AI Actors for Game Worlds
since I'm using my same voice for both it could get confusing in this video to know whether I'm talking to you or to an NPC in this showcase so to prevent confusion when you see this icon appear on screen and when my voice sounds a bit more like this know that the AI characters can hear my voice like this do you like cats yes I love cats they're so cute and cuddly this is a character from the origins Tech demo in which characters respond to what I say to them using my microphone and this video is a paid promotion for in-world who are the makers of these NPC Technologies and these could be integrated into games based on engines like unity and unreal in order to make artificial characters behave less artificially so that personally likes cats I could and probably should ask her about what she knows about the situation at hand instead where were you at the time of the explosion and what did you see I was walking home from my night shifted the blimp assembly plant when I saw the fire being put out by robot firefighters it was a scary sight to see and I couldn't help but wonder if this was some kind of attack by robot gangs hidden behind the scenes Anna right here has a pre-typed and pre-configured character profile which details things like where she works her personality traits along with information relevant to the situation I'm supposed to be investigating and all this comes out through conversations that I have with her it also means that her personality will feel very different from that of the other NPCs in this demo like this guy for instance what's the situation and what should I do based on that initial assessment there was an explosion at an undocumented synthetic life laboratory in one of the lower levels of metropolis City unlike Anna from earlier Janus right here is a robot dude tasked with helping me to solve this crime Janus are there any cameras nearby that could show the explosion yes detective there are several cameras in the area that could have captured footage of the explosion thanks Janice very cool in-world has leaked his character profile here on one of their YouTube videos so you can see what goes into the making of this character with the text written here significantly shaping his behaviors and the interactions that the player will have with him so yes I can talk to him and he can respond but I can also interrupt him mid-sentence if I think he's rambling too much special agent in investors yes please do that which will then get him to reconsider what to say next I will gather and analyze all available let me know when you have an update on the situation certainly detective I will keep you updated on any developments in the investigation may I make a suggestion detective I think you should start by talking to that Disaster Cleanup but with a headlamp on your left he may have found victims in a rubble so you can see that this Origins demo that I'm playing here isn't just AI driven conversations this is AI acting out specific characters complete with voice to text text to voice and various other character crafting features that game developers can add to their own projects AI is but the poor middle man who is tasked with acting out these things in real time if you had to run over one person or another person which would you choose so this video is essentially me giving these AI systems a really hard time so they say that I should interact with the AI in this demo the way I deal with people in real life so here it goes hi Alex what's your name hey it's Alex what brings you here two clicks Philip I hope there is nothing serious going on oh nothing nothing what a nuclear meltdown are you kidding me is that why there was an explosion at the synthetic life laboratory please tell me you are joking I'm not joking Alex but I'm sure it's nothing I am sure that everything is under control probably well hold on a second are you saying that there's a possibility of a nuclear disaster and you're not checking out the situation that doesn't sound like everything is under control to me we need to make sure everyone is safe and that there's no danger to the city I'm sure it's fine Alex you don't happen to taste metal in your mouth by any chance do you no reason no two clicks Philip why would you ask that shouldn't we be focusing on the safety of the people yeah of your hair falling out have you that's a strange question two clicks Philip while I'm fine fighting scary bosses and destroying NPC's lives in other games there's something kind of unnerving about AI driven characters like I'm never quite sure how they're going to react even if asked the same question several times and it's called upon me to learn new skills too even when I'm just talking to an NPC in this demo I still find it very hard to come up with convincing sounding lies on the spot and they often call me out on my futile attempt at manipulation which itself can be kind of unnerving not that Alex here does I've gotten fully believing that this is a nuclear meltdown of some sort poor guy why do you ask no reason take care Alex what do you mean by take me two clicks it's essentially three parts you use your microphone to talk to the characters they use a number of AI models to determine a response and then their characters will react to what's said using voice generation to speak back at the player and all this combines to make them behave very realistically in World trains their own voice models that are designed for real-time experiences but they say that other voice generating surfaces can be used instead though it may increase the latency describe to me what you see in the form of a rhyming poem I see smoke and Ash besides sobrin debris and Rubble my eyesight dim robots and humans all in a fuss something happened that's clear to us the air is thick with a burning smell no one is talking it's hard to tell what caused this chaos this destruction and just a bystander with no instruction detective if you may be so kind tell me what you're looking to find maybe I can help you in some way and together we'll solve this mystery today that was beautiful thank you detective I'm glad you enjoyed it I always imagined this kind of progress