This Sony patent could one day see AI play your PS5 games for you DualSense controller
Ever felt like there’s just not enough time in the day to play all the games you want in addition to eating, sleeping and working? Well, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s recent patent for an “automated artificial intelligence control mode for playing specific tasks during gaming applications” might be of interest.
Filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment in April 2020 and published this month (via SegmentNext), the patent application outlines a way that Artificial Intelligence (AI) could study a person’s play style and then assist or take over their gaming sessions as required.
According to the patent, a default play profile could be assigned to a user and initially the AI would simulate generic human behaviour. Over time, however, by “monitoring a plurality of game plays of the user playing a plurality of gaming applications”, the AI could customize the user’s profile and start to behave more like the specific player its been studying.
The idea is that once you have an AI profile that can fairly reliably replicate your behaviour, you could ask it to take over and continue to progress while you, for example, go and make your dinner. Once you’re ready to return to the game, you could just exit the automated mode.
The patent specifically mentions instances where “the game play controller can proceed in automatic mode to complete specific game tasks that are difficult for the user.”
A helping hand
The patent also outlines its potential in a “competitive multi-player game”. If a player, for example, needed to leave the game then it needn’t end—instead they could turn on the automated mode to simulate their game play so that their “online presence is maintained” while they’re away.
Given the already heated atmosphere of online multiplayer games and tensions around cheating this seems, by far, the most potentially controversial use of the mode and the one most likely to descend into a kind of AI-hunting hellscape only Philip K. Dick could dream up.
It’s possible that, for some players, the idea of kicking back with a plate of food while watching an AI version of themselves grind through some of the more dull parts of their PS5 games will hold an appeal. Others who take pride in the grind may feel differently.
Regardless, as this is only a patent there’s absolutely no guarantee that Sony will ever make this concept a reality, so we wouldn’t count on being able to leave your DualSense controller to get that last pesky Trophy for you any time soon.
Ever felt like there’s just not enough time in the day to play all the games you want in addition to eating, sleeping and working? Well, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s recent patent for an “automated artificial intelligence control mode for playing specific tasks during gaming applications” might be of interest. Filed…
Recent Posts
- Amazfit’s new low-cost wearable packs in a big display and 26 days of battery life
- As Questions Swirl Around Tesla’s Superchargers, the Race Is On to Fill the Power Gap
- Asus won’t say if the ROG Ally’s SD card reader will ever be truly fixed
- Quordle today – hints and answers for Thursday, May 2 (game #829)
- NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Thursday, May 2 (game #60)
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011