“ Building games just by talking to the AI You can watch the full hour-long conversation that goes into further detail on other aspects of Roblox above The following nuggets of AI-focused wisdom are taken from a much longer interview we recorded with McGuire during the 2023 Game Developers Conference. Prior to that, he was the professor of computer science at Williams College in Williamstown, MA while also consulting for game engine company Unity Technologies, and others. Previously he was director of research at Nvidia where he led work exploring the possibilities of augmented and virtual reality as well as its cloud-based “Hyperscale” graphics system. Roblox’ chief science officer, Morgan McGuire, has led the company’s research into AI since he joined in 2021. Powering all of that is a complex set of tools that now includes a growing number of AI-powered systems that make things simpler than ever to create and share ideas.

The tools it provides range from simple graphical editors to a full-blown scripting language that allows creators to build virtually anything they can imagine. The underlying technology of Roblox has been steadily evolving since the day it was launched.

Alongside the work Epic is doing with both Fortnite and Unreal Engine 5, Roblox is largely responsible for setting expectations around what’s possible with the much-fabled “metaverse” and has kickstarted the careers of thousands upon thousands of aspiring game makers. There are more than 40 million different player experiences within Roblox right now, ranging in complexity from simple chat rooms to Call of Duty-style first person shooters. Although perceived by many as “that thing for kids with the chunky characters,” in the 17 years since Roblox first launched in September 2006 it has evolved into a sophisticated 3D game creation platform with 60 million daily users.

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