Matthew Guzdial
@matthewguz.bsky.social
Associate professor @ University of Alberta and Canada CIFAR AI Chair @ Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute.
Games, machine learning, and creativity | he/him
Games, machine learning, and creativity | he/him
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
Just want you to know that when I asked Geoff why he gave the silent treatment to an open letter written by his own "future of games" program (& co-signed by 3000+ industry peers), he replied:
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
“Don’t gather some of the most brilliant activists in the industry, treat us like crap, and then expect us to do nothing about it.” After the Game Awards cancelled its Future Class programme, @alyssamerc.bsky.social talked to its former honorees
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
“We were effectively props”: young stars of game development feel let down by the ‘gaming Oscars’
Announced in 2020 by the Game Awards as an inclusive programme for the industry’s next generation, the Future Class initiative has now been discontinued. Inductees describe clashes with organisers and...
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Just want you to know that when I asked Geoff why he gave the silent treatment to an open letter written by his own "future of games" program (& co-signed by 3000+ industry peers), he replied:
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
I was so so happy to give an invited talk today at EXAG, a workshop I co-founded over ten years ago! It was quite a personal talk about how research communities grow and change (and die sometimes), what generative AI means for our community today, and the value of weird, pointless research.
Starting off Day 2 of EXAG with Mike Cook's @mtrc.bsky.social amazingly titled keynote 'Being Weird at the End of the World'. Really looking forward to this talk!
November 11, 2025 at 5:57 PM
I was so so happy to give an invited talk today at EXAG, a workshop I co-founded over ten years ago! It was quite a personal talk about how research communities grow and change (and die sometimes), what generative AI means for our community today, and the value of weird, pointless research.
EXAG/INT Workshop Keynote from Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social with incredible slide design. Shout outs @bombsfall.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 4:41 PM
EXAG/INT Workshop Keynote from Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social with incredible slide design. Shout outs @bombsfall.bsky.social
Follow along with Emily’s live posting of day two of the EXAG/INT workshop! #AIIDE25
EXAG/INT day 2 coverage is starting now!
Starting off Day 2 of EXAG with Mike Cook's @mtrc.bsky.social amazingly titled keynote 'Being Weird at the End of the World'. Really looking forward to this talk!
November 11, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Follow along with Emily’s live posting of day two of the EXAG/INT workshop! #AIIDE25
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
On my way to the 21st AAAI conference on AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment aiide.org
Easily one of my favorite conferences. Full of fun, passionate people
Stay tuned for some news
Easily one of my favorite conferences. Full of fun, passionate people
Stay tuned for some news
Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment – Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
aiide.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:20 PM
On my way to the 21st AAAI conference on AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment aiide.org
Easily one of my favorite conferences. Full of fun, passionate people
Stay tuned for some news
Easily one of my favorite conferences. Full of fun, passionate people
Stay tuned for some news
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
Looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues in Edmonton this week for AIIDE! I'll be trying my hand at live tweeting the paper sessions at both the main conference and EXAG/INT, which I'll try to keep in this big reply thread (starting off tomorrow). @aiide.bsky.social @exag.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues in Edmonton this week for AIIDE! I'll be trying my hand at live tweeting the paper sessions at both the main conference and EXAG/INT, which I'll try to keep in this big reply thread (starting off tomorrow). @aiide.bsky.social @exag.bsky.social
My fantastic PhD student Emily is live bskying #AIIDE25! Follow along to see summaries of all the fantastic @exag.bsky.social sessions today!
Looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues in Edmonton this week for AIIDE! I'll be trying my hand at live tweeting the paper sessions at both the main conference and EXAG/INT, which I'll try to keep in this big reply thread (starting off tomorrow). @aiide.bsky.social @exag.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 5:00 PM
My fantastic PhD student Emily is live bskying #AIIDE25! Follow along to see summaries of all the fantastic @exag.bsky.social sessions today!
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
Just thinking again how Democrats asked people to accept short-term suffering in order to give space to prevent long-term, worse suffering and then said, "Thanks for suffering in the short-term. You'll get to suffer long-term too so that our Thanksgiving plans don't get disrupted."
