Sony patents AI-generated podcasts featuring characters from its games, and I was just sick in my mouth

Sony has filed a patent for personalized generative AI podcasts to pop up while players are in-game to let them know of the latest news, from achievements their friends have unlocked to the fact that software updates might be available. I’m not sure who needed a robot approximation of Christopher Judge’s voice to tell them to update their game, but the patent, which was granted in late January, shows that Sony believes this to be a profitable route forward.

While it’s unclear how this will impact us PC players or whether it will be restricted to PlayStation consoles, the abstract for the patent says that, “Artificial intelligence (AI) models are disclosed to generate unique, personalized podcasts of news that a particular gamer would find interesting. The podcasts can present the news in a voice of a videogame character of a videogame already played by the respective gamer.”

So, if you love open-world games and are making your way through Horizon: Forbidden West, Aloy might pop up to tell you that an update is available, that you’re tackling a boss all wrong, or whatever else Sony wants you to hear. Not only do I find this pointless, I think it’s a poor use of our planet’s dwindling resources.

Studies suggest that generative AI can have a detrimental effect on users’ brain activity, and the health of people situated near data centers could be compromised too. It’s causing the price of consumer electronics like GPUs and RAM to skyrocket, and it’s terrible for the environment to boot. For all this harm caused, the end result is middling at best.

Arc Raiders may be a great game, but the AI voices for NPCs are jarring to say the least. They don’t sound real, they’re not memorable like the NPCs of games past, and they often ruin immersion. Where Winds Meet’s AI NPCs are even worse, and can be tricked using the ‘Solid Snake method,’ thereby undermining core gameplay features just to save dev time.

Would you want a whole podcast beamed into your ears based on robotic impersonations of Chris Judge, Ashly Burch, or Troy Baker? Sony’s patent images show these AI impersonators offering unsolicited tips for beating bosses and even gently mocking you for not having unlocked achievements your friends have. I struggle to see the point in any of it, but it gets worse.

Snuck into the end of the patent description is a sentence that reads, “in some specific instances, other games that a platform wants to highlight to its players may be recommended to the players themselves through the characters of the podcasts.”

There’s the real reason Sony has applied for this patent. Despite training an LLM on your personal data, it will sometimes ignore that in order to advertise to you. I haven’t even touched on whether the voice actors involved will get residuals from the unethical use of their voices – this whole patent stinks and there’s not a single positive use-case I can see.