Alberta’s AI legacy runs deep. Here’s how one founder is building on it

Artificial Agency connects Alberta’s long-established artificial intelligence research community directly with game-development technology. Co-founder Alex Kearney spent more than a decade in AI research, including work with the University of Alberta and DeepMind, before applying that experience to an AI-powered “behaviour engine” designed to give game creators new ways to build characters and gameplay. The company reflects the overlap between two areas in which Edmonton has developed significant expertise: artificial intelligence and video games. Alberta’s history in machine learning and reinforcement learning, centred in part around the University of Alberta, provides research expertise that can be applied to tools specifically intended for game designers and studios. Artificial Agency demonstrates how research developed within Alberta’s academic and technology ecosystem can translate into commercial game-development technology with applications beyond the province.