I’m probably going to sound like an armchair developer here, but this isn’t really that impressive. Pretty much all they did here was link AI chat responses via speech recognition to an extraordinarily shitty voice and animation system in pretty much static scenes.

It’s cool that this might be a thing in the near future, having actual conversations with NPCs instead of just predetermined options and responses, but this needs a lot of work to look and feel less cringe-inducing, and a lot of testing so that the AI doesn’t end up giving misleading or false information to players.

This feels like it could lead to some amazing experiences that’d be impossible to get from other types of media. I’m really excited for these developments, but I am afraid that we’ll have to endure some very mediocre implementations before a game fully utilizes this.-

I’m very skeptical of AI/generated content vs designed content. I could see its utility if used sparingly, but I worry about a future where companies decide to throw out their writers for AI to save some money, leading to shallow experiences and interactions.

I’d kill for a game with the scope of Skyrim where the NPCs truly felt like they were living their own lives.