Game news AI could integrate our video games sooner than expected. But is this good news or bad news?

Game news AI could integrate our video games sooner than expected. But is this good news or bad news?

Resistance is futile

ChatGPT, Synthesia, Sumo, Midjourney, Pika… many tools using the power of artificial intelligence have changed our habits. Realize, today, anyone can create – in a few minutes – a text, an image and even music. An American company even goes so far as to offer an AI companion that accompanies us everywhere, while a hologram Mario managed 100% by an AI has haunted the corridors of CES 2024. What was still Science Fiction in the film HER (Spike Jonze) 10 years ago is almost real today.

This rise in power of AI, whose advent has long been promised, is palpable today. Many companies want to tame the machine, one that would be capable of discovering cures for diseases but also of accomplishing a colossal task in just a few seconds. Both Microsoft and Sony are banking on it like never before, one having invested more than 10 billion dollars in OpenAI while the other has opened a subsidiary dedicated to AI research. While a key “Copilot” (assistant powered by Microsoft AI) will equip the keyboards of tomorrow, the big names in video games have already declared that they are opening the floodgates to AI. Among them: Square Enix, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Activision.

While the metaverse – for a time only – timidly interested curious investors, the concrete examples of AI have finally convinced shareholders to invest in groups banking on artificial intelligence. Since the Redmond firm invested in OpenAI, its market valuation has exploded to the point of briefly overtaking that of Apple. Who could have believed this 5 years ago?

AI in games can be anything you want

In the world of video games, certain cases have hit the headlines, like High on Life which used voices as well as machine-generated images in its final version. Until now, players did not seem receptive to the benefits of AI in their games, seeing in it both laziness on the part of producers and unwelcome penny-pinching. However, as recalled CNNthe rapid development of generative AI is opening new frontiers in gaming with the promise “infinite open worlds” and NPCs “truly independent”.

As we write these lines, there are already tools that allow you to create protagonists capable of generating text with animations that match their mood. Because some developers are convinced: more intelligent NPCs will make games more entertaining and more stimulating. Various specialists believe that the most difficult thing will be to create characters having real interactions with other digital people, far from any script, or even characters capable of truly modifying the world in which the player finds himself. When it comes to infinite universes, AI could go much further than the procedural generation we all know, since it would not be constrained to the predefined algorithms and rules intended by developers.

Of course, all these incredible promises are only binding on those who believe them. But recently, at CES 2024, Nvidia presented ACE, an impressive technology allowing a user to chat/interact with a virtual character as if the latter were a real human, in a 3D world. The journalists who were able to try it admit to being impressed, not hesitating to talk about “revolution”. Ubisoft, Tencent and NetEase say they are very interested in what this tool could bring. Who knows, maybe in the not too distant future, walking around a city in an open world will feel like venturing into a gigantic MMO where each visible protagonist plays 100% RP? This may be tempting, but designers fear losing control of the beast.

My friend’s enemy AI is my enemy

“They’ll replace me with an AI, saving about the same amount of money as is in Kotick’s couch cushions” declared Sarah Arellano, Narrative Designer having worked at Ubisoft, Blizzard and Volition. “I’ll find something else to do until the soulless games fail” she adds, in a message where she explains her fears regarding the progression of AI in development studios.

Artists have long been promised that AI is just a tool that will make work more efficient by eliminating repetitive tasks so they can work on more complex problems. “There is no question of replacing individuals, human creativity will always be present in this process. So I look at these tools and wonder… how can they help teams?” assured Phil Spencer in the lines of World. At the house of BFMXavier Poix, director of Ubisoft’s French studios, explained that AI allows “an evolution of artistic and technical talent”. “We use it to create better and more beautiful” he continued.

But at a time when the crisis is taking hold and where the machine can create dialogues, produce small arcade games, deepen a pitch, generate complex images and even facilitate 3D modeling, the fear is growing among our creators. One of the promises of AI is the possibility of accelerating game development, and this could come at the expense of some professionals in the sector. First the professions linked to writing, then those of image, sound, and perhaps soon Game Logic and level design. Furthermore, Midjourney is already working on the generation open worlds using prompts.

In 10 years or 20 years, will it only take ideas to create games on Unreal, rather than various technical/artistic knowledge? Could this ultimately be a bad thing? The developers we were able to approach are divided on the subject. Some are doubtful about AI’s capabilities to generate open worlds in just a few clicks, while others think it’s an incredible opportunity for indies. “The AI ​​problem is not unique to AI, but to humans” says a developer. Before concluding : “it is perhaps just an exciting technological development that needs to be regulated a minimum and to which we need to adapt”.