Microsoft unveiled its Copilot for Gaming initiative, an AI gaming sidekick that will enhance player experiences on Xbox.
The company is showing a demo of the sidekick where you can verbally ask questions about controlling the game experience and the companion will answer them for you.
Fatima Kardar, corporate vice president of gaming AI and Jason Ronald, VP Next Generation at Microsoft, discussed in a video the idea of developing CoPilot for gaming, starting with a debut in preview on mobile starting in April. The tech is similar to a demo that Krafton showed where it included an AI companion as your partner player in PUBG battle royale games.
Microsoft is diving heavily into AI for games in part because the larger corporation is all-in when it comes to AI technology. Microsoft’s entry in the large language model (LLM) race is CoPilot, and it is the tech that can power the use of generative AI in games.
The aim is bringing new technologies and experiences to life, translating tech innovation to real product value, said Microsoft AI leaders in a press briefing. The key is the translation of the experience So to that end, you’ll see Microsoft embracing experimentation.
This means Microsoft will reveal new technologies earlier in the development process, without a lot of polish, than it otherwise might. To get this right, we will make sure the community has the opportunity to participate in giving feedback based on the new tech demos.
In a demo of the tech, there was still some delay when a human asked a question and the AI companion answered. It seems like the delay is related to the AI reaching out to a datacenter to fetch the answer to a query.
As I see it, the delay is so long that I think it’s only useful between matches or after a match is done. that’s useful, but it’s not as useful as if they could tell you during the middle of the action.
Still, the information can be useful. One player asked why they died in an Overwatch match, after it was over. And the delay in this case didn’t matter because there was no ongoing action. The CoPilot said that a particular weapon “melted” the character and there was a way to counter such an attack. That kind of knowledge could be very helpful for a new player. In Minecraft, the advice was similarly useful and expert — and so good for a new player to learn.
To bring the tech to life, Microsoft is investing in a few areas. At the platform level, it has to make it easy for players to discover the AI companions and get started on the platform level. The company is also bringing the power of AI to make it easier and less tedious to develop, publish and operate games.
And underlying all of the effort is the investment Xbox is making in building the Xbox Gaming AI platform. The goal is to get help to players whether they have small support questions or big ones.
In Age of Empires, you could ask what’s the best way to undertake a siege or make it easy to play a multiplayer game with friends. You can ask the AI to recommend games to you. If you’re frustrated with game mechanics, you can ask the AI for pointers. In multiplayer matches, it can analyze your play and make recommendations.
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