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Image Credit: Ubisoft
As if there wasn't enough controversy surrounding Ubisoft lately, the developer has poured even more oil on the flames by reaffirming its plans to integrate generative AI into their future games and "automatize certain things" within the company itself.
In case you're not in the know, during GDC 2024, the company introduced its AI-driven NEO NPCs, which made headlines for their dead-eyed appearance, speech patterns that sounded like AI hallucinations, and attempts to convince The Verge's Sean Hollister, who got to experiment with the bots, to start overthrowing powerful mega-corporations.
Despite facing criticism, Ubisoft remained persistent in its AI-pushing agenda, with the studio's CEO Yves Guillemot highlighting the company's continuous investment in generative AI and noting partnerships with leading AI firms for joint projects as part of the company's latest financial report. During the Q&A session with investors (via GamesRadar), Guillemot emphasized that they are now focusing on "making games more alive" by integrating artificial intelligence into them.
"So we did present a new NPC at the last conference. It was well appreciated, and it showed what we will be able to do in our games that will make them more alive and richer," the CEO noted. "So I expect a lot from gen AI in our games, to make our games more interesting and for people to really have a personalized experience."
Even more worrying are Ubisoft's intentions to "automatize a certain number of things" within the studio itself using AI, which sounds suspiciously like corporate jargon for impending job cuts.
"We have two groups working on gen AI. One pool to the different jobs that we have – marketing, sales, IT, legal, and all the other jobs – where we look at how we can be more efficient, and how we can automatize a certain number of things," said Guillemot. "That's coming along quite well, with good systems to improve our efficiency there."
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