AnalysisAI Agents
12 days ago
2026 retrospective: Where are the AI NPCs?
A new essay examines why AI-powered NPCs, once hyped by startups like Inworld and Convai at GDC 2023, have failed to materialize in mainstream games. It highlights the gap between demos of autonomous agents (e.g., Altera's Minecraft experiment) and practical deployment in real titles. The article attributes the slowdown to technical and design challenges.