Startup raises $16m for generative AI behaviour engine

Artificial Agency aims to provide a more individualised experience through AI-generated characters with distinct personalities, with an engine due to launch in 2025

Image credit: The Artificial Agency team is based in Edmonton, Canada

Edmonton-based startup Artificial Agency has raised $16 million towards the development of its “AI-powered behaviour engine.”

Radical Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Flying Fish, Kaya, BDC Deep Tech, and Tirta Ventures contributed to the funding round.

Artificial Agency just came out of stealth after a year in operation, with the company claiming it’s working in “close collaboration with several notable AAA studios.” Its engine is due to be available to all studios in 2025.

The company, founded by Google Deepmind alumni, is working on using AI to “transform” characters and “other decision-making systems into individualised AI agents with perceptions, actions, personalities, and goals,” co-founder and CEO Brian Tanner explained.

He added: “This paves the way for entirely new categories of games to be created that are more creative, more expressive, and deeply individualised.”

In a similar vein, Ubisoft debuted its NEO NPC AI prototypes at GDC earlier this year. We talked to the team behind the tech about the potential and challenges around player-facing gen AI.