New AI Professor to Boost the game development in Skövde

A few years ago, Julian Togelius met Mats Jägstam, then CEO of Science Park Skövde, and the idea of a collaboration was raised.

"Computer games are a Swedish success story, and Mats pointed out that we need more people to understand how important the games industry has become. Stockholm, Malmö, and Skövde are the country's big 'gaming cities', where many successful developers come from the University of Skövde. We discussed how we can support the games industry, which needs more AI research to develop games further," he says.

The question was whether Julian Togelius, as a Visiting Professor, could contribute to initiating research on AI in games - research that would benefit both the University and the game developer studios in Science Park Skövde. At the University, he will work on how AI can be integrated into the game development study programmes. At Science Park Skövde, he will also engage with companies to develop their use of AI. In his research, he strives to make games better, both for the players and the producers, with the help of AI.

"I will contribute my technical expertise and guidance to deepen research in AI and games. Students, researchers, and game developing companies need to collaborate to identify research questions that can benefit game studios in the long term."

He is also a co-creator of modl.ai, which helps game developers utilise AI technology. Julian Togelius can also call himself an author, having written several books on AI. His latest book, Artificial General Intelligence, was just recently released.”

"Some people feel threatened by AI, but we all like things that can be automated, and AI can, for example, be used for testing games. For those who work with game development, there are great opportunities to take advantage of AI, and not least, small game studios can benefit from the technology."

He grew up in Malmö, and after studying in Lund and England, and completing a post-doc in Switzerland, he moved back to Malmö and began working at the IT University in Copenhagen.

"In Copenhagen, just like at the University of Skövde, they were early in offering game development programmes, but ten years ago, I found an opportunity to move to New York and take a position at New York University."

There, Julian Togelius, as an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, runs his game development lab with about ten PhD and Master’s students linked to the work.

"I suppose I like the chaos here in New York, but I speak Swedish with my son because the plan is for us to live in Sweden for a few years at some point. As a Visiting Professor, I’ll travel to Skövde several times, but mostly work from New York," he says.

But already next week, he’s coming to Skövde. On September 30, the Visiting Professor will arrive at the University. On October 3rd, he will also be the keynote speaker at the Sweden Game Conference, held in Skövde from October 2–4.

Lastly, what games do you prefer to play yourself?
"I’m trying to get rid of my addiction to The Battle of Polytopia, and the last game that completely absorbed me was Elden Ring. On console, I mostly play open-world action games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and on mobile, it’s the odd indie games. I try to keep my gaming broad," he concludes.