NVIDIA’s AI NPCs are a nightmare

the The rise of artificial intelligence NPCs It’s seemed like a looming threat for years, as if developers couldn’t wait to get rid of human writers and offload NPC conversations to generative AI models. At CES 2025, NVIDIA made it clear that the technology is just around the corner. PUBG Developer Crafton, for example, Plan to use NVIDIA’s ACE (Avatar Cloud Engine) to power AI companions, who will help and joke with you during matches. Krafton doesn’t just stop there, they also use ACE in their own life simulation title Get away To make characters smarter and create objects.

While the use of generative AI in games seems almost inevitable, since the medium is always tinkering with new methods to make enemies and NPCs seem smarter and more realistic, seeing so many demos of NVIDIA ACE in a row made me feel really sick. This wasn’t just smarter enemy AI – ACE could craft entire conversations from nothing, mimic voices and try to give NPCs a sense of personality. It also does this work locally on your computer, powered by NVIDIA’s RTX GPUs. But while all of that may sound great on paper, I hated almost every second I saw the AI ​​NPCs in action.

tejames Zoopunk A prime example of this: It relies on NVIDIA ACE to create dialogue, virtual voice, and lip-sync for an NPC named Buck. But as you can see in the video above, Buck sounds like a robot with a slight country accent. If he’s supposed to have some kind of relationship with the main character, you can’t tell from the performance.

I think my deep distaste for NVIDIA’s ACE-powered AI comes down to this: there’s simply nothing compelling about it. No joy, no warmth, no Humanity. Every ACE AI character feels like a developer cutting corners in the worst way possible, as if you’re seeing their disdain for the audience manifested in a boring NPC. I’d rather scroll through some on-screen text, at least I wouldn’t have to have conversations with weird robot voices.

During NVIDIA Editor’s Day at CES, there was a media gathering to learn more about New RTX 5000 series GPUs And the technology associated with it, I was also blown away by the demo PUBG game Artificial intelligence ally. Her responses were similar to what you hear from a pre-recorded phone tree. The ally also failed to find a gun when the player requested it, which could be a fatal mistake in a crowded map. At one point, PUBG The companion also spent about 15 seconds attacking enemies while the beta player shouted for him to get in the car. What good is an AI assistant if it plays like a novice?

Scroll through NVIDIA’s YouTube channel and you’ll find other disappointing examples of ACE, like the basic talking animation in an MMO Jade Dynasty World (above) and Alien: Rogue Incursion. I’m sure many developers would like to skip the chore of developing decent lip-sync technology, or adopt someone else’s technology, but for these games, relying on AI just seems like a bad thing.

To be clear, I don’t think NVIDIA’s AI efforts are all futile. I’ve loved seeing DLSS steadily improve over the years, and I’m interested to see how multi-frame generation DLSS 4 can improve 4K and ray tracing performance for demanding games. The company’s neural shading technology also looks convincing, particularly its ability to apply a realistic sheen to materials like silk, or evoke the slight translucency you see from skin. These aren’t huge visual leaps, to be clear, but they can help provide a better sense of immersion.

Now I’m sure some AI proponents will say that the technology will only get better from here, and at some undefinable point in the future, it could approach the quality of human creativity. maybe. But personally, I’m tired of being sold AI fantasies, when we know that the key to great writing and performance is giving human talent the time and resources to improve their craft. And on some level, I think I will always feel that way Director Hayao Miyazakiwho described an early example of an AI CG creature as “an insult to life itself.”

AI, like any new technology, is a tool that can be deployed in many ways. For things like graphics and gameplay (such as smart enemies in… He is afraid and The last of us), it makes sense. But when it comes to communicating with NPCs, writing their dialogue and crafting their expositions, I’ve come to value human effort more than anything else. Replacing that with a lifeless AI doesn’t seem like a step forward in any way.