Hey Sony, There’s a Right Way and Wrong Way to Use AI to Improve PlayStation 5 Games

Like everybody in tech nowadays, Sony and its PlayStation brand have AI on their minds. On the one hand, the company is looking for ways to improve visuals and performance for anybody who spent $700 on a PlayStation 5 Pro—which is objectively a good thing. On the other hand, Sony is desperately trying to crowbar AI NPCs into games—and it looks and sounds exactly as bad as you imagine it does. A leaked video first reported by The Verge showed how Sony put generative AI into a rendering of Aloy from Horizon: Forbidden West. In the video, Sony’s director of software engineering, Sharwin Raghoebardajal, talked with fake-Aloy with voice prompts. Thankfully, the AI wasn’t trying to replicate voice actor Ashley Burch. Instead, it conversed with an unnervingly robotic tone while its mouth moved with inhuman over-emphasis for each syllable. When asked about the story of Horizon, the AI Aloy spoiled many of the mid-game reveals from the first game. In-game, Raghoebardajal talked with Aloy abou ... Read full article.