Highlights

  • Sony patents AI streaming tech for video games, allowing AI players to interact via network with viewer feedback.
  • AI streamers could bridge AI and VTuber tech on Twitch, leading to personalized streaming experiences.
  • AI streaming may revolutionize traditional human-based streaming by tailoring content to diverse audiences.

Sony has filed a patent for a technology that would facilitate AI video game streams that react to viewer feedback. This technology may be related to other recently publicized patents from Sony, which aim to leverage AI to engage with users and respond to input data.

AI streaming, though not something that Sony has tapped into before now, isn't an entirely new concept. A notable example of an AI streamer is Vedal987, also known as Neuro-Sama, who made a splash on Twitch early last year. Viewers have responded to streamers like Neuro-Sama with a combination of shock and disbelief, as many of them, while noticeably inhuman, are rather lifelike and believable. This can be especially true when these AIs are paired with typical VTuber (Virtual YouTuber) trappings, such as fully CGI avatars, as this leaves more room for plausibility and interpretation.

Sony PlayStation 5 PS5 wearing AR glasses composite
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Sony continues to push experimental technology with a patent describing a framework for AI streaming. According to the patent, this framework would allow an AI player to interact with a game and have that gameplay streamed through a network, where it can then be viewed by "one or more spectators." The AI player may incorporate machine learning to model its in-game behavior after that of human players. It may also analyze "feedback data" and adjust its behavior accordingly. Other key parameters outlined by the patent include:

  • Analyzing feedback data to determine level of spectator interest
  • Gathering training data from spectator feedback
  • Gathering input data from a user's microphone or camera
  • Performing facial analysis based on data received from a camera

Sony's AI Streaming Tech Could Have Weighty Ramifications

The lines between AI streamers and VTubers on Twitch are already becoming blurred, and the technology outlined in Sony's patent would mark a dramatic change in how these streamers function. Specifically, the methods of data collection and interest analysis, if executed to their fullest potential, could lead to streamers that are tailored to countless distinct demographics. Since AI streamers can theoretically stream 24/7 and have countless permutations based on viewer feedback, this technology could have a massive impact on streaming as a whole.

Streaming is bigger than ever, but most dedicated Twitch fans follow specific creators because of their personality, as they connect to the person behind the screen. With that in mind, it's hard to imagine a world where AI streaming supplants traditional, human-based streaming. Then again, the explosion of AI has led to some unexpected consequences, so perhaps Sony's AI streaming tech will take off.