In 2019, the Portugal-based startup Anybrain filed a patent application claiming its AI could detect game cheating solely from player inputs such as keyboards, controllers, and joysticks.
It was met with disbelief. At the time, anti-cheat systems relied heavily on invasive software monitoring. Behavioural input detection was seen as too abstract, too ambitious and too difficult to prove.
Just a few years later, Anybrain, based in Braga in northern Portugal, has secured a European patent granted after international filing and is working with AAA studios on some of the world's largest titles. What began as a research thesis has become a commercially deployed, game-agnostic infrastructure across PC, console, and mobile gaming.
I spoke to André Pimenta Ribeiro, Anybrain’s CEO, to learn all about it.
Anybrain is a platform designed to protect gamers from toxic behaviours such as fraud, hacking, and cheating in multiplayer games and esports events. It aims to ensure everyone can have a safe, secure, and fair environment to play games by building a strong gaming defence.
