Elite Dangerous AI update causes spaceships to create superweapons
A n update to an AI system in s pace exploration videogame Elite Dangerous that caused enemies' spaceships to become extremely powerful and aggressive resulted in a backlash by the game's users. D eveloped by Frontier Development and released in 2015, Eite Danger ous is a massively multiplayer online game in which the players' actions can affect the story outcomes. However, the '2.1 Engineers' update strengthened the capabilities of the enemy spaceships to such an extent they were able to craft their own lethal weaponry. Frontier said it believed the update shipped with a networking issue that let the AI merge weapon statistics and abilities, thereby causing unusual weapon attacks. The company was forced to remove the upgrade and strip the spaceships of their upgraded weapons, and reimburse players of their insurance payouts over the period the update was in place. System 🤖 Frontier Developments 🔗 Operator: Frontier Developer: Frontier Country: UK; USA; Global Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts Purpose: Streng then gameplay Technology: Machine learn ing Issue: Accuracy/reliability
- Date it happened
- 2016-06-01
- Organisation involved
- Frontier
- Product, system or model
- Elite: Dangerous
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