Julian Togelius
@togelius.bsky.social
AI and Games Researcher at NYU.
Pinned
Julian Togelius
@togelius.bsky.social
· Nov 25
Lots of new followers. Maybe it's time to do a quick intro post (can't remember if I did one in the past).
I work on AI for games, games for AI, open-ended learning, and AI applications in various fields. I also often have opinions on various things, many but not all of them related to AI.
I work on AI for games, games for AI, open-ended learning, and AI applications in various fields. I also often have opinions on various things, many but not all of them related to AI.
Reposted by Julian Togelius
My account is suspiciously blank. You may think I'm a bot.
I'm not, but I'm pointing you towards one.
An academic experiment/game where an AI judges your writing.
It does not like you.
Feed it your data: nonslop.app
I'm not, but I'm pointing you towards one.
An academic experiment/game where an AI judges your writing.
It does not like you.
Feed it your data: nonslop.app
November 12, 2025 at 3:08 PM
My account is suspiciously blank. You may think I'm a bot.
I'm not, but I'm pointing you towards one.
An academic experiment/game where an AI judges your writing.
It does not like you.
Feed it your data: nonslop.app
I'm not, but I'm pointing you towards one.
An academic experiment/game where an AI judges your writing.
It does not like you.
Feed it your data: nonslop.app
Are you human? It's no longer enough to check that box. You now need to prove your humanity by showing that you can write a non-AI way. At least in this game that my PhD student Maria Edwards built based on our joint design. Curious? Try nonslop and see if you can write nonslop!
My account is suspiciously blank. You may think I'm a bot.
I'm not, but I'm pointing you towards one.
An academic experiment/game where an AI judges your writing.
It does not like you.
Feed it your data: nonslop.app
I'm not, but I'm pointing you towards one.
An academic experiment/game where an AI judges your writing.
It does not like you.
Feed it your data: nonslop.app
November 12, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Are you human? It's no longer enough to check that box. You now need to prove your humanity by showing that you can write a non-AI way. At least in this game that my PhD student Maria Edwards built based on our joint design. Curious? Try nonslop and see if you can write nonslop!
Reposted by Julian Togelius
I know I keep posting about this, but:
I want to fully de-google but I'm still not sold that there's a decent replacement for Google Sheets/Docs, for my use cases.
If I were a billionaire or government I'd definitely be funding serious open source software efforts. So crucial to this century.
I want to fully de-google but I'm still not sold that there's a decent replacement for Google Sheets/Docs, for my use cases.
If I were a billionaire or government I'd definitely be funding serious open source software efforts. So crucial to this century.
November 7, 2025 at 10:46 AM
I know I keep posting about this, but:
I want to fully de-google but I'm still not sold that there's a decent replacement for Google Sheets/Docs, for my use cases.
If I were a billionaire or government I'd definitely be funding serious open source software efforts. So crucial to this century.
I want to fully de-google but I'm still not sold that there's a decent replacement for Google Sheets/Docs, for my use cases.
If I were a billionaire or government I'd definitely be funding serious open source software efforts. So crucial to this century.
We found ourselves in surprising agreement
On October 28th, a fireside chat between Associate Professor @togelius.bsky.social, Associate Director of the @gdfl.bsky.social & Associate Arts Professor @mitukhandaker.com and Head of AI for Take-Two Interactive @luked.bsky.social took place in the Games Innovation Lab.
#NYUTandonMade
#NYUTandonMade
November 5, 2025 at 8:31 PM
We found ourselves in surprising agreement
I had a great time recording this podcast yesterday. We laughed a lot. If you watch it, maybe you will laugh too? At me?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=guOH...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=guOH...
Ep 25: The challenge of designing ai-native games today with Julian Togelius
YouTube video by Playing With Inference
www.youtube.com
October 22, 2025 at 4:34 PM
I had a great time recording this podcast yesterday. We laughed a lot. If you watch it, maybe you will laugh too? At me?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=guOH...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=guOH...
Christoph is great, go do a PhD with him
Are you interested in doing a funded Phd with me on AI in Games at the University of Hertfordshire, UK.
Check out the details below and feel free to share. Deadline for applications is 14th of November.
docs.google.com/document/d/e...
Check out the details below and feel free to share. Deadline for applications is 14th of November.
docs.google.com/document/d/e...
Artificial Intelligence in Games, Phd Call
docs.google.com
October 19, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Christoph is great, go do a PhD with him
Reposted by Julian Togelius
Associate Professor @togelius.bsky.social traces AI's evolution in video games from Turing's 1946 chess algorithm to today's neural game engines.
#NYUTandonMade
#NYUTandonMade
From Turing’s Chess to Neural Game Engines: AI in Video Games Today
Explore how AI in video games is reshaping play and design—from smarter NPCs to adaptive worlds—while sparking debates on creativity and culture.
buff.ly
October 15, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Associate Professor @togelius.bsky.social traces AI's evolution in video games from Turing's 1946 chess algorithm to today's neural game engines.
#NYUTandonMade
#NYUTandonMade
Agree 100%
Application culture is so orthogonal to how research happens.
