Since the arrival of ChatGPT, many have wondered how artificial intelligence could be integrated into video games. The idea of engaging in a natural conversation with an NPC of skyrim sounds appealing, especially considering that current RPG interactions are limited. Today NVIDIA has taken a step in that direction with ACE for Gamesa service that integrates the power of generative AI into next-generation games.
During his tenure at Computex, the tech giant introduced Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE)a service that combine three AI models to bring characters to life from a video game. ACE for Games allows engage in voice conversations using natural language with an NCP (non-playable character), who will respond fluently. This new technology would improve immersion and open new doors of interaction for users.
NVIDIA demoed ACE for Games using Unreal Engine 5 and Epic Games’ MetaHumans. Karios is a first-person demo set in a futuristic restaurant, where the player (Kai) approaches the counter to talk to Jin, the owner of the place. Kai asks a series of questions using natural language to which the NPC answers coherently and assigns a quest.
The demo uses three AI models optimized for voice, conversation, and character animation.
- NeMo, a technology for creating and implementing custom language models using proprietary data.
- Riva, a speech recognition and text-to-speech artificial intelligence to enable real-time conversation
- Omniverse Audio2Face, to create facial animation for characters and match it to the voice track.
Generative AI could revolutionize video games, according to NVIDIA
The ACE for Games demo is impressive and gives a glimpse of what we could experience in the next generation of games. “Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize interactivity and dramatically increase gaming immersion,” said John Spitzer, NVIDIA vice president of development.
One of the characteristics of this technology is that can be implemented in popular game engines, such as Unreal Engine 5 or Unity. According to its creators, the suite of tools is optimized for latency, so the immersion will not be diminished by late responses. The tech giant stated that neural networks make it possible to optimize its tools for various scenarios.
The million dollar question is “how will this work in a real scenario“. A demo like Kairos was developed in a controlled environment and the interactions are defined. It is a fact that the average gamer will ask another series of questions that have nothing to do with the game. Some will try to bypass the security guidelines to confuse people. the AI, as we saw in Bing.
The danger of unwanted conversations
Given this, NVIDIA says that developers can protect interactions using NeMo Guardrails. This open source software adds guardrails to AI through rules and patterns, so conversations stay on topic. In the end, the creators will be in charge of define how far players can go starting from a predefined base.
The arrival of games that allow interaction like the one proposed by NVIDIA is still far away. ACE for Games requires local processing (a PC with GeForce RTX graphics card) or a connection to the cloud, so the experience would not be the same for everyone. Added to this, the regulation of AI is imminent in many countries, which will define the scope and implementation of this technology in the future.
