Games', as well as the 'Branching Factor' podcast. Before his work in the industry, Tommy was a university lecturer for 10 years in computer science and game development, authoring over 50 academic publications in game/AI research.

Tim Pearce
Research Scientist | Microsoft Research

Tim is a research scientist at Microsoft Research in the Game Intelligence team. He has expertise in imitation learning, world models, and uncertainty estimation in neural networks. Tim completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge, spending time at the Alan Turing Institute, and did a postdoc at Tsinghua University.

David Renaudie
Lead Data Scientist | Massive Entertainment

David Renaudie is Lead Data Scientist 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.

Mélanie Lopez Malet
Senior Data Scientist | Ubisoft Paris

Mélanie Lopez Malet is a senior data scientist, with a focus on natural language processing (NLP) and human-machine interfaces. After a first career as a literature associate professor, she focused her work on the synergy between human creativity and machine intelligence. Her passion lies in crafting new fictional and immersive experiences powered by AI, building technical pipelines that open new creative horizons to the Ubisoft designers.

Wesley Kerr
Head of Technology Research | Riot Games

Wesley Kerr, as the Head of Technology Research at Riot Games, drives the company's tech research, particularly focusing on AI innovations that enhance player experiences. he developed key recommendation algorithms for League of Legends, and he established an AI center, where Riot made its first investments into AI that learns to play our games, and fostered collaborations with academia and industry. Prior to Riot, Wesley contributed to improving game search and discovery at Google Research. He earned a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Arizona, focusing on the intersection of artificial intelligence and game development. Committed to crafting positive gaming environments, Wesley also enjoys fly-fishing in his leisure time.

Oz Silahtar
GM EMEA | Leonardo.Ai

Oz cofounded and led Tarentum AI in 2017, an AI consulting company which built AI/ML solutions. In 2021, he cofounded UAhero, an AI based UA Campaign Management SaaS product for Mobile Games. He holds multiple degrees from MIT and has worked in various technical and business roles at companies like Qualcomm and Intel. He is advisor to several Gen AI based startups and he is GM EMEA for Leonardo.Ai.

Sami Ede
Co-Founder | Leonardo.Ai

Sami is a dedicated full stack machine learning researcher with a strong background in both academia and industry. After earning a Master's degree in Machine Learning, he worked as a developer at a German startup before pursuing a PhD focused on Explainable AI and Lifelong Learning. He mentored under a senior researcher at NVIDIA, focusing on Machine Learning for Games and Interactive Media. A lifelong enthusiast of computer games and storytelling, he is an avid game developer. Currently, he is leveraging his expertise and passion as the cofounder of Leonardo.Ai.

Bernard Montebello
Head of the European Digital Innovation Hub | MDIA

Bernard Montebello is the Head of the European Digital Innovation Hub at the Malta Digital Innovation Authority. With a background in network engineering and a master's degree in business management, Bernard brings a wealth of expertise to his role. He has successfully managed large-scale ICT projects in both the private and public sectors. Currently, Bernard is leading the development of a one-stop-shop hub, offering tailored services and technological access to startups, SMEs, and scale-ups to promote business growth and digital transformation. In addition to his professional achievements, Bernard is a co-founder of two start-ups and has received several prestigious awards, including the Best Young Entrepreneur award and the WIPO medal for creativity and innovation. His dedication to advancing technology and innovation is evident in all his endeavours.

Alan Grima
Business Development Manager | MDIA

Alan Grima is the Malta Digital Innovation Authority's Business Development Manager, responsible for generating new business opportunities and cultivating strategic partnerships. He holds an Executive MBA from the University of Malta and has extensive experience developing policies and implementing strategies. His career has also included significant roles and leadership positions in education and sports, where he has driven strategic growth and achieved key milestones.

Melanie Debattista
Head FDI: Digital Innovation | Malta Enterprise

Melanie joined Malta Enterprise’s Investment Promotion team in 2019. Since then she has been focusing on attracting foreign investment into Malta, mainly in the digital sector including digital games and AI. Prior to joining Malta Enterprise, Melanie was an M&A Associate with a US Private Equity firm. Her mandate was to acquire companies across mainland Europe and the UK in the digital sector particularly fintech, insurtech and medtech. She was also part of the team managing EU Cohesion Policy funds for the 2007 – 2013 programming period. Melanie holds a first degree in Entrepreneurship and an MBA. She is passionate about learning how technology can change the future.

Ivan Filletti
CEO | GamingMalta Foundation

Leading the GamingMalta Foundation - a non-profit foundation set up by the Government of Malta and the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) - since 2018, Ivan together with his team spearheads efforts in promoting Malta as a centre of excellence in the digital and remote gaming sector globally. He is also responsible for liaising with the local relevant authorities to improve Malta’s attractiveness as a jurisdiction and enhance the ecosystem surrounding the gaming industry. Under his leadership the GamingMalta Foundation has taken a broader approach to the gaming ecosystem encompassing igaming, esports and video gaming. With a successful background in various fields including communications and advertising, his efforts within GamingMalta were recognised in 2018 with the SIGMA Outstanding Contribution to the Gaming Sector.