Drafting a 5-year plan to do science is ridiculous when I rarely even know what I'd be doing a year from now.
At least my own career has been a random walk in the idea space. None of it could have been predicted in an impact statement.
Drafting a 5-year plan to do science is ridiculous when I rarely even know what I'd be doing a year from now.
At least my own career has been a random walk in the idea space. None of it could have been predicted in an impact statement.
October 15, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Agree 100%
Den här veckan i Sverige börjar med seminarium i Riksdagen!
October 14, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Den här veckan i Sverige börjar med seminarium i Riksdagen!
Submission is inevitable. Submission to FDG, that is.
FDG'26 call for papers!
We will be hosting the ACM conference Foundations of Digital Games 2026 conference here at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen August 10-13 2026.
The call for papers is out now: fdg2026.org/call-for-pap...
We hope to see you (and your paper) at FDG’26!
We will be hosting the ACM conference Foundations of Digital Games 2026 conference here at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen August 10-13 2026.
The call for papers is out now: fdg2026.org/call-for-pap...
We hope to see you (and your paper) at FDG’26!
Call for Papers: Foundations of Digital Games 2026 (FDG 2026) – Foundation of Digital Games 2026
fdg2026.org
October 10, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Submission is inevitable. Submission to FDG, that is.
Min hedersdoktorsföreläsning är om exakt en vecka, kl 15.15 på onsdag den 15:e, på Malmö Universitet. Alla är välkomna! Ja, du också!
mau.se/en/calendar/...
mau.se/en/calendar/...
Honorary doctor lecture – Julian Togelius | Malmö University
Search
mau.se
October 8, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Min hedersdoktorsföreläsning är om exakt en vecka, kl 15.15 på onsdag den 15:e, på Malmö Universitet. Alla är välkomna! Ja, du också!
mau.se/en/calendar/...
mau.se/en/calendar/...
Reposted by Julian Togelius
Since it resonated with the audience, I’ll recap my main argument against AGI here. ‘General intelligence’ is like phlogiston, or the aether. It’s an outmoded scientific concept that does not refer to anything real. Any explanatory work it did can be done better by a richer scientific frame. 1/3
This was a truly heartening day, with deeply thoughtful challenges to the dominant narrative framed around AGI, coming from across disciplines and perspectives. Felt like the tide might finally be turning a bit, at least among the scientific community. Thanks @royalsociety.org!
1/2 I'm looking forward to taking part in a panel on AGI and the Turing Test, tomorrow afternoon (Thurs 2nd Oct) at the @royalsociety.org, w/ Dame Wendy Hall, Shannon Vallor, William Isaac, & Sir Nigel Shadbolt. royalsociety.org/science-even...
October 2, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Since it resonated with the audience, I’ll recap my main argument against AGI here. ‘General intelligence’ is like phlogiston, or the aether. It’s an outmoded scientific concept that does not refer to anything real. Any explanatory work it did can be done better by a richer scientific frame. 1/3
Reposted by Julian Togelius
We're finally out of stealth: percepta.ai
We're a research / engineering team working together in industries like health and logistics to ship ML tools that drastically improve productivity. If you're interested in ML and RL work that matters, come join us 😀
We're a research / engineering team working together in industries like health and logistics to ship ML tools that drastically improve productivity. If you're interested in ML and RL work that matters, come join us 😀
Percepta | A General Catalyst Transformation Company
Transforming critical institutions using applied AI. Let's harness the frontier.
percepta.ai
October 2, 2025 at 3:35 PM
We're finally out of stealth: percepta.ai
We're a research / engineering team working together in industries like health and logistics to ship ML tools that drastically improve productivity. If you're interested in ML and RL work that matters, come join us 😀
We're a research / engineering team working together in industries like health and logistics to ship ML tools that drastically improve productivity. If you're interested in ML and RL work that matters, come join us 😀
Reposted by Julian Togelius
Speaking of said winner and other winners I would take it as a personal favor if you would try out excellent games made by former students, such as:
CONSUME ME
store.steampowered.com/app/2359120/...
DESPELOTE
store.steampowered.com/app/2367820/...
BABY STEPS
store.steampowered.com/app/1281040/...
CONSUME ME
store.steampowered.com/app/2359120/...
DESPELOTE
store.steampowered.com/app/2367820/...
BABY STEPS
store.steampowered.com/app/1281040/...
Hard for me fault anyone who doesn’t know good games exist when almost no major gaming website reviewed or covered this year’s Seamus McNally Grand Prize winner.
October 1, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Speaking of said winner and other winners I would take it as a personal favor if you would try out excellent games made by former students, such as:
CONSUME ME
store.steampowered.com/app/2359120/...
DESPELOTE
store.steampowered.com/app/2367820/...
BABY STEPS
store.steampowered.com/app/1281040/...
CONSUME ME
store.steampowered.com/app/2359120/...
DESPELOTE
store.steampowered.com/app/2367820/...
BABY STEPS
store.steampowered.com/app/1281040/...
