Ubisoft is using AI to generate NPC dialogue in future games

 If you have ever played an open-world game, you have probably encountered many non-player characters (NPCs) who populate the virtual world and interact with you in various ways. Sometimes they are enemies who taunt you in combat, sometimes they are bystanders who comment on your actions, and sometimes they are just background noise that adds to the immersion.

But writing dialogue for NPCs is not an easy task. It requires creativity, consistency, and a lot of time. Imagine having to write hundreds or thousands of lines of dialogue for different characters, situations, and emotions. That's why Ubisoft, one of the leading publishers and developers of open-world games, has created an AI-powered tool that can help scriptwriters with this tedious process.

The tool is called Ghostwriter, and it was developed internally by Ubisoft's R&D department La Forge. Ghostwriter can generate first drafts of "barks", which are the phrases or sounds that NPCs make during a triggered event. For example, when you walk past an NPC on the street, they might say "Hello" or "Watch out". When you engage in combat with an NPC, they might say "I'll get you" or "You're going down". These barks are important for creating a realistic and dynamic world, but they can also be repetitive and boring to write.

Ghostwriter works by taking a character and a type of interaction or utterance as input, and then producing two variations of dialogue as output. The scriptwriters can then choose the best option and edit it as they wish. Ghostwriter also learns from the scriptwriters' choices and preferences, and becomes more effective and accurate over time.

Ubisoft claims that Ghostwriter is not replacing the video game writer, but rather supporting them by alleviating one of their most laborious tasks. By using Ghostwriter, scriptwriters can save time and focus on other aspects of the narrative, such as the main plot, the characters' personalities, and the longer conversations.

Ghostwriter was created by Ben Swanson, an R&D Scientist at La Forge Montreal, who presented his work at GDC 2023. Swanson said that he was inspired by the feedback from narrative designers who wanted to spend less time on crowd chatter and barks. He also said that Ghostwriter is only a tool to assist scriptwriters, not to replace them.

Ubisoft is currently using Ghostwriter to generate barks for some of its upcoming games. It is not clear which games will feature Ghostwriter's dialogue, but Ubisoft is known for its popular open-world franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and The Division. With Ghostwriter's help, these games might have more diverse and realistic NPC interactions than ever before.