How far away are we from games with fully AI-driven, emergent worlds and stories?

The concept of games featuring fully AI-driven, emergent worlds and stories is being discussed, where narratives are not predetermined. Instead, thousands of AI-controlled characters would exist in a persistent world, acting independently and creating emergent stories around the player. This could involve scenarios like founding empires, forming factions, and experiencing wars or betrayals, with characters remembering past player actions and influencing future events. The discussion questions the realism and timeline for such a complex gaming experience, acknowledging the need for nuanced background simulations rather than thousands of simultaneously active simulated players.

This discussion uniquely explores the feasibility and timeline of fully AI-driven game worlds, unlike typical reports focusing on current AI applications in gaming.