AI Dialogue is Here. How to Make it not Boring?

[Lokiamis]

I think you can implement it in a fun way that doesn't make the entire game rely on it.
It'd be a neat easter egg if you were playing an otherwise normal game and came across a strange NPC who's dialogue tree was AI generated without drawing any attention to it. Or just let it handle the dialogue and voice acting for scenes like the Colonel AI breaking down in MGS2.

 

[Haba]

More tuning and more training.

Imagine you have a model that can identify narrative structures in stories. The just combine those in a coherent manner to generate new stories.

Do the same with dialogues of characters. And other elements.

So eventually you have multiple AI models being used just like a writer uses their tropes and cliches.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

GPT-3 can basically do that as an all-in-one solution. GPT-2 can almost do it.

I honestly think that had they focused more on training GPT-3, and less on gimping it into a politically correct chat bot, it would be miles ahead of where it is now, and probably capable of authoring whole novels without much user input.

 

[Norfleet]

if inputWord=="boobs" and charAppearance==handsome
then boobGraphic.reveal()

else hand.slap()

Bug Report: Every NPC is slapping me for no reason every time I say anything.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

if inputWord=="boobs" and charAppearance==handsome
then boobGraphic.reveal()

else hand.slap()

Bug Report: Every NPC is slapping me for no reason every time I say anything.

working as intended

 

[fork]

More tuning and more training. [...]

and less censorship.

 

[Lemming42]

The problem with some AI dialogue right now is that people aren't using the full extent of the AI's abilities, and are sat wondering why everything sounds bland and generic.

With just a few good example conversations, you can get all kinds of characters. Here's a Racist Chinese Takeaway Owner Stereotype, for example:

AI can already write characters with a strong voice and a set worldview. Here's me and Duke Nukem discussing our political campaign:

And how to improve Gone With The Wind:

I don't think it's good enough yet to be let loose as an actual in-game character, but I can definitely see a scenario in the near future where a whole town could be populated by totally convincing AI NPCs. Morrowind strikes me as a game that'd work well with it, given that everyone's personality in that game is just "racism", which is easy to get the AI to do.

 

[Lemming42]

Out of interest, I've made an Oblivion NPC who can give utterly inane "Rumours" dialogue about real life topics.

images

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

More tuning and more training. [...]

and less censorship.

You can exclude certain topics or words from the AI. The AI doesn't "work on its own", it needs to be fed, and that means it won't make writers go away in this case.

 

[ArchAngel]

Do you have any ideas how can this be used effectively?

Yes. Especially with GPT3, which I've tested this on to some degree.

Let's use a game where there are character detailed stats, descriptions and relations. Prepend the stats (sex, skin color, hair color, etc.)

First, you have the AI gen the description.

Then you input the quest data and generate a greeting and a request from the hero.

Then, you have the player accept it, or refuse it.

These generations should be stored and placed back into the context upon quest failure or completion.

You should also give the player the opportunity to reroll the generation, or possibly edit it.

Clearly, it's not perfect. For example, it takes the word "reputation" from the code-like input and inserts it into the dialog. But I'm sure with some effort, a serviceable input format could be found.

I don't suggest using player inputted dialog, except as a novelty, since I think it would be difficult (but not impossible) to evaluate those inputs and the many varied responses, and then translate that into gameplay. AI Roguelite tries to do this, but is limited by its lack of an advanced AI.

This is so that you can generate flavor dialog for an infinite amount of characters, not to replicate AIDungeon, but with gameplay. Otherwise, the game would consist of "Take quest to kill goblin for X character? Y/N". Which, some may say they prefer, but then why are dialog-free roguelikes not the only games they play?

This sounds like the most generic MMORPG drivel.

 

[S.torch]

By not using it.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Exactly. The AI produces bland generic dialogue because it relies on statistical analysis rather than understanding of the meaning and subjective human tastes. It picks words based on likelihood rather than "what would make a good choice?" If you want something with punch, then you need a writer who understands human beings.

Tony's greeting is the most bland generic response anyone could write.

Larry's introduction actually relates to his unique personality. He engages in mildly flowery speech when he didn't need to, then makes a joke about his sexual orientation and sexual prowess, then acknowledges his weight in his nickname while saying he doesn't care. Also, the "f-a-t" is a play on the slang word phat meaning cool.

Brian Mitsoda manages to pack a ton of contextual information into a small amount of space without feeling like tedious generic exposition that sounds nothing like what a real person would say (e.g. real people don't tell you their life story in their first conversation with you). This is what makes his characters feel alive and exude personality compared to other crpgs. Sure, they're exaggerated but they don't feel like caricatures.

The problem with some AI dialogue right now is that people aren't using the full extent of the AI's abilities, and are sat wondering why everything sounds bland and generic.

So the algorithm can write this sort of dialogue but doesn't because it's programmed to be politically correct and agreeable? You've created something that can probably convincingly emulate Brian Mitsoda but you deliberately gimp it? That's even stupider!

Out of interest, I've made an Oblivion NPC who can give utterly inane "Rumours" dialogue about real life topics.

