Leaked footage shows Sony experimenting with AI-powered characters for PlayStation.
A video featuring Sony software engineering director Sharwin Raghoebardajal experimenting with an AI-powered version of Aloy in Horizon Forbidden West has been leaked to Verge. Many immediately pointed out the irony of using a character who grew up in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by rogue AI-controlled machines.
The video has already been removed from YouTube by a third party DMCA service called Muso, but it has made its way onto other social sites like Twitter (X):
https://twitter.com/oliver_drk/status/1899188963950346242
https://twitter.com/WrryWrt73/status/1899241510568149284
“This is just a glimpse of what is possible,” says Raghoebardajal.
Horizon voice actor Ashly Burch also commented on the AI-Aloy — stating that her performance wasn’t used at all for it, but she’s worried about the tech going forward.
How the tech works
The demo utilizes a combination of AI models, including OpenAI’s Whisper for speech-to-text, GPT-4 and Llama 3 for decision-making, and Sony’s proprietary Emotional Voice Synthesis (EVS) for speech generation. Facial animations are powered by Sony’s Mockingbird technology, allowing the AI-driven Aloy to react naturally in conversations. Although the prototype was tested on a PC, Sony has reportedly experimented with running parts of this system on PS5 hardware with minimal performance impact. The company first showcased an earlier version of this AI tech internally over a year ago, refining it before presenting an advanced demonstration at the Sony Technology Exchange Fair (STEF) in Tokyo last November.
AI fears across the industry
With major players like Nvidia and Microsoft also exploring AI-driven aspects, Sony’s experiments will likely add to the ongoing debate over AI’s role in gaming. Concerns about AI replacing human roles in the industry are already widespread, and developments like this will only intensify those fears.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently implied with their new AI software, Muse, that they will make full-on AI-generated games, but Muse at this time is limited to only being able to create made-up footage of a game. You can read his comment below to see what exactly he said:
“What I’m excited about is bringing a catalogue of games soon that we are going to train these models to generate and then start playing them. It’s kinda like the CGI moment even for gaming long term.”
Nvidia on the other hand is using AI tech for NPCs. You can read Verge’s creepy conversation with one here.
AI fears have also certainly reached the movie industry. For example, Just this past week, a major AI movie called Critterz was announced that will be written by the Paddington in Peru writers. It will utilize the ‘latest AI tech.’ Given it’s based off a short that used OpenAI’s DALL-E, you can bet this version will be utilizing OpenAI’s Sora. In some ways, it feels like the Hollywood strikes a couple years back were useless in preventing AI to seep into the industry.
Verge says they reached out multiple times for a comment on Sony experimenting with AI characters, but didn’t hear back. You can read their original report here and check out our video games section for more of the latest news.
What do you think about Sony experimenting with AI? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Looks like garbage
AI trash must die.
it sucks? idk what else you want us to say that hasn’t already been said about these AI bros and their shitty projects
Yeah no, this AI slop is fucking disgusting
Hey so I hate everything about this. ALSO it’s literally just infeasible. This stuff is not easier to run than games made by people. it’s inconsistent and costly and the definition of UNoptimized. It is unethical and it looks bad and misses the point of that game series too. not that capitalism cares. I would rather us go into a famine and lose the population of a major country than have AI take root in art and creation. humanity will survive without this waste of everything. The all mightly blender where you throw everyone and everything you love into it so it can kill and replace them so that no one can make anything themselves anymore and we bow down to the owners of ideas. Yeah right. This stuff actually can’t run in real time like they say it can and it just generally sucks, but they’ll STILL TRY. they will always try. There is no good argument for it unless you’re a machine. Which every C-suite inhuman blob is.
Stop this trash already
Looks like garbage. Plus you’d have to pay the animators to go back through and fix all the janky shit with it anyways, which can actually be MORE time-consuming and taxing than standard animation methods.