The use of AI is very controversial in many areas. In the video game industry, it is heavily criticized, especially by voice actors. So much so that the protection of artists against AI has become the focus of SAG-AFTRA. This is why Xbox’s latest press release risks causing controversy.
Indeed, Haiyan Zhang, general manager of AI at Xbox, has just announced the multi-year partnership which will now link Xbox and the company specializing in AI, Inworld. An association born with the aim of providing an accessible and “responsibly” designed cross-platform AI toolset to help and empower creators in the design of dialogues, stories and quests.
These tools should include an AI design co-pilot that allows game designers to explore more creative ideas, transforming prompts into detailed scripts, dialogue trees or even quests. But also an AI character execution engine that can be integrated into the game client, enabling entirely new narratives with dynamically generated stories, quests and dialogue for players. Tools that would be intended for all developers, on all platforms.
The general manager of AI at Xbox specifies that their approach to AI is based on three principles, meaningful innovation, autonomy of people and organizations and responsibility. Emphasizing that Xbox is committed to creating responsible AI, while building on Microsoft’s Responsible AI standard. A communication which is therefore intended to be reassuring, but which nevertheless raises many questions, in particular on the human impact that the use of these tools could have in future years.