Guest Panelists

Guy Moss
Senior Principal Engineer | Sony SIE

Guy Moss leads an AI team in SIE's Future Technology Group. He has been in the games industry for over thirty years working on both AAA games and indie titles, including long periods at SIE's London and Cambridge studios. Seeing the opportunities advances in machine learning provided for games development he took an opportunity to move into the field about five years ago and has since helped build a specialist team of researchers at SIE.,

Serkan Hassan
Head of Electric Square Malta | Electric Square

Serkan Hassan is a creative leader in the gaming industry, spending over 25 years crafting games across a spectrum of genres on consoles, PC and mobile platforms. His diverse portfolio of work, which includes both licensed and original IP, includes tenures at Disney and Ubisoft, where he contributed to “The Crew” franchise, which now boasts well over 50 million players. A period in mobile development and publishing followed, resulting in the release of a mobile F2P iteration of classic puzzler “Lemmings”, with over 20 million players. Most recently, Serkan has been appointed Studio Head of Electric Square Malta.

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
Senior Member of Technical Staff | modl.ai
Postdoctoral Researcher | IDG, University of Malta

David Melhart is a Senior Engineer at modl.ai and a part-time 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.

Program

Monday 17 June
08:00-09:00	Registration & Morning Coffee
09:00-09:30	Welcome Session Georgios N. Yannakakis, Julian Togelius, Stephen Peacock, and Antonios Liapis
09:30-10:30	AI and Games: Introduction Georgios N. Yannakakis & Julian Togelius
10:30-11:30	AI that Plays Julian Togelius
11:30-12:00	Coffee Break
12:00-13:00	AI that Designs Julian Togelius
13:00-14:00	Lunch
14:00-15:00	AI that Experiences Georgios N. Yannakakis
15:00-15:30	Coffee Break
15:30-16:00	Constructive Generators in Games Ahmed Khalifa GDC AI Summit Advisor
16:00-16:30	Human in the Middle: Human Data in AI and Games David Melhart
16:30-17:00	Bernard Montebello & Alan Grima
17:00-17:30	Free Time
from 17:30	Welcome Reception

Tuesday 18 June
09:30-10:30	Frontiers in PCG Julian Togelius & Georgios Yannakakis
10:30-11:30	Frontiers in Player Modeling Georgios Yannakakis
11:30-12:00	Coffee Break
12:00-13:00	Can you Predict Game Tech Performance in Real-Time? David Renaudie
13:00-14:00	Lunch
14:00-15:00	Across the Magic Circle: AI Agents for Playful Storytelling Yuqian Sun
15:00-15:30	Coffee Break
15:30-16:00	Oz Silahtar & Sami Edea
16:00-17:00	Open-Universe Scene Generation Maxim Gumin Indie Developer
17:00-17:30	Ivan Filletti & Melanie Debattista

Wednesday 19 June
09:30-10:30	History of AI in Games Tommy Thompson
10:30-11:30	Generative AI for Conversational Customer Support in Gaming Shyam Shinde
11:30-12:00	Coffee Break
12:00-13:00	Drawing Magic Circles in Latent Space: How to Bring ML at the Core of a Game Production Mélanie Lopez Malet
13:00-14:00	Lunch
14:00-15:00	Panel Discussion Host: Tommy Thompson
15:00-15:30	Coffee Break
15:30-16:30	Verbal Interaction with NPCs in Games Sicong Li
16:30-17:30	Imitation Learning from Pixels in Tactical FPS Games Wesley Kerr

Thursday 20 June
09:30-10:30	Imitation Learning: From Foundations to Frontiers Tim Pearce
10:30-11:30	Generative AI for game design and narrative: a practical experiment Anna Winterstein
11:30-12:00	Coffee Break
12:00-13:00	Workshop on Unity ML-Agents Ben Clark
13:00-14:00	Lunch
14:00-14:30	Game AI Jam Facilitator: Antonios Liapis
14:30-15:00	Game AI Jam Facilitator: Antonios Liapis
15:00-15:30	Coffee Break
15:30-21:00	Game AI Jam

Friday 21 June
09:30-10:30	Game AI Jam Facilitator: Antonios Liapis
10:30-11:30	Game AI Jam Facilitator: Antonios Liapis
11:30-12:00	Coffee Break
12:00-13:00	Game AI Jam
13:00-14:00	Lunch
14:00-15:00	Game AI Jam
15:00-15:30	Coffee Break
15:30-16:30	Game AI Jam
16:30-17:30	Game AI Jam - Arcade
17:30-18:30	Free Time
18:30-19:00	Closing Remarks and Game Jam Awards
19:00-20:30	Farewell Reception

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Read more on our previous Summer Schools below!

