the traditional goal of AI in games—to win the game
That's just not true. The traditional goal of AI in games is to lose in an interesting way after forcing the player to spend some effort.
I prefer different rules. The AI tries as hard as it can to beat me while I have an unfair advantage.
Sort of the reverse of the typical situation.
"In one sense, because of the game’s procedural design, the entire universe exists at the moment of its creation. In another sense, because the game only renders a player’s immediate surroundings, nothing exists unless there is a human there to witness it."
"Through the use of procedural generation, No Man’s Sky ensures that each planet will be a surprise, even to the programmers. Every creature, AI-guided alien spacecraft, or landscape is a pseudo-random product of the computer program itself. The universe is essentially as unknown to the people who made it as it is to the people who play in it—and ultimately, it is destined to remain that way."
More at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/02/artificial-universe-no-mans-sky/463308/