Techtonic with Mark Hurst is a weekly radio show from WFMU about technology, how it's affecting us, and what we can do about it.

Aug 18, 2025: If/Then/Else - Sara Clemens and Stu Horvath fill in, with guest Brendan Keogh

Last month, the New York Times published a credulous story (link below) on the future of generative artificial intelligence in the videogame industry. It's very silly, but the way it misunderstands pre-programmed behavior of videogame opponents like the ghosts in Pac-Man perhaps reveals something about how gen a.i. tricks its user into believing it's something it's not. We invited games researcher Brendan Keogh to talk it out with us.

Show Notes

Today: Games People Play fills in with guest Brendan Keogh, author, “The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist”

• The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist: Why We Should Think Beyond Commercial Game Production, by Brendan Keogh (open access!)

• Brendan Keogh's Putting Challenge on Steam, on Steam

• More games: Brendan's mostly free games on itch

• https://brkeogh.com/ Brendan's site

• "The Unnerving Future of A.I.-Fueled Video Games" (gift link, by Zachary Small in NYT, July 28, 2025):
Most experts acknowledge that a takeover by artificial intelligence is coming for the video game industry within the next five years, and executives have already started preparing to restructure their companies in anticipation. After all, it was one of the first sectors to deploy A.I. programming in the 1980s, with the four ghosts who chase Pac-Man each responding differently to the player’s real-time movements.
• "Diabolus Ex Machina" by Amanda Guinzburg
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Aug 18, 2025