Sony Interactive Entertainment have patented AI to monitor how games are played, and then play them for users.
PatentScope have published Sony’s “Automated Artificial Intelligence (AI) Control Mode For Playing Specific Tasks During Gaming Applications” patent; filed April 14th, 2020, and published just over a year later.
The summery describes how “The artificial intelligence (AI) character is allowed to play specific parts of the gaming application for the user. For example, the AI character can proceed in automatic mode to complete specific game tasks that are difficult for the user.” This AI will monitor how players act, creating a “profile.”
This profile can then be used to play the game as the player would have. While ideal for repetitive tasks or quickly going to the bathroom in an online game, the AI can also aid players when they are struggling to complete part of the game.
Some PlayStation 5 games already support Game Help for those with a PlayStation Plus subscription. Activity Cards noting what the player has yet to do can feature short guides and video clips from the developers, and can include a Picture-in-Picture mode or pinned on the side of the screen to monitor it. It is possible that Game Help may evolve in the future to play tricky segments for players.
Other Sony patents have included adding trophies to older and emulated games, “remastering for emulation” (which may have led to the PlayStation 5’s backwards compatibility), and being able to turn any object into a controller; such as a banana.
Image: PlayStation