Unity has formed an AI Council, and I'm part of it! I'm very excited to get the chance to provide input on how to best enable the AI-powered games of the future.
www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
www.businesswire.com
September 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Unity has formed an AI Council, and I'm part of it! I'm very excited to get the chance to provide input on how to best enable the AI-powered games of the future.
www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
There are some great talks here, and also a talk by me
Missed our workshop at @rl-conference.bsky.social?
Watch all keynote presentations and the panel discussion on YouTube:
youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Big thanks to our awesome speakers: @togelius.bsky.social, @jmac-ai.bsky.social, Roberta Raileanu, Michael Bowling and @pcastr.bsky.social!
Watch all keynote presentations and the panel discussion on YouTube:
youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Big thanks to our awesome speakers: @togelius.bsky.social, @jmac-ai.bsky.social, Roberta Raileanu, Michael Bowling and @pcastr.bsky.social!
RLVG Sessions @ RLC 2025 - YouTube
Recorded sessions of the Reinforcement Learning and Video Games (RLVG) workshop at the Reinforcement Learning Conference (RLC), 2025. Recorded on August 5, 2025
youtube.com
September 25, 2025 at 11:57 AM
There are some great talks here, and also a talk by me
Reposted by Julian Togelius
Can we normalize landline telephones?
September 22, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Can we normalize landline telephones?
Reposted by Julian Togelius
Life update: I am still looking for work, but I am now a doctor, which make it way more fancy 😊
September 18, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Life update: I am still looking for work, but I am now a doctor, which make it way more fancy 😊
Reposted by Julian Togelius
Faculty job — please help spread the word!
At UC Santa Cruz we have two games degrees, one in Engineering and one in Arts. This is a job with the Arts folks, who include super cool creators like @mattiebrice.bsky.social & @swensen.bsky.social
recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01998
At UC Santa Cruz we have two games degrees, one in Engineering and one in Arts. This is a job with the Arts folks, who include super cool creators like @mattiebrice.bsky.social & @swensen.bsky.social
recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01998
Assistant Professor of Interactive Art, Performance & Games (Initial Review Date 11/14/25)
University of California, Santa Cruz is hiring. Apply now!
recruit.ucsc.edu
September 17, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Faculty job — please help spread the word!
At UC Santa Cruz we have two games degrees, one in Engineering and one in Arts. This is a job with the Arts folks, who include super cool creators like @mattiebrice.bsky.social & @swensen.bsky.social
recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01998
At UC Santa Cruz we have two games degrees, one in Engineering and one in Arts. This is a job with the Arts folks, who include super cool creators like @mattiebrice.bsky.social & @swensen.bsky.social
recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01998
Were you ever killed because of your gender? In a game, I mean. For example, in a social deduction game, such as Werewolf or Mafia. In a new paper, we investigate gender biases among LLMs playing Werewolf.
September 15, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Were you ever killed because of your gender? In a game, I mean. For example, in a social deduction game, such as Werewolf or Mafia. In a new paper, we investigate gender biases among LLMs playing Werewolf.
Reposted by Julian Togelius
"here's a brand new competition we've been working to launch and oh shit Robin solved it optimally already well never mind"
September 13, 2025 at 9:32 PM
"here's a brand new competition we've been working to launch and oh shit Robin solved it optimally already well never mind"
Reposted by Julian Togelius
This was back in my headspace again given I just gave my keynote at IEEE CoG celebrating 20 years of the conference.
It's @robinwobbles.bsky.social's A* bot submitted to the 2009 Mario AI Competition. Which amusingly humbled all of the ML attempts developed that year.
youtu.be/0s3d1LfjWCI?...
It's @robinwobbles.bsky.social's A* bot submitted to the 2009 Mario AI Competition. Which amusingly humbled all of the ML attempts developed that year.
youtu.be/0s3d1LfjWCI?...
Infinite Mario AI
YouTube video by Robin Baumgarten
youtu.be
September 13, 2025 at 9:31 PM
This was back in my headspace again given I just gave my keynote at IEEE CoG celebrating 20 years of the conference.
It's @robinwobbles.bsky.social's A* bot submitted to the 2009 Mario AI Competition. Which amusingly humbled all of the ML attempts developed that year.
youtu.be/0s3d1LfjWCI?...
It's @robinwobbles.bsky.social's A* bot submitted to the 2009 Mario AI Competition. Which amusingly humbled all of the ML attempts developed that year.
youtu.be/0s3d1LfjWCI?...
Reposted by Julian Togelius
Happy 40th birthday Super Mario Bros.
September 13, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Happy 40th birthday Super Mario Bros.
Reposted by Julian Togelius
Q. Who aligns the aligners?
A. alignmentalignment.ai
Today I’m humbled to announce an epoch-defining event: the launch of the 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.
A. alignmentalignment.ai
Today I’m humbled to announce an epoch-defining event: the launch of the 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.
Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers
We align the aligners
alignmentalignment.ai
September 11, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Q. Who aligns the aligners?
A. alignmentalignment.ai
Today I’m humbled to announce an epoch-defining event: the launch of the 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.
A. alignmentalignment.ai
Today I’m humbled to announce an epoch-defining event: the launch of the 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.