Digital Arts and New Media: MFA: Collaboration, Innovation, Social Impact

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Michael Mateas

Professor
Computer Science
Research Interests: 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for art and entertainment, game AI, AI and creativity, AI-based interactive storytelling, autonomous characters

 

Michael Mateas’ research in AI-based art and entertainment combines science, engineering and design into an integrated practice that pushes the boundaries of the conceivable and possible in games and other interactive art forms. Michael was involved in launching UCSC’s game design degree, the first such degree offered in the UC system.

Michael runs the Expressive Intelligence Studio at UC Santa Cruz, where they explore the intersection of artificial intelligence, art and design. Their goal is to create compelling new forms of interactive art and entertainment that provide more deeply autonomous, generative and dynamic responses to interaction. A major thrust of this work is advanced AI for videogames, including autonomous characters and interactive storytelling. By viewing AI as an expressive medium, their work raises and answers novel AI research questions while pushing the boundaries of the conceivable and possible in interactive experiences. Current projects in the group include automated support for game generation, automatic generation of autonomous character conversations, story management, and authoring tools for interactive storytelling.