Ubisoft is experimenting with AI technology that allows NPCs to have real and organic conversations in games. Basically, an NPC’s backstory and personality will still be prewritten by writers, though AI will then use that as a blueprint to generate ‘real conversations’ based on player interactions and reactions.
Ubisoft detailed this much in a new blog post which goes over NEO NPC, something that has quietly been in the works at Ubisoft Paris. It utilises Nvidia’s Audio2Face and Inworld’s Large Language Model. The goal is to ultimately have narrative designers still create characters with defined backstories and personalities, though AI will then let players interact with NPCs much more realistically than a predetermined set of responses like in traditional games.
Narrative designers will then teach the NPC models to react to players in unique ways depending on their interactions with them. Of course, there will also be barriers in place to prevent players from straying too far into profanity or use profane inputs. Additionally, NPCs will still be limited to their roles in the story so they won’t have complete freedom to respond to players like ChatGPT. Data scientist Mélanie Lopez Malet said players who feed NPCs “nonsense” will result in “garbage in, garbage out” to restrict their responses.
Conversations with in-game characters are getting more real!
Presenting our research project, NEO NPCs, a new kind of NPC that uses generative AI to really talk to you! Discover how our team of writers and developers are coming together in this exciting experiment:… pic.twitter.com/FvvyvXWZKu
— Ubisoft (@Ubisoft) March 19, 2024
Addressing the concern that AI will eventually replace real writers and narrative designers, Ubisoft assured readers that this won’t be the case. Guillemette Picard, senior vice president of production technology, said that the technology is still driven by people and that it requires the deft hands of real writers and creatives to pull off. We hope that this doesn’t result in layoffs down the line. Last year, Ubisoft already terminated 124 jobs in Canada. Analysts predict that there are more layoffs (and potential studio closures) to come in 2024.
Ubisoft is currently working on a number of projects including its next major title, Assassin’s Creed Codename Red.
Source: Ubisoft