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Just thinking again how Democrats asked people to accept short-term suffering in order to give space to prevent long-term, worse suffering and then said, "Thanks for suffering in the short-term. You'll get to suffer long-term too so that our Thanksgiving plans don't get disrupted."
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
AIIDE '25 proceedings are up! And the conference starts in two days. 🧳✈️
Vol. 21 No. 1 (2025): Twenty-First AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment
| Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Intera...
ojs.aaai.org
November 8, 2025 at 7:21 PM
AIIDE '25 proceedings are up! And the conference starts in two days. 🧳✈️
Even outside of these results now (which are really interesting!), there’s no guarantee that LLMs will even retain this level of human likeness given that finding new sources of pure human text at scale is becoming increasingly difficult.
LLMs are now widely used in social science as stand-ins for humans—assuming they can produce realistic, human-like text
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
Computational Turing Test Reveals Systematic Differences Between Human and AI Language
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. Yet this assumption rem...
arxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Even outside of these results now (which are really interesting!), there’s no guarantee that LLMs will even retain this level of human likeness given that finding new sources of pure human text at scale is becoming increasingly difficult.
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
LLMs are now widely used in social science as stand-ins for humans—assuming they can produce realistic, human-like text
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
Computational Turing Test Reveals Systematic Differences Between Human and AI Language
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. Yet this assumption rem...
arxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 11:13 AM
LLMs are now widely used in social science as stand-ins for humans—assuming they can produce realistic, human-like text
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
We’re stoked to bring this project back and cant wait to share it with y’all 🍃 #ttrpg #ttrpgs #thequietyear #CapCut
November 6, 2025 at 1:47 AM
We’re stoked to bring this project back and cant wait to share it with y’all 🍃 #ttrpg #ttrpgs #thequietyear #CapCut
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
As I've always been saying, LLMs have no relation to Truth at all. They can answer questions, generate ideas on a theme, and many other amazing things, but they don't know the difference between true and false, opinion and hyperbole. These results support that.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Language models cannot reliably distinguish belief from knowledge and fact - Nature Machine Intelligence
Suzgun et al. find that current large language models cannot reliably distinguish between belief, knowledge and fact, raising concerns for their use in healthcare, law and journalism, where such disti...
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 3:05 PM
As I've always been saying, LLMs have no relation to Truth at all. They can answer questions, generate ideas on a theme, and many other amazing things, but they don't know the difference between true and false, opinion and hyperbole. These results support that.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
Game design is simple, actually. Except when it isn't. Here are the 12 things you need to know.
Game design is simple, actually
So, let’s just walk through the whole thing, end to end. Here’s a twelve-step program for understanding game design. One: Fun There are a lot of things people call “fun.” But most of them are not useful for getting better at making games, which is usually why people read articles like this. The fun of a bit of confetti exploding in front of you, and the fun of excruciating pain and risk to life and limb as you free climb a cliff are just not usefully paired together.
www.raphkoster.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Game design is simple, actually. Except when it isn't. Here are the 12 things you need to know.
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
If you do gender-based violence prevention work in Edmonton, Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton will be running our Shifting Perspectives training on anti-carceral approaches to violence prevention in partnership with CIAFV next week - there are still spaces open! www.eventbrite.ca/e/shifting-p...
Shifting Perspectives
A Collective Framework for Anti-Violence Work Through Collaboration. This workshop for service providers and anti-violence advocates.
www.eventbrite.ca
November 4, 2025 at 3:40 AM
If you do gender-based violence prevention work in Edmonton, Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton will be running our Shifting Perspectives training on anti-carceral approaches to violence prevention in partnership with CIAFV next week - there are still spaces open! www.eventbrite.ca/e/shifting-p...
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
Y'all, I know two hours is a big time commitment, but this panel I arranged and hosted last month is one of the most important things I've ever done for video game history. The launch of the NES is a crazier story than most people realize, and my guests were extremely generous with their memories.
