Ubisoft Explores Generative AI: Potential Revolution in NPC Narratives Unveiled

Ubisoft's Paris studio is working with Nvidia's Audio2Face application and Inworld's Large Language Model to create a more immersive gaming experience with AI-enhanced, authentic NPC conversations.

Pushing the boundaries of generative AI
Multidisciplinary approach combining artistic and scientific expertise
Potential for enhancing player immersion and storytelling in video games

Ubisoft’s Paris studio, in collaboration with nVidia’s Audio2Face application and Inworld’s Large Language Model (LLM), is pushing the boundaries of generative AI to create a more immersive gaming experience. The project, known as NEO NPC, aims to enable players to engage in authentic conversations with non-playable characters (NPCs) in video games. This ambitious endeavor has required a multidisciplinary approach, combining artistic and scientific expertise.

Guillemette Picard, Senior Vice President of Production Technology at Ubisoft, emphasizes that the focus of genAI projects is to bring value to players while maintaining the importance of human creativity. Instead of relying solely on machines to generate NPC personalities, a writer shapes their character, backstory, and conversation style. The learning language model then improvises dialogue, which the writer fine-tunes. This collaborative process allows for a more nuanced and engaging NPC interaction.

Virginie Mosser, Narrative Director for the NEO NPC project, describes the experience of conversing with a character she created as a childhood dream come true. The project’s Data Scientist, Mélanie Lopez Malet, ensures that the AI model accurately embodies the character’s personality through various techniques such as player input analysis and textual instructions. The iterative nature of character creation helps maintain consistency and prevents players from disrupting the intended tone or narrative arc.

The team at Ubisoft also prioritizes authenticity and strives to avoid biases and stereotypes in character design and behavior. They are committed to addressing any issues that may arise from the AI model’s responses and continuously refining it to align with the original vision.

While NEO NPC is still in the prototype stage, Ubisoft aims to make it a flexible tool that can be implemented in both smaller and AAA game projects. They believe that this technology opens up countless gameplay possibilities and offers players new experiences. The team plans to gather industry feedback at GDC 2024 to further improve and refine the project.

Overall, the NEO NPC project showcases the potential of generative AI in enhancing player immersion and storytelling in video games. It highlights the importance of balancing data-driven AI with human creativity to create truly captivating gaming experiences.

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Background Information

About nVidia: NVIDIA has firmly established itself as a leader in the realm of client computing, continuously pushing the boundaries of innovation in graphics and AI technologies. With a deep commitment to enhancing user experiences, NVIDIA's client computing business focuses on delivering solutions that power everything from gaming and creative workloads to enterprise applications. for its GeForce graphics cards, the company has redefined high-performance gaming, setting industry standards for realistic visuals, fluid frame rates, and immersive experiences. Complementing its gaming expertise, NVIDIA's Quadro and NVIDIA RTX graphics cards cater to professionals in design, content creation, and scientific fields, enabling real-time ray tracing and AI-driven workflows that elevate productivity and creativity to unprecedented heights. By seamlessly integrating graphics, AI, and software, NVIDIA continues to shape the landscape of client computing, fostering innovation and immersive interactions in a rapidly evolving digital world.

About Ubisoft: Ubisoft is a important video game company that was founded in 1986 in France by the Guillemot brothers: Christian, Claude, Gérard, Michel, and Yves. The company is known for developing and publishing a wide range of popular video game franchises, including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six, and Watch Dogs. Ubisoft is recognized for its commitment to delivering immersive and engaging gaming experiences across multiple platforms, from consoles and PCs to mobile devices.

Technology Explained

LLM: A Large Language Model (LLM) is a highly advanced artificial intelligence system, often based on complex architectures like GPT-3.5, designed to comprehend and produce human-like text on a massive scale. LLMs possess exceptional capabilities in various natural language understanding and generation tasks, including answering questions, generating creative content, and delivering context-aware responses to textual inputs. These models undergo extensive training on vast datasets to grasp the nuances of language, making them invaluable tools for applications like chatbots, content generation, and language translation.