Sony Is Reportedly Testing AI For PlayStation Characters

Sony is reportedly testing the use of AI with its PlayStation characters, as a recent video surfaced online that showcased Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West engaging in conversation using the power of AI to fuel the responses.

The video was a tech demo that was created with the purpose of showcasing the potential of this technology. The Verge reports that the video has since been taken down through a copyright claim. It’s also reportedly a prototype that was only created for internal use and was created alongside Guerilla Games for this purpose. That being said, the creation and use of this prototype inside Sony leaves several questions on the table. Specifically whether or not Sony plans to use this kind of technology for future games.

And if so, how will that negatively impact voice actors and game developers going forward?

Sony’s use of AI with PlayStation characters seems to be limited to Aloy

It’s worth noting that it isn’t entirely clear if Sony has implemented this tech with any other characters. As of right now, Aloy is the only character that has been shown in the tech demo that was leaked and passed along to The Verge. That doesn’t mean Sony hasn’t experimented with any of its other characters, though.

In the video, which is narrated by Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Director for Software Engineering Sharwin Raghoebardajal, Aloy is seen talking as an NPC to the player through a series of voice prompts. Responses and facial movements were both powered by AI. Sony has also reportedly experimented with this tech on PS5 consoles internally, although this particular demo was running on PC.

The tech demo uses multiple AI tools

According to the report, the tech demo uses multiple AI tools. OpenAI’s Whisper for speech-to-text handles the prompt inputs. ChatGPT and Llama 3 were also used for the conversation. These tools reportedly gave Aloy the ability to make decisions on how to respond. Raghoebardajal is heard asking Aloy several questions.

The demo starts with Raghoebardajal asking how Aloy is doing, to which she responds that she has a sore throat. Raghoebardajal then asks about Aloy’s backstory, and Aloy responds by talking about parts of her backstory from both games in the Horizon series. Although Sony isn’t using this tech in games just yet, there’s a possibility for the company to use it in several different ways. The question remains, however, if Sony will be able to utilize in an ethical way. One that won’t result in further job losses for those in the game industry.