Xbox partners with Inworld ‘to build AI game dialogue and narrative tools at scale’
“Together, we aim to deliver an accessible, responsibly designed multi-platform AI toolset”
Xbox has announced a multi-year deal with Inworld to build AI dialogue and narrative tools at scale.
Haiyan Zhang, Xbox’s general manager of gaming AI, said the goal of the partnership is to create new state-of-the-art tools for multiplatform developers of all sizes.
“Together, we aim to deliver an accessible, responsibly designed multi-platform AI toolset to assist and empower creators in dialogue, story & quest design,” she wrote.
In Zhang’s words, the toolset will include:
- An AI design copilot that assists and empowers game designers to explore more creative ideas, turning prompts into detailed scripts, dialogue trees, quests and more.
- An AI character runtime engine that can be integrated into the game client, enabling entirely new narratives with dynamically-generated stories, quests, and dialogue for players to experience.
Inworld hit the headlines in August after a Grand Theft Auto 5 mod let players talk to NPCs using its generative AI platform.
The use of AI in the entertainment world is currently a major point of contention. Some members of the acting community are concerned that it will be used in an adverse way, with studios attempting to cut costs by using it to replace actors, or to tweak their images or performances without fairly compensating them.
In September members of SAG-AFTRA, the labour union for American actors, voted overwhelmingly in favour of potential video game strike action.
So far negotiations with video game companies and their performance production arms have failed due to what SAG-AFTRA calls unacceptable terms on “some of the issues most critical to our members, including wages that keep up with inflation, protections around exploitative uses of artificial intelligence, and basic safety precautions”.