Could AI spell the end of the immersion-breaking NPC? | Opinion

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You'd be forgiven for feeling a little cynical about the sudden explosion of hype around artificial intelligence and LLMs (Large Language Models) that we've seen in the past few weeks; after all, it's once bitten, twice shy, and we've all just spent a couple of years being preached at about blockchain and NFTs by glassy-eyed evangelists who got far too high on their own supply.

Anyone can see that LLMs are doing some impressive things, but given how many game companies fell face-first for the unjustified hype around blockchain, and the fact that some of the most obnoxious NFT grifters are now selling themselves as AI gurus online, you'd be quite right to feel wary and to wonder about the actual limitations of this technology, how much of it is smoke and mirrors, and what actual applications it might have to video games.

Not everyone shares such reservations. There are plenty of people fully caught up on the hype train, and just a bit of dabbling with ChatGPT and MidJourney has convinced them that an enormous revolution in games and entertainment is just around the corner. At least one major games discussion forum temporarily banned posting new threads about LLMs and AI because it was getting clogged up with wild speculation about the impact of these technologies. People are getting a long way ahead of the reality, just like they did with NFTs, and many of the use cases being suggested are far beyond the actual capabilities of the technology (and in some cases, aren't anything a sane developer would want to implement even if they actually could).

There is some obvious potential in LLM-style technologies which, if carefully implemented, could