2024-01-19 11:02:31
Some 40% of jobs in the world will be affected by artificial intelligence and even 60% in the most developed economies, according to an IMF report published on January 14. An already very concrete reality for the video game sector.
The video game industry is at a crossroads where very different professions work together. To make a video game, you need artists, illustrators who will draw and visualize the game, authors who will write the story, the dialogues; you need developers and programmers who will write the computer code. In the biggest productions, we also find actors who will lend their voice and their image to the different characters. Their common point: almost all of them are already affected by artificial intelligence. At all stages, it is possible to delegate at least part of the work to a IA.
For example, rather than employing 6 or 7 artists to create the scenery for their future game, some studio bosses might be tempted to settle for one or two human developers assisted by a generative AI responsible for making street lamps or chain trees. Ubisoft has already internally integrated an AI responsible for assisting authors in writing dialogues. But some want to go even further. At the last show Las Vegas CESchip manufacturer Nvidia announced that it would make tools available to developers to create characters capable of interacting directly with players.
Programmers are not spared
In a controlled demonstration, a player can be seen interacting with and speaking directly to a character in the game. The system is able to recognize his voice and the meaning of what was said, produce a textual response and have it spoken by the fictional character. Nvidia even promises that the character will be able to interact in the game world. In the example presented, the bartender controlled by the AI serves a drink to the player who asks him for it. The Chinese studios NetEase and Tencent, but also the French Ubisoft, have already signed and they are far from being the only ones wanting to capitalize on AI.
Developers are not immune to these changes. AI is already capable of writing pieces of computer code for them. In one form or another, there is already AI in many video games. To the extent that Steam, the main digital marketplace for computer video games, has just updated its rules of use: from now on, studios will be required to say whether their game contains AI and in what forms it was used . For the most optimistic, AI will relieve development teams of the most thankless tasks to let them concentrate on what requires being more creative. But many developers, like graphic designerswonder if their work will still exist in a few years.
Dubbing professionals get organized
The comedians who lend their voices and sometimes their image to different video game characters are particularly worried. Specialized actor Zeke Alton, member of the SAG-AFTRA union, issued a warning on social networks: “ If you are scanning your face for a video game, read the contract very carefully before signing. No problem to transfer the rights to your image for a role or even a particular game, but be careful not to transfer the rights to your image indefinitely and for any use, that would be really serious… »
Actors fear losing control of their work tool, of seeing the AI take over their voice or their appearance to play new lines of dialogue for them, without them being compensated or having their say on the content. Some products already exist for video game developers. Replica Studios offers voices generated by artificial intelligence with a personality, even an accent. The result is still robotic and the performance leaves something to be desired, but professionals do not want to wait until they are potentially overwhelmed to protect themselves.
Inspired by the Hollywood actors and voice actors who got guarantees last summer, unions in the United States are currently negotiating to adapt contracts and ensure that actors and actresses have a say in how their voice or appearance is used, and that everyone is compensated in case of new use.
Also read: Hollywood: after the strike, “a contraction in the industry” expected
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