Serious Games and AI: Challenges and Opportunities for Computational Social Science

TL;DR

This paper explores how serious games combined with AI can serve as innovative tools for social science research, highlighting opportunities, challenges, and the potential for societal benefit.

Contribution

It identifies research directions for using serious games as data sources and tools in computational social sciences, emphasizing AI integration and societal impact.

Findings

Games provide rich data for AI analysis

Synergy between games and AI can advance social research

Challenges include data privacy and methodological issues

Abstract

The video game industry plays an essential role in the entertainment sphere of our society. However, from Monopoly to Flight Simulators, serious games have also been appealing tools for learning a new language, conveying values, or training skills. Furthermore, the resurgence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data science in the last decade has created a unique opportunity since the amount of data collected through a game is immense, as is the amount of data needed to feed such AI algorithms. This paper aims to identify relevant research lines using Serious Games as a novel research tool, especially in Computational Social Sciences. To contextualize, we also conduct a (non-systematic) literature review of this field. We conclude that the synergy between games and data can foster the use of AI for good and open up new strategies to empower humanity and support social research with novel computational tools. We also discuss the challenges and new opportunities that arise from aspiring to such lofty goals.