Picture this: Kratos as a news anchor ragging on you
Sony Interactive Entertainment is seeking a patent to create AI-generated podcasts, as spotted by VGC. These podcasts would be individualized for players, potentially when they first boot up their console, and would recap news, deliver game recommendations, and discuss trophies recently acquired by the players’ friends.
Images from the patent application show the possibility of the personalized podcast showing up on a PlayStation 5’s home screen, below the row of installed games. It would be available in video or audio format, and other images show a talk show-like format with two hosts sitting behind a desk delivering news for the player. “In certain instances, the audio may include a joke at the video game player’s expense,” notes the published patent application.
These gen-AI podcasts wouldn’t just be for game news and hearing about what your friends are up to. Sony also wants them to recommend games. “The podcast can suggest different games to different players based on a cluster to which the relevant player is assigned. These game recommendations can also be provided in the generative AI podcasts,” the patent reads. “Recommendations may be prioritized and jump out a little more to the listener to get the listener to note the recommendation.”
If you’re looking for some human-generated recommendations, Polygon has a whole section on what to play, including a spotlight on the PS5’s 25 best games.
According to the patent’s abstract, Sony aims to “present the news in the voice of a video game character of a video game already played by the respective gamer.” Its description further reads, “The podcast can even be a dialogue between two characters from the same game or different games that the player likes to play.”
AI-generated voices have been a hot-button issue in the industry lately after Arc Raiders (like The Finals before it) used AI to generate voice lines based on its hired voice actors’ recorded lines. The CEO of Nexon, the parent company of Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios, contended “all game studios” were investing in gen-AI tools, prompting indie developers like Strange Scaffold’s Xalavier Nelson Jr. to argue “players deserve better” than AI slop.
It looks like generative AI isn’t going anywhere, especially in Sony’s eyes. Last year, Sony’s patent for AI-generated “ghost” characters that can swoop into a game to help out players who become stuck was published. “The interactive actions by the ghost character are configured to progress the ghost character along an interactive path of the game,” the patent filing reads.
Though the podcast and tutorial patents have been published, that doesn’t mean the AI-generated content described in them will be coming to PlayStations any time soon, or at all. They do, however, shed light on how the video game industry is evolving, or at least on how the top brass at Sony expects it to evolve.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that Sony Interactive Entertainment’s patent for “LLM-Based Generative Podcasts for Gamers” had been granted. It has only been published at this stage.
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Oh yeah, just what gamers have been demanding: an AI-generated news anchor that makes fun of your Elden Ring build every time you enter the PS5 home menu. After decades of research, billions of dollars wasted and countless environmental resources exploited, they’ve finally figured out how to give your gaming console Clippy But Worse
And here is where Polygon’s new owners really show their hideous faces. This is an unbelievably cynical decision by Sony and here it is presented entirely uncritically. Guess that decision came down from corporate: “We are invested in AI, you are not to criticize it in any way”.
“News”
They basically stop the article midway to plug “human-generated recommendations”. I think you’re confusing a relatively impartial tone, compared to their other more overtly critical pieces on the subject, with a promotional one.
After reading this and the article from VGC, it’s telling that no mention is made of *how* they’ll build these potential LLMs. Embark did it (relatively) ethically by paying voice actors to help build their models, but it’s not apparent Sony plans to do the same, or won’t just build their models off of existing games.
relatively doing a lot of work there. props to your username.
Ratchet and Clank need to go on Guys: A Podcast About Guys
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