Studio Atelico launches Atelico AI Engine into Early Access

Studio Atelico has made its Atelico AI Engine available for early access. This technology, which first appeared in Bobium Brawlers, operates directly on the player's device rather than through data centers. Compatible with Unity, Unreal Engine, and Godot, the AI Engine empowers developers to generate images, employ language models, incorporate speech systems, and program AI-driven character behaviors.

By enabling AI to function concurrently with gameplay without affecting rendering speed, the engine eliminates reliance on cloud services across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Linux platforms, whether on GPU or CPU systems. Studio Atelico CEO Piero Molino explained that the company aimed to provide developers with the capability to leverage AI without compromising performance or creative control.

Molino emphasized that the most successful studios will be those that utilize AI to enhance the player experience, rather than those that utilize the most AI. The company envisions itself as the "Epic Games of AI," creating games that are only possible thanks to new AI technology, while simultaneously using that technology to develop new games.

Molino and chief product officer Chris Olson also discussed Studio Atelico's AI-first ecosystem, which utilizes generative AI trained on the studio's artists' work. The team is developing an "Artist Rights Contract" to ensure that artists can control how their creations are used and benefit from the technology. This contract allows artists to define the usage of their art, participate in the financial upside of their creations, and specify the use cases for their art within a single project, with the need for renegotiation if the art is to be used for other purposes.

Molino stressed that the company trains its own models using its own proprietary data, ensuring an ethical approach to AI development and preservation of artists' livelihoods.