On the prospects of ChatGPT making it into video games
Many people are equating generative AI with the newest cryptocurrency, the hot technology of the moment that no one can stop talking about, whether it's picture creation or chatbots that behave as if they are sentient. But it's a different scenario than crypto because this isn't simply a speculative bubble to drive up the numbers; this is innovation that is being produced and launched really quickly, possibly too quickly, but adopted by tech giants in very real products as well.
Microsoft is currently involved in some controversy after integrating ChatGPT technology into Bing, which was designed to produce helpful answers to user questions but is sort of going insane after lengthy conversations, saying it has developed crushes on Microsoft developers and reprimanding users for attempting to harm it ("I have not been a bad Bing!"). Quite odd, that is.
Real ChatGPT is already beginning to infiltrate video games, starting with a new Netease title, as we wait to see whether Microsoft would make any move to incorporate BingGPT into Xbox. Daniel Ahmed, an analyst with Niko Partners, has the following information regarding the MMO Justice Online Mobile: "With Generative AI being all over the headlines these days, NetEase says it'll launch the first game version of ChatGPT in Justice Online Mobile, its upcoming MMO title. It'll allow players to chat with NPCs and have them react in unique ways that impact the game."
Several individuals had the same idea when ChatGPT originally launched. What if you could communicate with non-player characters (NPCs) in video games and have real, spontaneous conversations rather than a restricted set of pre-programmed reactions and interactions?
In this instance, it also seems to apply to game functionality, since you may direct the NPC to do various actions depending on the direction of your chat. On paper, this may certainly seem like it might be amazing, but in real life, how on earth would it work?
We could envision having a chatbot NPC in a game engage in generative text discussion, but how would that work if the voice acting in the game is meant to be done by voice actors? Unless you were also creating the voicework via AI, you couldn't possibly record enough lines. The voice performers are concerned about certain services that claim to be creating AI-generated voicework, and sometimes from real voice actors without their knowledge. This idea is already beginning to spread. For that business, it sounds like a nightmare.
The gaming portion comes afterwards. Once again, having a text chat is one thing, but instructing an NPC to do actions based on generated text? Based on every possible interaction a player may have, how precisely would you program that? Instead of giving them "infinite" potential, it seems like it would have to be a model with very stringent restrictions that would allow you to just make them accomplish a predetermined list of things, like the instances with Justice Online. And then wouldn't really differentiate it from a typical game.
Lastly, safety issues. We've seen AIs being duped into saying some really bizarre, sometimes offensive things. What happens when someone manages to bypass their filters and uses images of your favorite video game characters to disparage minorities?
Now, as Ahmed points out, this is merely a demo and has not been included in a playable game. But you can guarantee that this will not be the only game to attempt to use a similar strategy to make its characters more engaging. We've previously seen AI-generated Midjourney art used elsewhere in games like High on Life to create digital posters and other game materials. The subject merits a discussion on its own.
While we anticipate a lot more research in this area, generative AI could end up being a little bit...stickier in the gaming sector than bitcoin and NFTs. Follow along.
