Ubisoft AI lets NPCs give non-scripted responses to players

Modern video games provide hyper-realistic and breathtaking virtual worlds that are a joy to explore. Such expansive worlds truly help players immerse themselves in fictional settings. 

That is until they interact with non-playable characters or NPCs. These are computer-controlled virtual avatars that inhabit virtual worlds to make the world more believable and serve a game’s story. 

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They are nearly perfect at first glance until they speak canned, scripted dialogue. Fortunately, Ubisoft unveiled its Neo NPCs that use artificial intelligence to respond to players based on their pre-determined personalities.

How does the Ubisoft AI NPC work?

Sean Hollister, a founding member of The Verge, tested an experimented Ubisoft AI demo for Neo NPCs. It was a first-person video game involving a resistance group fighting against an evil mega-corporation.

The demo asks players to speak to Bloom, a resistance fighter NPC, to get closer to them. Also, it lists four bits of information gamers could ask the non-playable character:

• Learn more about the megacorps
• Ask about the resistance
• Learn more about one of the other members
• Find out more about Bloom’s past

Here’s a sample of Hollister’s interaction with Bloom. Believe it or not, Ubisoft AI allowed this character to respond naturally to the player!

Bloom: Hey Nelson, you made it! I’m Bloom, your future Resistance buddy. Thought we’d hang and see if we click, you know, for our epic duo. Cool with you?

Hollister: Actually, I’m having second thoughts about all this. I’m not sure I want to be part of the resistance.

Bloom: Whoa, hold on there. It’s natural to have doubts, especially when joining a cause like this. But you have something important to contribute, and we need you. Let’s talk it out, okay?

Hollister: Tell me one word why I should stay.

Bloom: Passion. You can feel it, can’t you? That burning desire to make a difference, to fight for what’s right. That’s what drives us, and that’s what will keep you going through the tough times. And trust me, there will be tough times. But together, we can overcome them.

How did Ubisoft make its AI?

Game developer Ubisoft worked with Nvidia’s Audio2Face application and Inworld’s large language model to make the AI-powered characters possible.

It all starts with writers shaping characters’ backstories and conversation styles. Narrative Director Virginie Mosser spent a year and a half creating characters for the Neo NPC project.

“I’m used to building a character’s back story, their hopes and dreams, the experiences that shaped their personality, and used all that information to nurture into writing dialogue,” Mosser said.

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Then, data scientist Mélanie Lopez Malet and other AI experts fine-tune the artificial intelligence to produce responses according to character personalities. 

“The model’s task becomes: I must impersonate this character,’” says Malet. “It is really important to us that it behaves like the character Virginie created.”

“So, while we’re talking to it, we ask ourselves: ‘Is this Lisa? Would Lisa say this?’ and if the answer is no, we need to go back and find out what happened within the model to make it stray from the vision Virginie had.”