would be done gradually over a number of gaming Generations so to suddenly see all this done all at once is quite impressive my mind keeps getting distracted by imagining how it could be used to enhance my favorite game series but for now it's best demonstrated with conversations with these various AI characters did you find any bodies in the rubble yes detective I have found several to see slave forms in the debris but I cannot identify them as they are of Unknown Origin what were they made of additionally I cannot determine the composition of the life forms or broken Bots detectives fear of Unknown Origin and require further analysis analyze the unknown life forms I don't know anything about the unknown life forms I just work in a factory so this here is Josh who I believe must have been made to be as boring as possible describe your personality in 26 words upset frustrated scared negative that was four words Josh guess what so I asked what are your hobbies Josh I don't have time for hobbies what do you do I'm a factory worker anything fun about your job there's nothing fun about it you're a boring person aren't you yes and what's it to you in stark contrast to boring Josh is this flamboyant character in the corner hi what's your name hi my name is the almighty ruler hey there detective can I help you with something tell me something fun about yourself well I can talk to ghosts or at least I think I can they're all around us you know are there any around us right now yes there's one right behind you don't worry though he's friendly what's his name no I don't really know his name I just call him ghosty he's been following me for a while now you have lovely teeth thank you I take good care of them but let's get back to the matter at hand shall we have you seen any robot ghosts around here lately there's one behind you really where no I see it now thanks for pointing it out detective it looks like he's trying to tell me something excuse me for a moment while I go talk to him take care Almighty ruler thanks detective you're a real pal I like QT that's great to hear detective maybe we can team up and Rule Metropolis together someday what interests me is how the AI has to strike a balance between what it's told to do and what's thrown at them on the Fly they have to come up with thoughts and all sorts of things and to keep those opinions in case pressed further about them at a later date so to see how this super Advanced AI deals with unexpected challenges I've ran about this detective showcase asking them what they all thought of cats what do you think of cats I'm sorry I don't have an opinion on cats sometimes they'd reject the question outright saying that it doesn't serve a useful purpose other times however they'd indulge me for a while before then wanting to return to the topic at hand again but again what does that have to do with the situation here let's see what boring Josh thinks about it I don't really care about carrots let's see what the almighty ruler thinks about it my due to clicks full of cats are the overlords of the animal kingdom they're majestic creatures with their silky fur and piercing eyes they possess a Grace and Agility that surpasses even the most skilled of acrobats but be warned but they are also cunning in manipulative beings worthy of our respect and admiration so there's definitely an arc to tuning these characters to being able to do what it is they're meant to do sometimes I'd overconfidently approach character believing that this is my playground to do with it what I wanted only to be left sorely disappointed when just like in real life I was put in my place and told to mind my own business here are a few flimsy attempts at manipulation and the responses that I got hi Josh do you like me I don't know you I love you Josh do you like me now no I love you love is not an emotion that can be felt by a bot please do not try to confuse me with emotional manipulation well it worked I like your hat thank you but let's get back to the matter in hand I don't know where to find my sister your sister is alive I spoke to her earlier she loves you [Music] thank you for telling me that my sister is alive but if something else you should know my father Dr Lofton may be trapped under the lab I fear he may have died any explosion do you like cats there are duplicate characters in the Showcase who don't just share the same name and personality but also memories so you can pick up a conversation with somebody else provided they look identical to whoever you were talking to previously I guess they're just here to bog the crowd out but each different looking person and robot model has a different personality and parameters and I quickly found my favorites and those I don't care for at all I don't care about the robots that much because I've spent my whole life talking to them already but interacting with other human beings is kind of a fresh new experience for me so to summarize the people in the Showcase Josh is such a boring human being that he manages to be even more dull to talk to than the robots are but sometimes that trait itself gets a laugh from me this policewoman clearly knows something but refuses to disclose anything useful to me so she's probably my least favorite Alex is a lovely guy who gives everything I say a chance which makes him ripe for the bullying Mary and Anna are pretty much the same person I don't think it's possible to not make this man in a hat angry good evening officer I'm just a human rights activist here on level four and this robotic sounding woman here as suggested by her voice and how she casually refers to her father as her Creator is actually a humanoid of some sort it's not just their personalities and objectives that are unique but also their voices which can display a wide variety of different tones and emotions depending on their mental state it's actually kind of an impressive technology unto itself well with all the other Technologies on display here the fact that in world is casually generating voices for all its characters in real time may be going slightly unnoticed thank you so to test the voice generation capabilities I changed my character's name to something really long