Advocates of modern AI technology—And this is our weekly reminder that there is no AI at all.—has big plans for video games. Ubisoft is kidding, Playing Square Enixhowever, these are test environments only: For a more comprehensive look at what AI supporters want to see in video games, you should check out this trailer for the ChatGPT mod. Skyrim.
In this video by a user named Art from the Machine, “a Skyrim Mod that allows talking to NPCs via ChatGPT, xVASynth (text-to-speech) and Whisper (speech-to-text). This update introduces the Skyrim script that allows for lip syncing of sounds and NPC awareness of in-game events.
That’s the purpose anyway. Here’s everything that looks and sounds good in practice:
It’s a horror show, I know. Particular highlights are the need to speed up the video to mask the time it takes for the game to respond to questions, the horribly synthesized voice acting, and the bland, general standard of all “text”. Oh, and people who actually run of Skyrim In a world without clocks, stores will now tell you their working hours as if you were getting a call from a mall. Sorry sir, we close at 5pm.
A console staple
Since the Xbox Series S is $30 off, you can redeem that $30 for storage, an extra controller, or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
I’ve spent centuries writing previous drafts of this blog where I took this opportunity to start a tirade against the idea that machine learning can or should replace human artists, but you know what? This is a Skyrim mode If that’s what many people who still play this game want—and clearly it isdespite what they did Actually Play tabletop RPG with your friends, then play. If you’re happy with word soup dialogue written by a machine trained on what’s already pretty general in the first place, it won’t convince you that I said “we should value human art as the only true human experience”. If This future of video games you want, you will get everything you deserve.
