Special Issue on Ethics in Game AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is an enabler in games at every level, from game development through the automation of playtesting and content generation to enhancing the player experience. The current advancements in generative AI models provide exciting new opportunities for game AI, but at the same time, we have seen an increase in calls for effective AI governance—including legislative actions on both sides of the Atlantic. Such initiatives try to minimize possible socio-economic harms (e.g., propagation of social biases, creation of echo chambers, etc.) arising from the irresponsible use of technology. Yet, game AI is often overlooked by such governance initiatives. Game AI poses its own particular risks and challenges, and governance initiatives that address all AI systems without consideration for their application domain may damage innovation and come at odds with the use of AI in games.

The Special Issue on Ethics in Game AI invites researchers from academia and industry to share their work in the under-explored area of responsible development and application of games AI, as well as critiques of how AI governance has (or has not) been applied to AI in games. This special issue serves as a forum for exploring ideas and solutions regarding the role of AI in all stages of game development and the ethical implications that follow.

Topics:

Contributions may focus on any aspect of responsible AI for games, including, but not limited to:

Privacy, transparency, and player experience: data collection and player informed consent, AI for player modelling and community management (e.g. multiplayer in-game AI moderation), explainability and transparency of AI-driven decisions involving the player and/or player data.
“Dark” game design: driving time spent in-game, unhealthy investment, addiction and monetisation through persuasive AI, AI-driven non-player characters, AI-driven game environments; ethics of modelling and monitoring player mental wellbeing.
Generative AI: inclusion and representation of minority and marginalized identities in AI-generated game art, narrative, dialogue; reliable generative AI for child-safe content; copyright, compensation and consent for game artists and game developers; AI as creativity boost or flattening force.
Game development and the industry at large: effects of AI tools on crunch culture, job satisfaction, job loss, skill-loss (real or perceived), wages; policy and industry influences on adoption of AI at any and all level or game development; policy interventions to protect consumers, developers and artists from misuse of AI technology.

Call for Papers:

We invite high quality submissions in one of these formats:

Full papers (10-14 pages including references and appendix - IEEE/ journal’s fees apply for pages over 10)
Short papers (6-8 pages including references and appendix - IEEE/ journal’s fees apply for pages over 6)
Letters (4-5 pages, including references – IEEE/ journal’s fees apply for pages over 4).

Authors should follow normal IEEE Transactions on Games guidelines for their submissions but identify their papers for this special issue during submission. Extended versions of previously published conference or workshop papers are welcome, provided the journal paper is a significant extension accompanied by a cover letter explaining the additional contribution. See here for author information guidelines and page length limits.

Important Dates:

Submission Deadline: November 1, 2024
Notification of Acceptance: January 31, 2025
Early access SI publication: (online) March 2025
Publication in print: End 2025

Guest Editors:

Sahar Asadi (King, SWE)
Leila Methnani (Umea University, SWE)
Cezara Pastrav (Umea University, SWE)
Rui Prada (INESC-ID and Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, PT)
Andreas Theodorou (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, ES)