Min-Liang Tan speaks during a conference at SXSW Sydney on October 16, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Nina Franova | Getty Images
Artificial intelligence is set to have a huge impact on the gaming industry and its billions of players, according to Min-Liang Tan, the billionaire CEO and co-founder of gaming firm Razer. From the ways in which games are developed to hacks for completing levels, Tan said the technology's ramifications across the sector can't be overstated. "For us at Razer, the way we see it is that AI is going to completely disrupt everything, or change everything in gaming," Tan told CNBC's "Beyond the Valley" podcast. Gaming plays a significant role in the creative sector, with 3.6 billion players around the world and annual revenue of nearly $189 billion, according to research company Newzoo, which tracks data across mobile, console and PC games.
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"Game developers will now be able to use AI tools, and then you've got game publishers that will now distribute, market new games with AI tools … For gamers, the AI tools will be able to change things, in terms of the way they play," Tan told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal at Singapore's SWITCH conference. Razer, known for its gaming gear like mice, headsets and keyboards, has developed Game Co-AI, a tool that uses computer vision to "watch" how a gamer plays and provides tips on solving quests or defeating enemies. The tool will also use data such as public APIs, and a beta version of Game Co-AI will be available "later in 2025," according to Razer's website. The potential use of AI in esports — or competitive gaming — has sparked debate, however. "We will not have AI running, I think, during a game itself, but what about at the point of time of training?" Tan said. There is an appetite among some esports players to use AI to help coach future stars, Tan said. "There's a lot of excitement in respect of this. The opportunities are limitless." Along with helping players, AI will also be able to detect and fix bugs when games are developed, according to Tan. Traditionally, game testing involved "a whole bunch of people sitting in a room," playing games and identifying bugs one by one, Tan said, in a process known as quality assurance or QA. Razer is developing an AI QA Companion, which can find and log bugs — and will soon also be able to suggest bug fixes, he added. "[QA] is about 20% to 30% of the [development] costs, it takes up about 30% of the time," Tan said, adding that the new tool will automate the QA process, making human testers more effective and productive.