On-Device Agentic AI for the New York Times Games
Shafik Quoraishee, Joanne Song
- When
- Thursday, July 22:50 PM – 3:10 PM · 20 min
- Where
- Track 5San Francisco, CA · imported from ai.engineer's public schedule feed
About this session
Traditional mobile game architectures rely on static state machines and fixed behavioral trees. Under this model, gameplay and accessibility are treated as rigid, separate systems. This results in blunt difficulty toggles, predictable character loops, and reactive features that fail to address a player's actual context. Constraint-Centric Agentic Simulation (CCAS) offers a theoretical shift. By modeling the game world as a continuous, multi-agent negotiation, accessibility and challenge become part of a single, fluid continuum.
Using the JetBrains Koog framework on Android, this session explores the theory of running local agents on consumer mobile devices. We will discuss how principles of game theory, specifically dynamic negotiation and constraint satisfaction, can be used to build systems that reason over game states. Instead of executing pre-planned scripts, these agents dynamically alter their strategies. They negotiate environmental constraints to provide emergent challenges for high-skill players or organically smooth out cognitive and motor friction points for those requiring assistance.
Running these theoretical models on edge hardware requires overcoming significant practical hurdles. We will break down the architecture needed to support this continuous adaptation without relying on cloud computation. We will cover how to manage memory footprints, compress state histories for rapid backtracking, and schedule local planning loops so they integrate flawlessly with the rendering engine.
Speakers (2)
Staff Engineer, The New York Times
Shafik Quoraishee is a Staff Games Engineer, published writer, illustrator, and artificial intelligence researcher at The New York Times. With over a decade of experience in mobile development, he plays a key role in building and integrating the Times's highly popular digital puzzles into the Android ecosystem. Outside of game engineering, Quoraishee is a practitioner specializing in computer vision, neural networks, and accessibility. He has spearheaded experimental projects, such as designing on-device handwriting recognition for crosswords. His machine learning research has been deployed across real-world civilian and government systems and featured in publications like Towards Data Science and Nieman Lab. Before his tenure at The New York Times, he engineered mobile and data systems for major media and sports brands, including the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Business Insider.
The New York Times Games
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For developers: this programme is open data — JSON, iCal, schedule XML and an MCP endpoint.Show endpointsHide
- JSONEvery published session and speaker, in one request./aie-worldsfair-2026-import/feed.json
- iCalSubscribe in Google, Apple or Outlook Calendar./aie-worldsfair-2026-import/feed.ics
- Schedule XMLfrab / pentabarf — the format conference apps import./aie-worldsfair-2026-import/feed.xml
- MCP + RESTPoint Claude at the programme. OpenAPI 3.1 included./agents
No key, no signup, CORS open. Everything here is generated from the same data the organisers edit.