1st Summer School
2018, Chania, Greece

2nd Summer School
2019, New York, USA

3rd Summer School
2021, Copenhagen, Denmark

4th Summer School
2022, Chania, Greece

5th Summer School
2023, Cambridge, UK

Scholarships & Support Schemes

The Malta Digital Innovation Authority (MDIA) and Malta Enterprise are offering support for 20 Malta-based professionals from small and medium-sized enterprises, independent developers, and students* to attend the event! Selected applicants will have their registration fee waived.

To apply send your CV to [email protected] with the subject line: "Support 2024".

* This scholarship opportunity is only open to those currently living, working or studying on Malta, other applications will not be considered.

Our partners from the University of Malta offer 10 full scholarship seats for students of the University of Malta* at the International Summer School on AI and Games! Selected candidates will have their registration fee waived.

To apply send your CV to [email protected] with the subject line: "Scholarship 2024".

* This scholarship opportunity is only open to the students of the University of Malta, other applications will not be considered.

Our co-organizers from Innovation at Keywords Studios offer 10 full scholarship seats for students at the International Summer School on AI and Games!

We offer this opportunity to students based on an outstanding CV and a short, one-paragraph letter of motivation emphasizing the role of this summer school in the development of your current or future game AI projects or research.

Selected candidates will have their registration fee waived and will be awarded a small travel aid*.

The applications should be submitted to [email protected] with the subject line: "Scholarship 2024".

~~The deadline for applications is 31 March 2024~~. Applications are now closed.

* Travel aid is given to recipients after the summer school dates. Only students appearing at the summer school in person are eligible for receiving travel aid, scholarship recipients who cannot make it to the summer school forfeit their aid.

Main Conference Venue

The 6th International Summer School on Artificial Intelligence and Games will be held in Valletta, Malta at the University of Malta Campus, Aula Magna!

Accommodation

Malta offers a lot of different types of accommodations, however, it is worth keeping in mind that because of the small size of the island, most places offer a limited amount of rooms. Besides traditional hotels and hostels, renting out apartments is quite common. Below you can find some highlighted options for accommodations*.

Valletta
Valletta and Floriana
Walking Distance from the Venue

The Embassy Valletta Hotel
Four-star hotel in Valletta centre
~ €260/night

Grand Hotel Excelsior
Five-star hotel in Floriana, just outside Valletta
~ €245/night

The Cumberland Hotel by NEU Collective
High-end boutique hotel
~ €210/night

Luciano Valletta Studio
Studio apartments in Valletta
~ €160/night

Valletta Collection
Apartments at different locations in Valletta
~ €105/night

Mandera's Boutique Suites & Dorms
Boutique hotel with private suits and dormitory beds
~ €151/night - private room
~ €72/night - dormitory bed

Northern Harbour
Msida, Ta'Xbiex, Gzira, Sliema
~30-40 minutes by bus from the Venue

115 The Strand Hotel
Three-star hotel on the Gzira waterfront
~ €108/night

Aparthotel Adagio Malta Central
Apartments in Msida near the Msida University Campus
~ €102/night

Chapter 5 Hotel
Boutique Hotel in Ta'Xbiex near the Msida Yacht Marina
~ €100/night

Citizen Suites
Apartments and dormitory in Sliema
~ €120/night - studio apartment
~ €62/night - dormitory bed

Sliema Marina Hotel
Three-star hotel in Sliema near the Valletta ferry
~ €63/night

Alborada Apart Hotel
Small Apartments in the middle of Sliema near the Valletta ferry
~ €50/night

Budget Options
Msida University Campus and St Julian's
~40 minutes by bus from the Venue

Hostel Malti Budget
Hostel with private rooms and dormitory in St Julian's
~ €96/night - private room
~ €28/night - dormitory bed

Boho Hostel
Hostel close to the Balluta Bay bus station in St Julian's
~ €85/night - private room
~ €26/night - dormitory bed

Campus Hub
Student Hotel in the Msida University Campus
~ €32/night - private room
~ €21/night - dormitory bed

NSTS Campus Residence
Student Hostel in Gzira, near the Msida University Campus
~ €23/night - private room
~ €16/night - dormitory bed

Renting Single Apartments

For more options, we recommend taking a look at both Booking.com and AirBnB for single apartments which are available in the area. For quick access to the Venue, we recommend looking at options in Valletta, Floriana (within walking distance), Pieta, Msida, Ta'Xbiex, Gzira, Sliema, St Julian's (~30-40 minutes by bus).

*The listed prices are for informative purposes only. The organizers of the International Summer School on AI and Games have no affiliation with the listed providers, and cannot guarantee either the prices or the availability.