Game publisher and developer Ubisoft recently launched Ghostwriter AI, a tool that generates first drafts of dialogue for non-player characters (NPCs) in games. This innovative technology aims to help writers create more immersive and diverse game worlds by automating some tedious and repetitive background chat tasks.
What is Ghostwriting AI?
Ghostwriter AI is an artificial intelligence model developed by Ben Swanson, an R&D scientist at La Forge Montreal, Ubisoft’s collaboration platform with academic researchers.
Ghostwriter AI can take input a character description, interaction or dialogue and produce output with multiple dialogue variants. For example, if the input is a friendly NPC greeting the player in a medieval setting, the Ghostwriter AI might generate output like this:
- “Hello, Traveler. What brought you here?”
- “Hello, stranger. You look like you’ve seen many miracles. Would you like to share your story?”
- “Hello, friend. I hope you enjoy your stay in my village.”
- “Welcome, adventurer. You have a brave heart and curious eyes. What are you looking for?”
Writers can then choose the best options for their game scene and polish as needed. Ghostwriter AI also learns from writers’ feedback and becomes more effective and accurate over time.
Why did Ubisoft use the Ghostwriter AI?
Ubisoft is known for creating large open world games with rich narratives and diverse characters. However, writing dialogue for all these NPCs can be a daunting and time-consuming task for screenwriters, especially when they have to account for different languages, cultures, accents, personalities, emotions, and more.
By using the Ghostwriter AI tool to generate first drafts of dialogue for NPCs, Ubisoft hopes to save writers time and resources while improving the quality and variety of the game world. According to Ubisoft’s blog, Ghostwriter AI can help screenwriters:
- Focus on Creation: By automating the routine writing of dialogue, writers can spend more time crafting compelling stories and memorable characters.
- Increased productivity: By quickly and easily generating multiple dialogue variants, writers can explore different possibilities and choose the best option without wasting time on trial and error.
- Improved Consistency: By learning from previous choices and writer’s feedback, Ghostwriter AI can adapt to different styles and preferences while maintaining consistency across scenes.
How will Ghostwriter AI affect the gaming industry?
Ubisoft isn’t the only company using AI technology to enhance its game development process. Many other game studios have experimented with various applications of AI, such as procedural generation, animation, level design, and more.
Artificial intelligence technology has the potential to revolutionize games and player interactions through new ways to create immersive worlds. However, AI technology also brings some challenges and ethical issues, such as:
- How will artificial intelligence affect human creativity? Will it augment or replace human creators?
- How will the AI affect the player? Will it create higher activity and engagement? Or will it limit the player’s choices?
- How will artificial intelligence affect cultural diversity? Will it respect or eliminate cultural differences and details?
These game development issues make players need to think about the opportunities and risks of using AI technology in games.
Ghostwriter AI is a tool that generates first drafts of dialogue for non-player characters in games.
source: Engadget、my city、The Gamer
Responsible editor: Mia
Draft Editor: Anny
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The first draft of this article was compiled using AI for INSIDE.
