Daniel Kennett

Principal Dev @Xbox working on #GamingAI; previously Principal Architect for #xCloud, gamedev for life!

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

In glorious color as well…

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

Recent hacking fun- reverse engineering the image compression and animation formats of Bard’s Tale 1 for the Apple II…

[haiyan zhang @haiyan]

Since @tomwarren screenshotted my LinkedIn post and some folks are conspiracy theorying it (wtf). Posting here my farewell love letter to Microsoft. Today was my last day on campus, and after spending 13 years in this place, choosing to leave this company and these amazing people was the hardest decision of my life🥹❤️. And at the same time, I always said I want to go on many adventures in my life… moving from Australia to Canada, to Italy, to SF, to London… then Redmond with Microsoft. Now on to a new journey—

After more than a decade at Microsoft, I’ve decided to step into the next phase of my career, which will take me on a new adventure beyond Microsoft.

Reflecting back, I still remember stepping through the doors at 30 Great Pulteney Street on March 27, 2013, into a newly formed Xbox game studio in London.

I felt at once excitement, trepidation, and optimism. As I step into this next chapter, I find many of those same emotions returning as I look ahead.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of my journey at Microsoft. To the many colleagues, collaborators, and supporters who opened your office doors, and who spent time sharing your thoughts and encouragement - I am deeply grateful.

At Microsoft, I felt I had truly found my people: a place where I could belong. I hope I carry forward some small piece of the culture we built together: one of curiosity, acceptance, and inclusion.

Thank you all for walking this journey with me, from my early days in Xbox Game Studios, to Microsoft Research, to serving as Gaming Chief of Staff, and more recently working together on this AI revolution. I’ve loved the adventure.

My next step will be at Netflix, where I’ll be joining the team to help empower their journey in gaming. I’ll also continue pursuing my passion for advancing AI for social impact through my nonprofit, Thriven Foundation (https://t.co/D2hTKZt3tR)

Cheers to all of you and to the journeys ahead!

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

I love you @AlaskaAir but I’m 3 cancellations in a row now…. Can we crowd fund you deicing fluid?

[haiyan zhang @haiyan]

(1/3) An AI-generated gaming experience—move, shoot, explore—and every frame is created on the fly by an AI world model, responding to player inputs in real-time. Try it here: https://t.co/MJV8qxRkYa

We just launched @Copilot Gaming Experiences, built on cutting-edge AI research from @katjahofmann and @MSFTResearch

It’s a collaboration across research, gaming, and Copilot teams—built to make the research tangible, spark new ideas in model development, and explore how AI might enable the next generation of interactive storytelling.

The original Quake II level remains a powerful expression of the developers’ vision. This AI opens new ways of engaging with experiences and perhaps hints at how future tools could empower dev teams.

Read more technical details here: https://t.co/Ojlkkw71SD

See below for some capabilities the AI model supports: Shotgun pickup and equip... (1/3)

[Microsoft Copilot @Copilot]

6️⃣ Copilot Gaming Experiences: Built on a cutting-edge generative gaming AI model, Copilot Gaming Experiences dynamically generates game visuals and responds to player inputs in real time, simulating interactive gameplay without relying on traditional game engines. This tech demo is now available in Copilot Labs.

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

Canadian Special Forces have been spotted in WA State.

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

This….intrigues me. Especially is the price point is low. https://t.co/qXiBa8dfeH

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

So proud of what this team has accomplished, and excited to see the editor being released! The TAK was one of the projects I looked after when I was on XCloud, and it is an awesome piece of technology! Congrats to Nima and team!

[XBOX Game Dev @XBOXGameDev]

Accessibility matters and can help increase your player base.

Now you can simplify touch control layouts for Xbox Game Streaming directly in @visualstudio Code with the Touch Adaptation Kit (TAK) Editor!

🔗https://t.co/UI5vIaQ8Sl

🎮✨ #GameDev #Xbox #VSCode #accessibility

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

@davidspringate That was a "fun" device to code for. :-) That optical drive however.... *cry* (being able to do HW pushbuffers with predicate rendering/jumps built-in was glorious- load the entire level, complete with a quadtree and just alter the pushbuffer to jump past geom in HW...)

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

I think I want this. Connect my eGPU to it for extra AI oomph and I'll have a nice little setup for training models, serving home gradio sites for various AI jobs.... 48 Tops of NPU goodness... All in a small footprint. Yum. https://t.co/2ax887xxBO

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

@joekreiner @Jonathan_Blow Chicago has a big convention center. Also would give the East Coast some love.

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

@nerijs @huggingface Simply gorgeous.

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

@M3Fan Agreed

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

So. Many. Jays fans. #GoMariners #Tridentsup

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

@shanselman Gravis Ultrasound forever!

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

When I saw SSI trending today I got excited it was a new RPG or strategy game from Strategic Simulations….

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

NGL, Im going to use Math Notes so much.

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

Real soon now!

[Daniel Kennett @darkmentat]

Hello LA.