Artificial intelligence has had a bit of a boom lately. There was plenty of chatter online and in the news as AI tools continue to get far more advanced these days. Now you have tools to help generate essays to even artwork. While these AI tools are starting to get into individuals’ hands, we’re seeing big-name companies from the video game industry dabble into AI. Now it looks like Blizzard Entertainment is another studio that could rely on AI to help generate artwork.
This news comes from Gamerant, who has reported that a new patent from Blizzard Entertainment surfaced online. It looks like Blizzard Entertainment is keen on the idea of using AI to help generate artwork. Essentially, this would allow the machine to bring out some textures or help flesh out the world with textures rather than relying on these artworks to be done by staff. That could help free up the staff to work on other notable areas of a video game project. Of course, that still might be a bit controversial, with some individuals being completely opposed to the idea of AI being used to craft assets for a video game.
With this technology being rather new, it might be a good while before we get a look into how well these technologies help aid in development. But, of course, other individuals from the industry have favored using these tools. In fact, if you don’t recall, it was last month that former SIE Worldwide studios president, Shuhei Yoshida, expressed AI as a useful tool for developers. So it just comes down to allowing these studios to understand the tool, which could be incredibly valuable when creating new thrilling video game experiences.
Likewise, Ubisoft has expressed its desire to use AI for future video game projects. They introduced Ghostwriter earlier this year, which allows the studio to help generate different phrases for NPCs. With this tool, the game developers would be able to get ideas for NPCs depending on the situation or environment. So it looks like AI may play a bigger role in future video game development, which could prove to be incredibly immersive. We’re even seeing some mods use AI for previously released video games. For instance, one modder implemented AI into The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, adding new dialogue to NPCs within the game, somewhat similar to Ubisoft’s Ghostwriter AI tool.