I have to give the chatbot credit. I don't think many human beings could think of dialogue like that unless they were deliberately using madlibs prompts. (I encourage anyone who wants to be creative to use madlibs logic to devise writing prompts; if nothing else, it will help open your mind). While AI has this annoying tendency to inherit our unconscious biases (including for things like normal exposition), with a little tweaking you can remove those biases and get results that few human beings would think of. Maybe I was wrong about AI destroying human creativity... altho that remains to be seen.

 

[Haba]

I can definitely see a scenario in the near future where a whole town could be populated by totally convincing NPCs.

I think we are already in that future...

 

[Incognito]

Remember when the compact disc got popular in the 90's? That shit was gonna change games. You could put huge worlds and endless voiced dialogue in one CD. And yet most games making use of it were abject shit.

 

[Gahbreeil]

Reminds of the classic adventure games. The ones in which you type in what you do and it can click with what the game knows.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

I don't think your average town NPC is smart enough to be considered an AI. It's just a bunch of ifs, thens, elses, elseifs, trys, etc. The dialogue menu is pretty much the most basic thing you can program, and most likely the first thing they'll make you try when they teach you to code. A proper AI npc would try to predict player behavior, be ahead of their actions after learning how they would react.

 

[Alex]

Here is an idea, you handcraft a set of responses so to ensure that your game has a definite feel to it rather than looking like a chatbot simulator, then you train the AI so that it always prompts one of the handcrafted responses, that way avoiding the problems of using an AI here entirely!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Dialogue was a mistake. Its not fun therefore its bad.

 

[Norfleet]

So I have a better questoin: All this is fine and good, but where do I get my racist Chinese takeout AI? Because nowhere am I actually seeing where I actually GET one.

 

[Lemming42]

So I have a better questoin: All this is fine and good, but where do I get my racist Chinese takeout AI? Because nowhere am I actually seeing where I actually GET one.

character.ai

One challenge for using this in videogames is that if the player can type anything, the AI will need to have a lot of constraints put on it, to avoid the player doing totally random shit:

Obviously you can fairly easily make it so that the player can't enter actions in this way, but you'd still have to figure out how to stop the player talking about totally random shit that the in-game character wouldn't know about.

Though the AI can already handle that itself to some extent:

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

that AI basically just sir, this is a wendy's'd you

 

[Sabotin]

I think AI could bring a lot to the table, specially for RPGs.

Instead of having one or two "choice matters" options we could have some extra with different flavors, like in the olden days.
Certain information could be dynamically scattered in different conversations/npcs, avoiding synthetic loredumps. Managed by some variables of what the player/npc knows?
In the same vein, you could avoid having extra writing workload for 2349 races and genders and whatnot and have conversation dynamicaly adapt, maybe even take events of the world and the passage of time into account.
Instant rewrites and iterations, easy narrative changes late in development?
Possibly easier localization if the ai is writing stuff in the correct language as opposed to translation?

I see the whole thing more as a tool to complement writers than as a direct replacement. I'm just guessing but I assume that writers want to write interesting an important stuff, and the menial and repetitive parts could be relegated and maybe made less menial and repetitive in the process.

 

[Norfleet]

So I have a better questoin: All this is fine and good, but where do I get my racist Chinese takeout AI? Because nowhere am I actually seeing where I actually GET one.

character.ai

Okay, but how do I actually GET one? This is just some website front end. Not actually useful if we wanted to actually do anything with it.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I think AI could bring a lot to the table, specially for RPGs.

Instead of having one or two "choice matters" options we could have some extra with different flavors, like in the olden days.
Certain information could be dynamically scattered in different conversations/npcs, avoiding synthetic loredumps. Managed by some variables of what the player/npc knows?
In the same vein, you could avoid having extra writing workload for 2349 races and genders and whatnot and have conversation dynamicaly adapt, maybe even take events of the world and the passage of time into account.
Instant rewrites and iterations, easy narrative changes late in development?
Possibly easier localization if the ai is writing stuff in the correct language as opposed to translation?

I see the whole thing more as a tool to complement writers than as a direct replacement. I'm just guessing but I assume that writers want to write interesting an important stuff, and the menial and repetitive parts could be relegated and maybe made less menial and repetitive in the process.

I don't really see the point in using AI to automate the trivial boring stuff. I think it makes more sense to just not include that sort of stuff. Maybe if you've got writers block or need some ideas, but I don't think we should rely on AI more than absolutely necessary. At this point it just becomes padding for the sake of padding.

I know PST has 1.2 million words in its tlk file, but how much of that is not padding? I know people love the amount of dialogue options you can get even in unimportant conversations, but after a certain point the novelty wears off and it becomes padding. By comparison Bloodlines has only a fraction the amount of dialogue but, combined with hammy voice acting and stylized facial animation, it's no less memorable and still manages to include immersive sim elements.

Unless the conversation involves racism, sexism, or romance options, a character's race and gender shouldn't matter. Certainly not enough to require a ridiculous amount of extra work.

World events? Passage of time? Is this an open world game where you can backtrack to every location you previously visited? Your actions have visible consequences for the entire world such that even backwater villages should change to reflect the world state?

I'm sorry, I just don't see the point of all this padding. You don't need to be able to hold long conversations with every peasant you meet on the street. There's immersion, and then there's just wasting time.

 

[lukaszek]

it could be interesting to have AI change writing style depending on player.
Middle schooler will get basic language, PG13.
Furry sjw will get his stuff.
While warpig will be fighting snu snu grillz