The more that is teased and rumored about the long-awaited PlayStation 5, the more intriguing it sounds. It’s known that Sony’s next-gen console will likely have a solid-state drive capable of vastly-reduced load times, but rumors also claim that it’ll also come with environmentally-friendly power usage and cross-gen play with the PlayStation 4. Now we can add a helpful AI assistant to the list of potential features.
One of the fast-growing trends in technology these days is the implementation of voice-driven AI assistants. One need only look to the prevalence of Siri on Apple devices or Amazon’s Alexa to see how popular simply telling an AI to do things has become. It’s become so popular, in fact, that Sony has registered a patent for a similar type of AI that it’s calling PlayStation Assist.
Dutch website Techtastic, as translated by Gamereactor, reports this, and it claims that Sony has shared a few examples about how the PS5 PlayStation Assist could work. Using Horizon Zero Dawn as a subject, players will apparently be able to ask the AI to tell them where to find in-game items or give them directions to their next objective. It will then be able to access Sony’s servers to provide users with the information they seek.
Additionally, the AI will supposedly be accessible through the PlayStation mobile app. There, it will allow PlayStation 5 players to access a variety of statistics, such as the total amount of time they’ve been playing a game and when they started playing. Combined with the alleged in-game features, it sounds like PlayStation Assist could essentially make it possible for players to have the convenience of a strategy guide at the tip of their tongues whenever they like.
The idea is certainly a step up from the current console generation’s implementation, as both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One’s voice command systems are limited to mostly just adjusting the consoles’ various settings. They are far from pivotal inclusions, to the point that Microsoft’s voice system, Cortana, was removed from the Xbox One’s UI back in July. A voice-driven AI simply adjusting settings just isn’t that exciting a tool to use, but a voice-driven AI that can help players with the games they’re playing? That definitely sounds intriguing.
However, it’s worth repeating that PlayStation Assist is nothing more than a patent at the moment, and a patent isn’t guaranteed to lead to an actual product. As it stands, it’s just an idea Sony’s mulling over. Whether it actually ends up in the PS5 or dies in the conceptual phase will remain to be seen. But since the PlayStation 5 is being rumored to be officially revealed in February, it’s possible it won’t take too long to find out.
Source: Techtastic (via Gamereactor)
