This discussion sheds light on the future of interactive gaming, educational tools, and real-world applications of AI NPCs, from Mukherjee's personal journey, which sparked his deep interest in the mechanics of the human mind and AI, to the technical challenges and societal impacts of integrating AI within virtual spaces.

OUTLINE:

0:00 Introduction to Convai and AI NPCs

1:19 Purnendu's background and how he got into working on AI NPCs

04:22 - Current limitations of AI NPCs and what's needed to make them indistinguishable from humans

5:00 - Technical Challenges and Innovations

07:34 - Overcoming latency issues with AI NPCs

08:50 - Potential AI applications in gaming and why AI NPCs are attracting significant funding

15:17 - Differentiating factors and focus areas for Convai compared to competitors

19:19 - Steps for developers to integrate Convai's technology into a game

24:12 - Comparing effort and impact of using AI NPCs vs traditional dialogue trees and behavior trees

29:25 - Economics and business model of Convai - pricing for different types of games

34:31 - Bringing down costs for games with massive usage and appeal to global audiences

38:48 - Early traction and use cases Convai is seeing from customers today

43:18 - Potential for AI to enable new kinds of gaming experiences

47:55 - Feasibility of doing a fully AI-driven Dungeons & Dragons game with current technology

50:16 - Optionality if Convai solves AI NPCs for gaming to expand to other domains

53:14 - Purnendu's entrepreneurial learnings and the meaningful suffering of a startup journey

59:04 - Constructive criticism from GDC and Convai's commitment to enabling great art

59:55 - Conclusion

👇 EPISODE LINKS:

- Conv.ai: https://conv.ai/

- Purnendu Mukherjee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/purn3ndu/

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