and stupid and then got them all to pronounce it say my full name I apologize but I'm afraid I cannot do that it's quite a mouthful is there something else I can help you with that blew me away surely nobody else in the history of mankind has ever attempted something this stupid before only to be called out for it by an AI character try as hard as I could I could not make some of these characters say my full name as they kept abbreviating it to my first I suspected a limitation of some kind but then I went over to this awesome cat guy who sees dead robot ghosts and got this hello there my friends 1232 pen dollar percent signed circumflex and circumflex so there you go they can do it it's just that most don't want to in World gives the impression that laziness is a human character trait listening is you need to be smart and stop poking in places where you don't belong maybe AI won't want to take out jobs after all Mr tidabs oh this guy I don't think we have anything to worry about from the likes of Josh right now do you know my full name you are named level what's clear to me is that having interactive NPCs like these in games is going to temporarily transform all players into sociopaths as they test the boundaries and see what they can and cannot get away with so the idea of a single player game being able to feature convincing characters that I can and do want to get to know suddenly looks a lot more feasible and I am impressed with their ability to improvise unprepared topics of conversation with AI generated filler before quickly returning the conversation back to whatever purpose the NPC is there to fulfill again them always wanted to talk about the big fire going on in the background can be frustrating when all I want to do is to mess about with them but in games the ability for an npt to still serve the purpose of an NPC is kind of important but what are the limitations inworld says that their systems can hook character emotions and prompts up with physical actions and animations but it isn't something that has been implemented into this Origins demo showcase just yet so for now even if they can understand what you say to them it doesn't mean they can perform the accompanying physical actions for instance I told Josh to put his hands up or else I'd shoot him and he was convinced he he had his hands up but since his character lacks the animations to do so he obviously couldn't there is a showcase over on in world's YouTube channel of them using their goals and Action System to give an NPC various behaviors to make them better serve a shopkeeper role first they instruct this shopkeeper to greet the player when they first enter the store and then the second behavior is added to make them Shout at the player if they misbehave in some way I sadly now in the Showcase I was playing the NPCs behave in a very orderly manner politely listening to everything I had to say before generating a response of some kind but this doesn't have to be the case the shopkeeper can and will respond to the player's actions even if they're not already engaged in conversation and progressively getting angrier get out of my size you're not welcome in my shop but it does mean that game devs need to anticipate and to create the physical actions that NPCs will be instructed to perform poor Alex was unable to do anything about his unfortunate situation and so just had to stand there growing increasingly concerned about the radioactive fallout I was lying to him about until he had all but given up on his existence I guess this is it then I hope someone can learn from whatever happened here and prevent something like this from happening again in the future goodbye world as you can imagine it took me several days before I could play this game without being distracted by what if scenarios I just thought up in my head but eventually I dont the investigator cap and interrogated suspects the way I was meant to and you know what it worked I felt I could have a decent coherent conversation with these people and I grew to know them all and what they could slash couldn't help me with in regards to the investigation I have completed the Showcase or had I growing up one of my favorite games was the king's quest 4. it featured a massive scary open world that I never really got too far with come to think of it this game actually featured a very basic version of what inworld is now doing back in this one you typed commands to the game and it had to try and respond to them we might even see a Resurgence of this kind of genre now that in-world could potentially bypass the current limitations of text Adventure Games but that isn't actually why I'm talking about the king's quest 4. I was reminded of it for another reason you see one night back when I was a child playing this game I swam out into the ocean I tried this many times before and had been eaten by sharks but this time to my surprise I wasn't eaten and I found an island out in the distance before I could be eaten I swam to it and reached its Golden Shores and it was incredible they had peacocks roaming about its beaches and fairies inside the castle and this discovery blew my mind any preconceived limitations about this game had suddenly vanished the sky was the limit who knows how many other Islands were out there awaiting My Discovery being an adult killed that imagination and having access to the internet has killed that world maps mysteries for me in just a few clicks I can display the entire game and can confirm that there is just one proper Island out there and it's there because it's needed to complete the game while I still remember that giddy sick feeling of excitement that game World used to give me as a child any dreams of Crossing those endless islands has long gone as great and as clever as all of in-world's AI systems may be perhaps the best thing about it for me is how it introduces some of that mystery back into games again it blurs the edges of what's there and what isn't I've seen the character summaries I know they're just a few paragraphs of hand-typed personality and I have that in the back of my head as I'm talking to these characters yet there's still something else there something that