Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino has called AI a “powerful tool” in the company’s aim to make PlayStation “the best place to play” and “the best place to publish” during Sony’s latest earnings call. Throughout the call, both Nishino and Sony Group president and CEO Totoki Hiroki discussed the various ways the company is using AI in film, music, and gaming.
Despite evidence from various entertainment industries showing that the use of generative AI and related technologies has led to layoffs, Hiroki said, “human creativity must remain at the center,” while adding that “AI is a powerful tool, [but not] a replacement for artists or creators.” He instead called it an amplifier for human imagination and a catalyst for new possibilities, as noted by Variety.
Sony Pictures (movies) has invested more than $50 million in AI across production planning, content protection, enterprise productivity, data analytics, innovation, and 3D conversion, while Sony Music has invested in pursuing industry-wide labeling of AI-generated content across platforms. Sony’s video arm is collaborating with Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco to research how generative AI can help creators in video production.
After Hiroki’s portion of the earnings call, Nishino explained how PlayStation is using AI. He said, “Our goal is always to be the best place to play and the best place to publish,” adding, “We see AI as a powerful tool to help us in this mission.”
As noted by Kotaku, Nishino explained how first-party studios are using generative AI and related technologies in game development today, including a proprietary generative AI program called Mockingbird, which “quickly [animates] 3D facial models based on performance capture.” Studios like Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet developer Naughty Dog, San Diego Studio, and others are using Mockingbird and other tools, according to Nishino.
“Importantly, we are not replacing human performers, but rather optimizing how we process the data from these live captures,” Nishino said. “With Mockingbird, animation work that would have taken hours can now be completed in a fraction of a second.” Nishino pointed out another example in a tool PlayStation built for animating hair, stating, “This is often a labor-intensive process given the volume of strands that must be created.
“Our teams have accelerated this process by taking videos of real hairstyles and having an AI tool output a 3D model with hundreds of strand 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.”
Of course, Nishino is the PlayStation CEO and at this moment in time, investors across various entertainment mediums love to hear executives state companies are using AI; it’s not surprising Nishino waxed poetic about how (apparently) beneficial generative AI and other AI-based programs have been for first-party studios, but there are a lot of questions around the use of AI like this: Whose work are the models trained on? Will humans actually retain their jobs in the long term? Are developers happy to use these tools, or are they doing so because of mandates from above?
During the call, Nishino continued to explain that AI-powered payment routing tools have generated more than $700 million in revenue over the past few years. He said Sony is creating machine-learning programs aimed at personalization for consumers, systems that could one day recommend a player’s next game, subscription, accessory purchase, or merchandise buy based on their interests – yippee, who needs a brain?
AI is also responsible for memory product shortages around the world, but Totoki said during the call that he expects PlayStation’s hardware business to contain the cost impact within the current fiscal year due to ongoing (seemingly positive?) supplier negotiations, as noted by Variety.
Meanwhile, one of PlayStation’s primary competitors, Nintendo, is raising the price of the Switch 2 later this year, following a move PlayStation made with the PS5 back in March.
For more, read Game Informer’s Saros review, and then check out the latest trailer for Insomniac Games’ Wolverine ahead of its September launch. After that, watch the latest Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet trailer.
[Source: Variety, Kotaku]
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