Putting AI elements in games has already become a bigger part of the industry, and now Sony wants AI to talk about games as well. Sony has filed a patent for a generative AI podcast that would be starring its video game characters.
The complete patent listing for Sony’s LLM-based generative podcast for gamers puts forth some ambitious ideas even though it doesn’t settle every issue that may arise from them. According to the listing, Sony sees these podcasts as a way to reach individual gamers with news tailored to their tastes that comes in the form of an audio or video podcast hosted by the main character or characters of a game recently played on the console.
Deepfake voices will sidestep the need for actors, as the LLM creates banter and a news-like program that delivers tips, gaming news, and more games of interest to the player in question. The patent doesn’t state if the generative podcast would be limited to Sony’s proprietary characters or if it would extend to characters from third-party games.
Given the backlash that AI has received from players, there is some question about how receptive they will be to content like this. That’s assuming that the AI-generated podcasts work as well as Sony hopes. There are already podcasts that have been created by AI, attempting to individualize one for each player is still a big ask from the technology.
Steve Downes, the voice of Master Chief, has been very outspoken against AI. Downes and the rest of Hollywood’s professional voice actors went on strike for over a year about that issue. And with Halo: Campaign Evolved launching on PS5 alongside Xbox and PC later this year, it will be the first time Downes’ character appears in a game on a Sony system.
In other AI-related news, Google recently released a beta for Project Genie, an AI tool that was briefly able to create playable gaming worlds based on Nintendo’s iconic characters. Access to Nintendo’s creations was subsequently shut off, and none of the created worlds had much depth or even a sense of fun. But that was enough to rattle the financial markets as game stocks went down.