Roblox's top tech officer talks AI
Roblox is having its ninth annual Roblox Developers Conference in San Francisco today and tomorrow, and it's using the event to roll out a few announcements for the gaming platform, including the imminent arrival of Roblox on PlayStation platforms and its full launch on Meta Quest, both of which are happening this month.
Beyond that, the company is also touting Roblox Connect, an "immersive 3D communication experience" for users 13 and over that will use spatial audio and a device's cameras and microphones to create chat spaces that reflect facial expressions and sound as if in a real-world setting.
The third big announcement of the show is Roblox Assistant, a conversational AI tool intended to assist creators on the platform.
In a pre-show briefing with Roblox chief technology officer Daniel Sturman, it's the Assistant that draws most of our inquiries.
"It can act as an incredible on-ramp to creators on the platform, but it also can work in a way that can really accelerate existing creators," Sturman says of the tool. "It's not a separate thing from Studio. It's all part of the creator tools we've been shipping for years; it's just accelerating them with the power of generative AI."
So at a basic level, Sturman says users could ask the Assistant how to import a mesh into Roblox and receive instructions on that process, but it can go further.
"You can say, 'Hey, I'd like to create a campfire scene,' and it will pull, for example, trees, a tent, and a fire from our Creator Marketplace and start to place them on a template for you," Sturman says.
That can then be further tweaked, with Sturman suggesting players could ask it to replace deciduous trees with pine trees, or provide clarification as to the type of tent
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