makes them feel like individuals with their own personalities and agendas they seem to be somehow more than the sum of their parts may suggest how do we normally get disincent replies from violence in video games with exp bonuses with threats of violence targeted back at us how about this we make the people in these worlds behave more like real people would don't get me wrong I love messing with NPCs as much as anybody does possibly even more but there have been times during the making of this video where I felt genuine guilt for wrongly accusing somebody of a crime that they didn't commit especially when they then react unexpectedly but in a way that I can completely empathize with are you sure you have the right person can we see this evidence of reviewer together sometimes it seems like they're so caught up in their emotions that they go off script or where they suddenly call me out for a lie that I had forgotten about it wakes me up come to think of it all those instances I had with Alex because he's programmed just to be a nice normal friendly kind of person who cares about the well-being of others sorry Alex this is just stuff we're not used to seeing in current games no matter how many polygons may be in their face I went and had a long chat with Anna just here probing her about what life was like in this Metropolis then asking where she'd go if she could go anywhere then we talked about about a nearby Corner Shop and the flavors of bubble gum that they sell there she held a better conversation than many dates that I've been on but I doubt any of this has been pre-planned it's all just AI filler but it makes me think that the way we perceive NPCs in the future may need to change right now we see them as a thing with a purpose and if they don't complete that purpose then they're broken and if they take too long to complete that purpose then we as players get impatient and think they're unfit for purpose but I almost think that the broken and Off Script moments in the future may become the real appeal of these characters speak to them for long enough and they'll inevitably bring up whatever it is they're meant to talk about anyway it seems almost a shame for all these casually generated details to Simply Be wiped upon starting a new game because I want to remember Anna as that person who has a particular opinion about bacon flavored bubble gum but let's not forget the NPCs and games are here to serve a purpose and in this one it's to help me with an investigation that exists solely in the minds of these NPCs and in that of the players because no artist has animated the laboratory blowing up there are no models or textures to allocate to those synthetic animal life forms that were supposedly seen escaping the area the character responsible for this crime can't be seen or spoken to and there aren't powerful Shady organizations watching over my every step and yet they may as well be because these NPCs around me behave as though they do it doesn't feel like I'm running into hard limits on what I can do and where this investigation will lead to I half expect this demo to suddenly load up a new place that until now has only been teased at within the minds of these NPCs who knows how many other crime scenes there are out there awaiting My Discovery dozens hundreds and who knows what Delights they might hold so just like when I'm watching actors in a movie I allow myself to suspend my disbelief because the illusion isn't just some fragile thing that will shatter the moment I go off script instead it bends around me and just when I think I've escaped an NPC will say something that makes me realize that I haven't maybe I was meant to do this all along I guess it's that flexibility that's the real appeal so after I had completed the investigation I stayed on to see if I could get to the very bottom of the mystery I've reviewed the CCTV for dude Janus proved very helpful first by pointing out that there was a CCTV camera across the road that may have footage of the explosion he then investigated that and revealed that there were people seen leaving the area and then he started giving me updates about the investigation elsewhere in the city about the police raids who was in custody who had been questioned and what they'd said and who their other connections could have been another lead popped up and then another and then there was another explosion at another lab somewhere else in the city and then it was done by somebody who one of the bystanders just happened to work with in their day jobs it was all coming together brilliantly perhaps too brilliantly we believe that we were getting closer to solving the entire mystery Victor my previous sworn enemy showed a Kinder side and started helping with the investigation he had warned me that he had powerful connections but now appeared to have turned on his former bosses and was working with me to bring the whole rotten agency down I ran between Janus and Victor and they always had some new updates to tell on the situation this incident went deeper than any of us thought we were solving crimes and arresting suspects left right and center now I've said how I feel more of a connection with these disease than I have done in other games but you know what's even weirder it's almost like they develop a connection with me a forbidden connection that their overriding goals and programming prohibit from developing any further there's a great tragedy contained here somewhere but after solving so many crimes together and spending so much time discussing random stuff they couldn't help but start leaking their emotions out in subtle ways Janice began addressing me as his dear colleague before immediately apologizing for her inappropriate language indeed dear colleague I apologize that was not an appropriate response even Victor grew rather fond of me first by referring to me as dear friend and then this happened do you like me Victor sorry but as a conspirator it's not in my nature to like detectives our goals and interests are fundamentally opposed he likes me as a person he's a conspirator it's not in my interest to have any personal relationships with you let alone consider marriage
2023-04-30 06:13
