At this year's Game Developers Conference, Ubisoft presented the “Neo NPC Project”. As part of the project, the publisher's developers will aim to take the representation of NPCs and characters in games to a new level using artificial intelligence support.
The use of artificial intelligence is of course one of the most discussed topics at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The publisher Ubisoft used the trade fair to announce the so-called “Neo NPC Project”. With this project, the developers at Ubisoft want to take the representation of NPCs and interaction with characters in video games to the next big leap. The developers rely on the support of artificial intelligence.
The goal pursued by the “Neo NPC Project”: to create characters or NPCs in which a generative AI constantly creates new dialogues and sentences. This is intended to give you the feeling that you are dealing with NPCs “who are actually talking to you”.
AI will never completely replace creative people
To take the wind out of the sails of possible fears or critics, Guillemette Picard, Senior Vice President of Production Technology at Ubisoft, assured that the use of AI will never lead to the complete replacement of creative people. This also applies to the “Neo NPC Project”, in which AI is only used to the extent that it offers added value to the developers and users.
“With the player in mind, we know that developers and their creativity must continue to drive our projects forward. Generative AI is only of value if it has value to them,” said Picard. In his statements, Picard refers to the fact that authors and developers are first used to create a character, including his personality and a backstory.
The developers then use an AI model that attempts to “become that character and speak and interact with players as the character would.” A technology that Virginie Mosser, Narrative Director at Ubisoft, describes as follows describes: “For the first time in my life I can have a conversation with a character I created. I’ve dreamed of this since I was a child.”
The AI should remain true to its role
According to the developers, a creative challenge is to design the artificial intelligence so that it remains true to its role. Even if the players try to elicit special or inappropriate reactions from her.
In this case, Ubisoft cited swear words or toxic behavior as an example.
“We made a distinction between whether the player annoys the NPC or whether he insults him so that we can properly isolate what is toxic,” says data scientist Mélanie Lopez Malet. “It is important for us to emphasize that these characters have no free will. They are there to play a role in a story. They have a solid narrative arc.”
Ubisoft summarized further details and statements about the “Neo NPC Project” at the official website together.
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
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