Why Google DeepMind Is Using EVE Online to Train AI, w/ CEO Hilmar Pétursson

Can a 23-year-old video game help train the next generation of AI agents?

In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Hilmar Pétursson, CEO of Fenris Creations, the studio behind EVE Online, about why Google DeepMind has invested in the company and why EVE may be one of the hardest tests for artificial intelligence.

EVE Online is not just a space game. It is a persistent virtual civilization with player-run economies, alliances, corporations, spies, propaganda, logistics, years-long wars, and decades-old rivalries. That makes it a fascinating training ground for some of the biggest unsolved problems in AI: long-horizon planning, memory, continual learning, imperfect information, coordination, and agents that can operate inside messy real-world systems.

We explore why EVE is so much more complex than games like chess, Go, or StarCraft, and why Hilmar sees it as a possible “final boss” for AI in games.

We also discuss how DeepMind could use EVE as a research environment, what an “AlphaEve” might eventually mean, and why virtual worlds may help AI systems learn in ways that resemble how humans and animals learn through play.

Along the way, we get into the business implications of AI agents, the parallels between EVE alliances and real-world companies, the idea of AI chief-of-staff agents, and the possibility of giving frontier AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, and xAI their own territories in EVE Frontier to see which AI best helps humans thrive.

Hilmar also shares the story behind his conversations with Elon Musk, how EVE players are already using AI, and why he believes AI could help us unlock new versions of ourselves.