Play AI Secures $4.3 Million Seed Funding to Transform Gaming with AI
Play AI has successfully secured $4.3 million in seed funding to develop middleware solutions for AI models and agents in gaming. The Las Vegas-based company aims to create a modular chain for gaming AI, providing developers with superior gaming data and tools to enhance content generation. Additionally, players will be rewarded for their contributions, opening a new revenue stream through data sharing.
With a current valuation of $70 million, Play AI is poised to innovate the gaming landscape. In just six months since its inception, the company has garnered interest from institutional investors like P2 Ventures, Jump Crypto, Alphawave, Zentry, MH Ventures, and Tykhe Block.
CEO PS Ramees emphasizes the transformative impact of AI on gaming, stating, “Artificial intelligence is the future of gaming and virtual worlds. By simplifying development and incentivizing AI deployment, we empower developers to seamlessly integrate AI elements—like non-player character (NPC) agents and auto-generated worlds—using pre-trained models or custom requests.”
The platform leverages blockchain technology, creating a decentralized network for AI training and data attribution, ensuring transparency and fairness. NFTs will also be utilized to generate additional revenue streams for gamers, separate from the in-game economy.
Through its Play Collective platform, Play AI encourages gamers to share their gameplay data, which is then utilized to build and train AI models based on top players' actions. These models are offered on the Gaming Agent Marketplace, allowing developers to efficiently incorporate diverse AI capabilities into their games.
While many gaming companies are exploring AI for more responsive gameplay, access to high-quality data remains a significant challenge. Current centralized systems are limited by factors such as high computing demands, privacy issues, lack of transparency, and vulnerability to censorship.
Play AI aims to address these limitations, equipping developers with tools to create immersive, adaptive experiences that cater to diverse player preferences.
The company's offerings include:
- Play Markets: A secure marketplace for aggregating and validating user gameplay data.
- Play Dojo: A sandbox environment for developers to train AI agents using decentralized computing and trustless evaluation.
- Play Hub: An SDK for integrating AI agents, allowing them to be ranked and rewarded by gamers.
Play AI is validated as an actively validated service (AVS) on Eigen Layer, enhancing the security and reliability of its platform.
Ramees, who previously developed VR gaming experiences for major brands like Adidas and Walmart, is passionate about combining AI with gaming to create personalized virtual experiences. He envisions a future where immersive environments dominate, driven by sophisticated AI that tailors experiences for every user.
With a team of 14 based in the U.S. and India, Ramees acknowledges that traditional game development is time-intensive. Instead, Play AI focuses on establishing data collection within existing virtual environments to create targeted models based on aggregated user data.
The blockchain aspect is crucial for effective data attribution, ensuring that rewards are fairly distributed based on user contributions. The company plans to launch a dashboard soon, paving the way for game releases, starting with open-world player-versus-player shooter games, while remaining adaptable to simpler hyper-casual formats.
Through these innovations, Play AI empowers gamers to earn from their gameplay in ways that do not disrupt existing in-game economies.