The Ethics of AI in Games
Video games are one of the richest and most popular forms of human-computer
interaction and, hence, their role is critical for our understanding of human
behaviour and affect at a large scale. As artificial intelligence (AI) tools
are gradually adopted by the game industry a series of ethical concerns arise.
Such concerns, however, have so far not been extensively discussed in a video
game context. Motivated by the lack of a comprehensive review of the ethics of
AI as applied to games, we survey the current state of the art in this area and
discuss ethical considerations of these systems from the holistic perspective
of the affective loop. Through the components of this loop, we study the
ethical challenges that AI faces in video game development. Elicitation
highlights the ethical boundaries of artificially induced emotions; sensing
showcases the trade-off between privacy and safe gaming spaces; and detection,
as utilised during in-game adaptation, poses challenges to transparency and
ownership. This paper calls for an open dialogue and action for the games of
today and the virtual spaces of the future. By setting an appropriate framework
we aim to protect users and to guide developers towards safer and better
experiences for their customers.