The research landscape in the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and video games is rapidly evolving, with a strong focus on enhancing both player experiences and AI technologies. Recent advancements highlight the potential of AI-driven techniques to revolutionize game development and content creation. Key areas of innovation include the use of large language models for game agent modeling, neural cellular automata for procedural content generation, and deep surrogate modeling to accelerate in-game simulations. Additionally, self-supervised learning is being explored to generate useful state embeddings, while generative models are being trained on unlabelled video data to create interactive worlds. These developments not only promise to enrich gameplay but also to provide valuable benchmarks for advancing AI in general. Notably, the integration of AI into everyday augmented reality (AR) experiences is also gaining traction, with a focus on adaptive, context-aware AR and always-on AI assistants. This shift towards AI-enhanced AR aims to seamlessly blend digital and physical worlds, offering new possibilities for immersive and interactive user experiences. As the field progresses, addressing technical challenges and ethical considerations will be crucial for the successful deployment of these technologies in real-world applications.