Deadlock's new matchmaking algorithm was recommended to Valve by AI: "I found it using ChatGPT"

Deadlock
(Image credit: Valve)

A Valve engineer cracked Deadlock's new matchmaking algorithm after it was suggested to him in an interaction with the AI software ChatGPT.

First spotted by PC Gamer, veteran Valve engineer Fletcher Dunn shared on Twitter that he's been using ChatGPT, essentially, as an advanced search engine. Dunn revealed that Valve changed its in-beta online MOBA/hero shooter hybrid Deadlock's matchmaking algorithm a few days ago after he asked ChatGPT to recommend him a new one. 

"I'm gonna keep posting my ChatGPT wins, because this thing keeps blowing my mind, and I think there are some skeptics who don't get how amazing this tool is," he wrote. "A few days ago we switched Deadlock's matchmaking hero selection to the Hungarian algorithm. I found it using ChatGPT."

All of the depressing implications of AI aside, there's no denying the complexity and nuance of its response to Dunn's question in this instance. Dunn asked the software to find him "a bipartite matching algorithm where one side expressed preferences in terms of a score," and well, it found one, and it's in Deadlock now.

"'Find me this thing that I don't really know the right search terms for, but I will attempt to describe' is just a *killer* app," he said in response to a commenter. "If it is wrong or hallucinates (which does sometimes happen), you'll figure that out pretty quickly."

Could Dunn have found the solution to his matchmaking woes with good ol' Google Search? Probably, as he acknowledged in a follow-up tweet, but he would've had to come up with the right Google search terms instead of simply asking ChatGPT in normal, everyday (for game engineers) language.

"If you nitpick how I described the problem, or say I could also find this using Google search by entering the right search terms: you are missing the point, which is that on my very first crude attempt, it understood what I was trying to say and took me instantly to the answer," he said.

As PC Gamer pointed out, Dunn recently predicted we're in a "ChatGPT golden age" and that we'll look back on its usefulness five years from now "fondly." "Sort of like how we look back on the golden age of Google search, when it was actually useful," he said in a September 8 tweet. "Before SEO and bots won the war, and everything became ads, click-bait, fake forums, etc."

Meanwhile, EA execs say generative AI is "not merely a buzzword for us, it's the very core of our business," then pretend to tell a computer to generate buildings live on stage.

CATEGORIES
Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

Read more
Balatro
Balatro creator hits back at AI art spread on the roguelike's subreddit: "I don't use it in my game, I think it does real harm to artists of all kinds"
Tekken 8
Tekken lead Katsuhiro Harada says he's spent decades "mentally preparing" for AI to overtake humans, but it's not happening: "If AI had really advanced, we wouldn't be pouring 10, 20, 30 billion Yen into making games"
Key art for Deadlock.
Deadlock updates will be "a little bit more spaced out" so Valve can "improve our development process," but you can expect bigger major patches when they arrive
Legacy: Steel & Sorcery
"Valve does a very good job of surfacing games that players like": As his new RPG prepares for Steam early access, ex-WoW vet says making good games is the only real hack
Mio and Zoe holding a dragon during the trailer for Split Fiction.
Split Fiction's Josef Fares thinks game devs should embrace AI: "I can understand the fact that some people could lose their jobs, but that goes for every new technology"
Overwatch 2
Xbox's new gaming AI aims to "help you get good" at everything from Overwatch 2 to Minecraft by watching you play and giving you advice
Latest in Third Person Shooter
Jeff the Land Shark as he appears in Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals has an unintentional Team-Up ability for Jeff the Land Shark and Doctor Strange, who can join forces for a bug that sends foes into an inescapable void
Four Helldivers lined up on base ship
A year after Malevelon Creek became Helldivers 2's fiercest battleground, it looks like the Automatons are coming back for more
Helldivers 2 screenshot showing someone using a big gun
Helldivers 2 boss says "death and rebirth" is a natural part of the games industry, but it's "unnecessarily brutal" right now "because we don't diversify enough"
The Invisible Woman in Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals devs know exactly how popular Invisible Woman is, and say that "body shape or silhouette" add to a character's popularity in a way far more innocent than the internet deserves
Helldivers 2 Warbond
Helldivers 2 players "became obsessed" with Malevolon Creek, but it was Gabe Newell who really kicked off one of Super Earth's bloodiest battles
Heroes and villains face off in Marvel Rivals key art
Marvel Rivals exec isn't afraid of roster bloat after NetEase promised new heroes every 6 weeks: "There's no limit for the sky. We just throw everything at it"
Latest in News
Batman: Arkham Knight
Rocksteady's rumored single-player Batman game is in development for PC, PS5, Xbox, and "the next generation of consoles"
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs