Sony is exploring the use of AI in gaming by creating a prototype of an AI-powered version of Aloy, a character from its popular Horizon video game series. This information comes from an anonymous source who shared an internal video with The Verge, showcasing Aloy’s capabilities in interacting with players using voice prompts.
Initially, Sharwin Raghoebardajal, a software engineering director at Sony Interactive Entertainment, presented this prototype. The demonstration revealed how Aloy can engage in conversations, respond to player queries with a synthesized voice, and display facial movements, which were evident in both the demo and the actual game. Raghoebardajal stressed that this prototype, developed with Guerrilla Games, is still in the early stages and primarily intended for internal demonstrations.
The underlying technology relies on several advanced AI tools, including OpenAI’s Whisper for speech recognition and GPT-4 and Llama 3 for generating dialogue and decision-making. Sony’s proprietary Emotional Voice Synthesis (EVS) system is employed to generate speech, while face animations are powered by another in-house technology named Mockingbird. Although the demo was run on a PC, there are also efforts to implement this technology on PlayStation 5 consoles with minimal processing demands.
Raghoebardajal highlighted that this prototype showcases future possibilities but did not address how it might fundamentally change the player’s experience in games like Horizon Forbidden West or the potential effects on voice actors and developers.
Other companies, such as Nvidia and Microsoft, are also working on integrating AI into gaming, developing technologies that allow players to converse freely with characters. Concerns about the impact of AI in the gaming industry, especially given recent layoffs, are growing. A survey revealed that nearly half of game developers are using generative AI tools, raising questions about the future of creativity in video game development. As Sony’s AI character experiments develop, they are likely to fuel discussions about the industry’s direction.
