Ubisoft Reveals First Generative AI NPC, Everyone Hates It

thegamer.com:

Last year, Ubisoft announced that it had created an AI tool that could potentially generate NPC dialogue, much to the dismay of pretty much everyone. Ubisoft's games have never really had the most expressive or interesting NPCs, and many feared that giving them AI-generated dialogue would make them even blander than they already are.

Almost a year to the day, Ubisoft's efforts to generate NPC dialogue have borne fruit, as the publisher announced a research project called 'NEO NPCs' via its official Twitter account today. In this announcement, Ubisoft showed off someone talking to a generic NPC called Bloom, a character whose personality has been created by a writer, but has dialogue generated by AI.

If you're aware of the reaction to Ubisoft's announcement about AI-generated NPC dialogue back in 2023, it won't come as much of a shock to you that the results of said announcement are also being ripped apart. Thousands have descended upon Ubisoft's tweet to let the publisher how much of a bad idea this is and continues to be, including Twitter user OutletOnMyChest, who says that "nobody wants this" and criticizes the publisher for not hiring writers instead.

It's a very common criticism that's being leveled against Ubisoft in both the replies and the quote tweets, with many stressing that games should be about art and people telling their own stories rather than crammed with dialogue created by a computer. Others point out iconic titles with memorable NPC interactions that would be made worse with AI dialogue, such as Skyrim, Disco Elysium, and the delightful cheesiness of Shenmue.

There's also the issue that Ubisoft somehow thought it was a good idea to show off this dialogue, as it's very poorly written. You'll find a lot of people making fun of the project about how "robotic" and "flat" Bloom actually sounds, with one person claiming that you can tell the dialogue "reads like a chatbot". It's clearly not a popular feature, yet Ubisoft seems rather proud of it