PlayStation is experimenting with AI-driven characters, and I’m not in favor of it.

      PlayStation Studios

      If you've been longing to engage in a deeper conversation with one of your favorite gaming characters, it appears that Sony is making strides to make that a reality. A leaked video reveals Aloy, the protagonist of Horizon Forbidden West, conversing with a player and sharing her backstory. I have seen the video, and while I am impressed by the progress in AI technology, I am uncertain about my thoughts on the outcome thus far.

      A leak was sent to The Verge, displaying a PlayStation prototype where Sharwin Raghoebardajal, Sony’s director of software engineering, interacts with Aloy. This situation is peculiar, as players assume the role of Aloy in Horizon Forbidden West, yet the overall impression from the video is even stranger.

      Raghoebardajal prompts Aloy to discuss her quest to find her mother. Despite the AI-generated responses, the dialogue flows smoothly, but Aloy’s voice and facial expressions make it evident that this is a generated interaction and not created by developers, veering into uncanny valley territory.

      A segment of the video is included below, but proceed with caution as it reveals some plot points from Horizon Forbidden West.

      Leaked footage indicates that Sony is trialing AI-driven characters in Horizon Forbidden West. Initially, the legitimacy of the video was uncertain, but it appeared credible. The Verge reported that the video was merely a prototype developed in collaboration with Guerrilla Games. The aim was to demonstrate the technology internally at Sony, so it was not intended for public viewing. The demo utilizes OpenAI’s whisper model for speech-to-text; meanwhile, GPT-4 and Llama 3 are said to handle the conversations.

      An update has since been shared that lends more credibility to the situation. The original leaked video has been removed by Muso, a company that enforces copyright for Sony Interactive Entertainment, which encompasses PlayStation.

      It remains unknown when, or if, Sony will implement AI-driven characters in actual games. The company is not the first to explore using AI for character interactions; Nvidia has showcased several demos of Ace, its suite of AI-generated NPC tools, and Ubisoft and Tencent are beginning to integrate similar technology.

      Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since her arrival in 2021, Monica has produced…

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