Sony PlayStation AI-Powered Game Characters Are Being Tested.

Sony is testing AI-driven PlayStation characters, beginning with Horizon Forbidden West’s Aloy.

A tipster provided an inside video of Aloy reacting to voice cues in real time with AI-generated speech and facial movements, according to The Verge.

Sony Interactive Entertainment and Guerrilla Games created the prototype, which Sharwin Raghoebardajal, Director of Software Engineering, exhibited. He said the demo includes OpenAI’s Whisper for speech-to-text, GPT-4 and Llama 3 for conversation and decision-making, and Sony’s Emotional Voice Synthesis (EVS) for voice creation and Mockingbird for audio-to-face animation.

While the demo operated on PC, Raghoebardajal said Sony tested the technique on PlayStation 5 hardware with negligible performance effect. The business built a rudimentary version a year ago and showed a more sophisticated construct at its Tokyo internal Sony Technology Exchange Fair (STEF) last November.

Sony hasn’t declared plans to distribute AI-powered characters, thus this Aloy demo was a test. Since users control Aloy in the game, the initiative raises problems regarding AI in gaming. AI may blur the boundaries between character and player, threatening voice acting, narrative, and game design employment.

Nvidia and Microsoft are also developing NPC AI tools and game prototyping tools. Sony’s covert foray into AI-powered game avatars may increase the AI-game development debate at GDC 2025.