Hear about the NES US launch 40 years ago from the people that made it happen: Gail Tilden, Bruce Lowry and Lance Barr with @frankcifaldi.bsky.social from the @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social moderating! Panel recording at youtu.be/f2WDfsiLiRA
#prge #prge2025 #retrogaming #VGHF
#prge #prge2025 #retrogaming #VGHF
We Launched the NES 40 Years Ago Today - Gail Tilden, Lance Barr, Bruce Lowry - PRGE 2025 Portland
YouTube video by Portland Retro Gaming Expo
youtu.be
November 3, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Y'all, I know two hours is a big time commitment, but this panel I arranged and hosted last month is one of the most important things I've ever done for video game history. The launch of the NES is a crazier story than most people realize, and my guests were extremely generous with their memories.
If you’d like to bring a guest to these AIIDE’25 events there’s now a separate ticketing option for that!
If you’re interested in attending only the #AIIDE25 Welcome Event or Poster/Demo session, you can use the separate registration links below:
Welcome Event separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Poster/Demo Session separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Welcome Event separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Poster/Demo Session separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
November 1, 2025 at 7:07 PM
If you’d like to bring a guest to these AIIDE’25 events there’s now a separate ticketing option for that!
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
If you’re interested in attending only the #AIIDE25 Welcome Event or Poster/Demo session, you can use the separate registration links below:
Welcome Event separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Poster/Demo Session separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Welcome Event separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Poster/Demo Session separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
November 1, 2025 at 6:42 PM
If you’re interested in attending only the #AIIDE25 Welcome Event or Poster/Demo session, you can use the separate registration links below:
Welcome Event separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Poster/Demo Session separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Welcome Event separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Poster/Demo Session separate registration: aaaiforms.wufoo.com/forms/aiide2...
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
LLMs are trained to compress data by mapping sequences to high-dim representations!
How does the complexity of this mapping change across LLM training? How does it relate to the model’s capabilities? 🤔
Announcing our #NeurIPS2025 📄 that dives into this.
🧵below
#AIResearch #MachineLearning #LLM
How does the complexity of this mapping change across LLM training? How does it relate to the model’s capabilities? 🤔
Announcing our #NeurIPS2025 📄 that dives into this.
🧵below
#AIResearch #MachineLearning #LLM
October 31, 2025 at 4:19 PM
LLMs are trained to compress data by mapping sequences to high-dim representations!
How does the complexity of this mapping change across LLM training? How does it relate to the model’s capabilities? 🤔
Announcing our #NeurIPS2025 📄 that dives into this.
🧵below
#AIResearch #MachineLearning #LLM
How does the complexity of this mapping change across LLM training? How does it relate to the model’s capabilities? 🤔
Announcing our #NeurIPS2025 📄 that dives into this.
🧵below
#AIResearch #MachineLearning #LLM
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
I have an upcoming guest lecture at UDelaware on my usual schtick - violence prevention in games both commercial and serious. Come hang out if you want to hear me on my soapbox! (do I need more than one headshot plz say no) 🫥 events.udel.edu/event/games-...
"Games for Gender-based Violence Prevention" with Kenzie Gordon
events.udel.edu
October 30, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I have an upcoming guest lecture at UDelaware on my usual schtick - violence prevention in games both commercial and serious. Come hang out if you want to hear me on my soapbox! (do I need more than one headshot plz say no) 🫥 events.udel.edu/event/games-...
Reposted by Matthew Guzdial
Been a while since I've been on my procedural rhetoric shit, but I thought this extremely simple quiz—you predict who got a person's vote based on their stated policy priorities—was a very good, extremely simple example of the difference between being told something and enacting it.
Beyond the Ballot Quiz - The Survey Center on American Life
www.americansurveycenter.org
October 30, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Been a while since I've been on my procedural rhetoric shit, but I thought this extremely simple quiz—you predict who got a person's vote based on their stated policy priorities—was a very good, extremely simple example of the difference between being told something and enacting it.
Brendan is like a sort of mad genius
October 28, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Brendan is like a sort of mad genius