There’s a massive debate going on right now in many parts of the entertainment world, including video games. That debate is over the use of AI to help “fill the roles” of certain people and workers. In the movie/TV and video game industry, many don’t want AI to be used on a large scale because it takes jobs away from those who can do those same tasks. We’ve already seen this controversy happen with voice actors or with AI-generated art. However, as in all things, there is context as to how something can be used, as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth proves rather well.
As you’ll see in the tweet below, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth did have AI help as part of its development process. The twist is that it was used in a way that would’ve been difficult for people to replicate without serious time and effort being put in. In this example, one of the animation and programming team members noted that the second entry of the “remake saga” used AI to help with lip-syncing in and out of cutscenes:
While this may seem like a small thing, matching up voices to lips is actually one of the harder parts of the animation trade. After all, people talk differently, and you need to make the lip and mouth movements “line up” with what’s being said in a way that feels “right.” For a person, that can take quite a long time, but if an AI is trained to understand how lips move and how certain words make the body look when said, it can speed up the process immensely.
Another thing to consider here, especially with this title from Square Enix, is that there’s a LOT of talking in this game. Both in the cutscenes and outside of them, the characters are talking quite a bit. Sometimes, it’s just banter that goes back and forth while they’re walking around, and sometimes, it’s within the combat for one reason or another. That means there’s plenty of lip-syncing to do to get the game looking right.
Circling back around to the AI argument, it also needs to be said that there are “levels” of AI. Lower-level AI has been used in gaming for a long time via combat systems and programming enemy combatants. It’s what helps make games difficult or more difficult.
So don’t raise your pitchforks and torches over this use of AI, as it arguably made the game better without taking people’s work away. Instead, this is one case where they were likely glad to pass the buck.
