Steam sequesters strange AI experiments in a new "lab"

Steam has rebounded after a rather puzzling game sale by launching its own science space to play with AI and machine learning – and some of the things that flow from it are quite fascinating.

As a reminder, Steam recently held its annual summer sale and, as always, simply offering most of its large stocks at a discounted price was not enough for Valve. Nowadays, there is always a gadget for a Steam sale, an additional incentive to buy the game or spend time on the platforms. This time, it was a "race" asin that was confusing and yielding rather disappointing rewards (unless you are one of the few to get the free games).

So, to avoid something as complicated yet, Steam has launched something called Steam Labs (not to be confused with streaming Streamlabs) where it can try strange and experimental things like sales gadgets in a space special.

Of the three features he currently offers, the strangest is by far the "interactive advisor," who claims to use "the magic of the machine to learn to recommend games you might like. It sounds awfully impressive, but Steam is already doing it through the daily queue of stores, which recommends games based on ubiquitous Steam tags. What sets it apart is the way you can filter games on a sliding scale of "popular" and "niche" and their age.

Personally, I want to know what on my Steam list led anyone to believe that I would be so interested in playing Rumu, an "intimate adventure, narrative, which follows the path of the consciousness of a robot vacuum cleaner". Because I did not know I wanted it … but now I have to have it.

The other features of The Labs are also aimed at the possibility of discovery and are very similar. One is "Micro Trailers," which offers six-second trailers for all Steam games – which you may recognize from start to finish. Popular Twitter bot the same name that does the same thing. The other is the "Auto Show", in which a "automated show bot " essentially brings together the aforementioned micro-trailers in a long video showing new games on the site. Of the two, I prefer the first, if only because the latter asks me to go through trailers of games that I already know and that I have no interest.

I would be lying if I said that it's not fun to watch Steam try things (even if they are only slightly different from the tools he already has). Steam also receives comments on each of its new tools.