Sony insults devs by saying AI will ‘unleash the creativity’ of PS5

PlayStation icons, all made without generative AI (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Sony has outlined the role of AI in PlayStation’s future, but it’s sending mixed messages on whether it will be enforced in a significant way. 

One of the biggest issues in the creative industries, and the world at large, is how much of a role generative AI will play in the future. 

In regards to video games, we’ve already seen how generative AI has crept into the medium through temporary assets and text-to-speech voiceovers. While the general consensus appears to be that using AI in creative roles is inherently bad, business executives are still pushing it anyway, to save costs and please investors.

It’s a typical fight between art and commerce, but when Sony starts talking about using AI to ‘unleash the creativity’ of PlayStation developers it’s clear that a great deal is at stake.

Speaking during Sony’s presentation for its latest financial results, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Hideaki Nishino framed AI as a ‘powerful tool’ which will help the company flourish when it comes to creating games. 

‘Our goal is always to be the best place to play and the best place to publish,’ Nishino said. ‘We see AI as a powerful tool to help us in this mission.’

Nishino believes AI will ‘lower the barriers to creation’ and accelerate development cycles, which will lead to a ‘meaningful increase in the volume and diversity of content’. This is something many publishers have been saying for a while but so far it’s not been apparent in their release schedules.

According to Nishino, several PlayStation Studios, like Naughty Dog and San Diego Studio, are already using AI tools to automate ‘repetitive workloads’, improve software engineering productivity, and accelerate work in quality assurance, 3D modelling, and animations. 

One example provided is a tool call Mockingbird, which animates 3D facial models based on performance capture. ‘Importantly, we’re not replacing human performers, but rather optimising how we process the data from these live captures,’ he notes. ‘With Mockingbird, animation work that would have taken hours can now be completed in a fraction of a second.’

Another example he gives of AI’s implementation at PlayStation is a hair animation tool, which converts video footage of real hairstyles into strand-level 3D models. 

‘These practical applications allow our teams to spend less time on manual, high effort tasks, and to instead reinvest their time into building richer worlds and gameplay for our players,’ Nishino states. 

On the face of it, all that seems fine (and not really interesting enough to make a fuss about). Nishino then goes on to state that none of this is designed to replace actual artists. ‘The vision, the design, and the emotional impact of our games will always come from the talent of our studios and performers. AI is meant to augment their capabilities, not to replace them.’

The latter feels carefully phrased, but it’s also somewhat insulting that Sony executives believe its team of creatives – who for decades have been making global hits without these tools – need an extra leg up from AI to make better games today. 

Nishino goes on to highlight how PlayStation is using AI in other ways, like the recently updated PSSR upscaler on PS5 Pro and the AI-powered racing agent Sophy in Gran Turismo 7. At its core though, Sony is projecting the message that AI will be beneficial for both players and developers. 

‘Through our investments in AI and machine learning, we will continue to push the fidelity frontier forward,’ Nishino added. ‘We believe AI will unleash the creativity of our studios, power a more curated platform, and enhance the PlayStation experience for both players and creators.

‘With our global player base, deep library of IP, and integrated ecosystem, AI is a powerful tool for us to deliver a truly cutting-edge entertainment experience.’

Phrases like using AI to ‘unleash the creativity’ of studios might be enough to make anybody hurl, but it’s difficult to ascertain how seriously this should all be taken. Especially as most of his other comments and examples are quite reasonable.

Gamers, in general, don’t want AI to be used in games, as was seen in the reaction to Nvidia’s DLSS 5 technology, but investors are the opposite. So all games companies – which have struggled with a lack of outside funding since Covid – are in a difficult situation where they have to downplay the use of AI to their customers and exaggerate it to investors.

In this case, Nishino is a speaking to stakeholders, who want to hear how AI is being implemented at Sony, because it’s being hyped up by everyone else. So if this was Nishino overstating how much he’s using AI that’s actually quite encouraging.

However, there’s the worrying possibility that Sony will genuinely lean on generative AI moving forward. Sure, it can speed up some processes in development in a useful way, but we’ve also seen countless times how it can also creep into the final product by ‘accident’. 

Either way, it’s likely the pushback to any enforced AI usage will come from the developers themselves first, so we’ll have to hope these initiatives aren’t coming at the expense of their art, or ideas, just because they can save the corporate overlords a few pennies. 

Marvel’s Wolverine is the next big exclusive (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

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