It was a little over a year ago, in the latter parts of 2023, that Nvidia revealed the Nvidia Kairos demo. The demo attempted to show how AI technologies, specifically Nvidia ACE, could be used to enhance non-playable characters (NPCs) for a more immersive gaming experience.
While the interaction still felt stiff and only displayed one conversation, it sprouted intrigue into many gamers out there, one day hoping to play games where the NPCs responded to anything you said or did to them instead of picking lines from an imprinted library.
Not a short while later, a video popped up showcasing how modders had integrated ChatGPT into The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Combined with a few other AI technologies, this mod pack allowed players to use their microphones and have real-time conversations with NPCs, which would then process the information and respond using ChatGPT. The conversations still felt robotic, and, at times, ChatGPT does get too philosophical. Still, the idea of playing a single-player RPG, where each character remembers your past conversations and develops a sense of personality, was more than just exciting.
Fast forward to CES 2025, where Nvidia announced their latest update with Nvidia ACE: autonomous game characters.
Using the skills they have learnt to create conversational NPCs with the array of generative AI tools, Nvidia has expanded ACE, which can now create in-game characters that perceive, plan and act like human players.
To do this, Nvidia had to examine how humans make decisions. This seems simple enough, but there is more to our decision-making process than you may think. To simplify things, Nvidia broke the process down into four categories: Perception, Cognition, Memory, and Action. At the core of the human decision-making process, there is essentially an internal conversation we have with ourselves, repeatedly asking the same question: “What should I do next?”
Using our perception of the world around us, what we hear, see, smell, and feel, and our memories, goals, and motivations, humans quickly and cognitively decipher all of this information to decide on the action we then take.
Nvidia uses a real-world example of hearing your phone ring.
The audible ring prompts the cognitive response of “What should I do next?” and we decide whether to answer the call or not using our perception and motivation.
1. I’m at home, so there will be no distractions if I do take this call. (Perception)
2. I am expecting an important call. (Memory and motivation)
3. I answer the call. (Action)
It may seem a little simple in the example, but it gets the point across.
Using an array of newly formulated language models, Nvidia ACE has devised a system that allows game developers to create AI characters that follow similar categories to act as if they were human. This is not your father’s old Quake algorithm at play, this is something completely different.
Alongside the CES announcement, Nvidia also showed a few games that are going to start utilising these new autonomous game characters for the games, and there were some big names dropped, to say the least.
Krafton, the company behind the original battle royale game PUBG, released a clip showing off new co-playable characters that will follow you around in-game, responding to voice commands, collecting items for players and providing cover fire when needed.
The clip shows the co-playable character PUBG Ally dropping in with a real player, pinging requested loot, providing cover fire, and responding to flank commands. PUBG Ally even adds some human elements by stating that it “carries for a living” when the duo snatches up the chicken dinner.
Naraka: Bladepoint, a melee-focused battle royale from NetEase, shows off a similar AI-powered teammate, although the relationship feels a little more master and slave compared to the more human-like capabilities we saw in the PUBG demo.
Wemade Studios also announced how they will utilise the new Nvidia ACE technologies in their latest MMORPG, MIR5. Boss encounters will be AI-powered, allowing these beasts to learn from previous battles and adapt their attack and defence strategies based on the party in front of them. The game promises that no battle of the same boss will ever be the same and will provide a more in-depth gaming experience.
On the more casual gaming side, Krafton showcased how they will also be utilising this new human-like AI tech to allow their new Sims-like game, InZoi, to feel like a real, lived-in world. These new “Smart Zoi” will act with other in-game characters depending on developed personalities, which will grow over time depending on interactions with other Zoi and the world around them.
These developed characters will provide the player with a more human-like and real experience when they bump into fully developed characters that affect the world they play in, even when you weren’t even there to witness the interaction.
The studio behind F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch, TiGames, has gone a different route, where customisation is the focus. Players can use AI NPCs to describe the kind of customisation they want for their ship, and the AI model will then generate skins based on the prompt, like Mid Journey, if you will. As someone who uses AI prompts for 3D printing models, fixing up a few images here and there and spending hours upon hours customising things in-game, this one had me drooling.
But what does this all mean for the future of gaming?
Well, aside from the fact that Nvidia’ new artificially powered GPUs will provide more detailed environments at smoother framerates thanks to frame generation technologies, it means that games will now have the potential to provide richer and deeper experiences throughout almost any genre. From creating life-like characters in life sim games to allowing even more creativity without needing much design skill in games that allow skin customisations, a lot of positive can be taken from this.
Imagine a role-playing game that both you and a friend play, where each character is entirely different for both of you—creating a completely different gameplay experience that has been moulded by you as the player and how you interact with the world around you. Some games already provide this sort of experience, like Red Dead Redemption 2, and the game is praised because of it. But think beyond linear storylines. Think of every NPC actually forming their own opinion on the world you’re playing in because of what’s going on around it, whether it be something you initiate or because of other NPCs living in the world with you. Then, instead of just throwing out random voice lines as you walk past them, NPCs actually act upon these formed opinions, completely changing the way the game plays, even when you’re not there.
Imagine walking into a town you’ve never stepped foot in, only to find the local barkeep won’t serve you any drinks because you haggled too hard with the travelling salesmen that one time you were a little short on silver.
With this kind of AI technology in games, the potential for world-building becomes limitless as the developers won’t need to spend years, impossibly coding each and every eventuality. Instead, it will use neural rendering.
At Nvidia’s keynote event during CES this week, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, said, “Gaming as an industry is going to get revitalised by AI.”
“The cost of creating content will go down because of AI. And the games are going to be more interesting because of AI. And the games are going to be more beautiful because of AI,” Huang added.
However, a bit of scepticism still lingers, especially regarding AI in PvP arenas.
For years, gamers have voiced their opinions about playing against bots in PvP games.
While some of us remember the days of playing against Xero in Quake 3 Arena, possibly one of the hardest bots to play against back in the day, many modern games have used bots to fill player slots, making PvP arenas feel fuller at the cost of playing against anything with some actual skill. With AI in play, we could start to see more difficult, human-like bots enter the fray. Potentially giving new meaning to the word “bots”.
While this would provide a more challenging and possibly more real experience for us, could these new and improved “computer players” ruin the core purpose of a PvP game: playing against other real players?
Only time will tell as developers slowly start integrating this new technology into more and more games.
For now, the future of gaming looks bright, exciting and limitless. I just pray that Keanu Reeves is still around should things turn out for the worse.
