It is perhaps not an overstatement to say that Rockstar’sGrand Theft Auto 5is probably the biggest game in history. Withmods that allow players to rampage through Los Santos as Godzilla, it’s an open world experience that has so much to offer. It’s still pulling in millions of players around the world and has been doing since it was released in 2013. In fact, the game is so popular that even artificial intelligence is looking to get a piece of the action.
In a video uploaded to YouTube a week ago, user sentdex, a Python programmer who offers up tutorials on their channel, shows footage of a project known asGAN Theft Auto, which is essentially an AI’s attempt at making its own version ofGrand Theft Auto 5. It’s explained that the way this works is by having an artificial intelligence system being exposed to cars driving around in the game, as well as the environments, and letting it create a facsimile of that using an algorithm.
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While it may seem rudimentary, it is impressive to see what this AI has been able to create, and even a quick view of the video may fool some into thinking it’s just slightly blurry footage from the realGTA 5. This is also not the first time something like this has happened. Back in April, a player used aneural network to generate the final boss from the upcomingElden Ring. Before that, EA granted a patent that uses AI to generate terrain in game worlds, so it’s a technology that clearly has some use.
This isn’t just some ordinary artificial intelligence that has been used to make a sort ofGTA 5game. It’s actually based on GameGAN, or Generative Adversarial Networks, a piece of technology that’s been created byNvidia. On top of that, the game created by the neural network is not just a piece of footage either. It’s actually playable and while it only really lets people drive a car around, it’s still impressive that this is a functional piece of software that’s interactive.
At nearly eight years old at this point,Grand Theft Auto 5is still proving to be something of a gaming phenomenon, but many are perhaps waiting in the wings to hear more about the highly-anticipated sixth installment. While there are plenty of rumors flying about the place,Grand Theft Auto 6is still a long way from being released, so fans will have to stick to modding the previous games or teaching AI about virtual bank robberies.
Grand Theft Auto 5is available now on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in development.
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