Microsoft is partnering with Inward AI to create AI game development tools. The use of artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry is controversial. However, Microsoft presents it as simply a new tool for game developers.

Microsoft Partners with Inward AI

According to Microsoft, the company partnered with Inward AI to create an AI toolset for dialogue, story, and quest design.

“We want to help make it easier for developers to realize their visions, try new things, push the boundaries of gaming today, and experiment to improve gameplay, player connection, and more,” says Haiyan Zhang, Xbox’s General Manager of Gaming AI.

The toolset comprises a “Design Copilot” and an AI Character Runtime Engine. The first will help game developers to “explore more creative ideas” by generating scripts, quests, dialogue trees, and more. Meanwhile, developers can integrate the Character Runtime Engine into the game client to generate new in-game content automatically.

Inward AI uses Open AI’s GPT-3 to bring NPCs to life with machine-generated dialogue, creating fleshed-out characters in minutes. The system can also tailor NPC behavior to respond to player actions and other in-game events based on a pre-defined personality.

“The emergence of large language models and generative AI has unlocked new opportunities for storytelling and character engagement within games,” says CEO Ilya Gelfenbeyn.

In their official statements, Microsoft and Inward AI emphasized the long history of algorithm-generated content. However, as the systems become more complex, they are becoming more controversial. AI-generated content was a significant point of contention during the SAG-AFTRA strike. Many worry that the growing use of AI will lead to a loss of acting, writing, articles, and other creative jobs. Others fear that overreliance on AI will lead to increased homogenization of mass media.