Microsoft adopt Inworld AI tech behind blocked GTA5 mod to "enrich" videogame narrative and character creators

Much like Weyland-Yutani linking arms with Skynet, Microsoft have teamed up with Inworld to bring the latter's "generative AI" tools to Xbox studios. This "multi-year co-development partnership" will "build a powerful toolkit that harnesses artificial intelligence to enrich the narrative and character creation elements of game development", according to Inworld CEO Ilya Gelfenbeyn. You might recognise Inworld as the tech used by that GTA 5 mod about AI cultists in which characters speak AI-generated dialogue, which Rockstar blocked from distribution over the summer. Suffice to say that Microsoft have grander plans for it.

Gelfenbeyn's announcement post (thanks Eurogamer) specifies two particular WIP tools, an "AI design copilot that assists and empowers game designers to explore more creative ideas, turning prompts into detailed scripts, dialogue trees, quests and more", and an "AI character runtime engine that can be integrated into the game client, enabling entirely new narratives with dynamically-generated stories, quests, and dialogue for players to experience."

Of the "copilot", the blog notes that it could "reduce the time and resource constraints during production to not only ship faster, but to also craft more expansive and immersive worlds and stories". It'll apparently "take the seeds of these creative ideas and transform them into detailed scripts complete with dialogue trees, quests, and more." The copilot is in closed beta right now and they'll be sharing more on 17th November, at the G-Star Korea trade show in Busan.

As for the "AI character runtime engine", it'll apply to expressions, dialogue and gestures, and will supposedly help games shift from "a scripted player-character dynamic to one that adapts to players' actions and choices in real-time" so as to avoid "repetitive dialogue and the inability to adapt to in-game actions".

Xbox general manager of gaming AI Haiyan Zhang adds in the Inworld post that the forthcoming toolkit will "empower creators in dialogue, story, and quest design", and will be available to developers of all sizes around the world. It'll be integrated with Microsoft's internal "AI" projects, including the Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Research's, er, research.

Microsoft are up to their necks in various AI projects and productions. The company announced that they had plunged billions into OpenAI this January, shortly after laying thousands of people off. The framing of the Inworld tool as a "copilot" and an "assistant", designed to cut out time rather than staff, reads like an attempt to reassure current Xbox developers that they aren't on the chopping block.