I am about to start a PhD that will investigate ways of replicating creativity in the AI systems of simulated people in virtual environments. I will research which psychology theories and models to use in order to achieve this, with a focus on creative problem solving.

The aim of this project is to create virtual characters and NPCs that can create new solutions to challenges, even if they have never encountered these before. This would mean that not every possible action or outcome would need to be coded for, so less development resources are required. Players would encounter virtual people that are not bound by rigid patterns of pre-scripted behaviour, increasing the replay value and lifespan of games, and the accuracy of simulations.

I am looking for companies or organisations that would be interested in working with me on my PhD, and I think computer games companies might be the most likely. I am trying to think of ways in which this new AI system might benefit games companies, or improvements and new types of games that might be possible. I am on this forum to ask for your thoughts and suggestions please, so I can approach games companies with some examples. 

Thank you for your time and interest.

12 hours ago, Dromo said:

virtual people that are not bound by rigid patterns of pre-scripted behaviour

Isn't this impossible. Even as humans we don't actually create new things from nothing.

The way our imagination works is that we construct things using concepts we understand(pre-scripted) and make a recognizable pattern from it. For example we can use random shapes to make object, a common child like thing to do:

But the object we are making should be in our understanding, meaning we have to have seen what we are making or what we are making is not in contrast with our understanding.

If we just add things without any pattern we just get random noise:

Funny thing is that our minds will try to find patterns in any noise.The above image I can see a little man with big glasses, a star, Pacman, a moon, a house and a cannon.

This is my "imagination" but it is all based on things I learned and experienced.

The difference between a person and a computer is experience. We spend our whole lives collecting info for our brains, yet every time a new AI is made it starts from scratch. A large part of making a creative AI will involve building a gigantic library of info.

I am not so sure game companies are interested, you seem to be aiming for the ultimate AI, which hasn't been done for the last 50 years. Also, game companies may not want creative NPCs, as they are hard to control in programming, which means you can't steer the game to the experience that you want to transfer to the player.