Artificial Idiot is a videogame which explores how Las Vegas drives people to consume more through carefully designing it’s navigation systems as ‘ergonomic labyrinths’.

The circulation in casinos is designed as a ‘structured chaos’ that keeps the gambler engaged. Casino floors are vast, horizontal structures that compress and open around the viewer. They have a unique relationship between inside and outside, public and private, up and down spaces with little conscious delineation between these.

Artificial Idiot is a game built around a set of AI agents – a series of character with different desires – who autonomously seek out activities within the casino. The player works to move the casino around them, shifting the labyrinth and designing the casino floor around their understanding of the AI’s operation. Like the real Las Vegas and its loyalty programmes, the objective is not to wring the customers dry, but to sustain a rhythmic dispensation of cash through rewards.

The game suggest that the nefarious technologies casinos use to track players could be evolved to an architectural scale. Rather than the generational remodelling of casinos, buildings themselves could constantly transform in line with public desire in real time.