AI is like rendering in that the programmers doing that tend to cluster together at conferences, so they aren't completely siloed. The subfields that don't have

AI is like rendering in that the programmers doing that tend to cluster together at conferences, so they aren't completely siloed. The subfields that don't have that clustering effect are the ones not established enough that it's become a known specialty. Where isolation tends to be more obvious is when looking between different sectors of gaming: people working on mobile F2P have a vastly different view from AAA console devs, and both are likewise different from indie PC devs. But AI in games does have a bit of an identity issue at times in that the obvious application of game AI(an AI opponent) doesn't represent the broader picture(FSMs appearing in every character controller and interactive element, planners employed in some forms of procedural content generation). With machine learning being the hot thing now, some AI devs are looking for angles to use it, which tends to push them towards backend data work that isn't too far removed from what other web and mobile companies are doing.