Nvidia AI tools could add toxic NPCs to your PC games of the future

Nvidia ACE demo featuring Ramen shop owner
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia is all about AI at the moment, but its next project could help make NPCs in your favorite adventures more toxic. That’s thanks to a new custom toolkit that “aims to bring intelligence “to non-playable🌌 characters through AI-powered natural language interactions,” using an approachable interface. Simply put, developers will be able to instantly fill games with a bunch of walking red flags, and I’m slightly terrified at the prospect. 

Unveiled at Gamescom, the customizable NPC tools are part of Nvidia ACE, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:graphics card giant’s custom AI language model. In a press release, the company explains that LLM (large language models) are designed to only provide “ideal” responses, and𒅌 there’s a distinct lack of emotion behind interactions. This is something you’ve probably noticed if you’ve ever tried to have a conversation with a chatbot, and it’s ultimately the thing that makes AI sound like an algorithm-fueled machine.

To combat this, and potentially turn non playable characters into absolute monsters, the newest intera𓆉ction of ACE adds something called NeMo SteerLM, wꦏhich allows personality attributes to be “quickly configured through simple sliders.” In a demonstration, Nvidia hooks up ‘Jin the ramen shop owner’ to its AI model and plays around with parameters using a sidebar. While options cover a spectrum of emotive traits, including humor and creativity, it’s hard not to think about the toxicity slider and how it transforms Jin into a nasty piece of work. 

Nvidia ACE flowchart with steps interacting with NPC

(Image credit: Nvidia)

The above flowchart helps outline exactly how NeMo SteerLM works from start to finish, covering the journey of an AI generated response to your voice input. Effectively, the whole setup uses selected attributes to determine an specific response based on NPC personality, with the last stage using ‘Omniverಌse Audio2Face’ to paint an appropriate expression.

. The newest version of the AI upscaling tool aims to address some of the caveats associated with full ray tracing, and you’ll be able to harness the benefits in both Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Best of all, it’ll work with all RTX graphics cards rather than just the RTX 4090 and its kin, so it could b♏e  a good excuse to upgrade your PC.