Sony patents AI-generated podcasts voiced by your favorite video game characters

Picture this: Kratos as a news anchor ragging on you

Sony has been granted a patent to create AI-generated podcasts, as spotted by VGC. These podcasts would be individualized for players, potentially when they first boot up their console, and would recap news, deliver game recommendations, and discuss trophies recently acquired by the players' friends.

Images from the patent show the possibility of the personalized podcast showing up on a PlayStation 5's home screen, below the row of installed games. It would be available in video or audio format, and other images show a talk show-like format with two hosts sitting behind a desk delivering news for the player. "In certain instances, the audio may include a joke at the video game player’s expense," notes the patent.

These gen-AI podcasts wouldn't just be for game news and hearing about what your friends are up to. Sony also wants them to recommend games. "The podcast can suggest different games to different players based on a cluster to which the relevant player is assigned. These game recommendations can also be provided in the generative AI podcasts," the patent reads. "Recommendations may be prioritized and jump out a little more to the listener to get the listener to note the recommendation."

If you're looking for some human-generated recommendations, Polygon has a whole section on what to play, including a spotlight on the PS5's 25 best games.

According to the patent's abstract, Sony aims to "present the news in the voice of a video game character of a video game already played by the respective gamer." Its description further reads, "The podcast can even be a dialogue between two characters from the same game or different games that the player likes to play."

AI-generated voices have been a hot-button issue in the industry lately after Arc Raiders (like The Finals before it) used AI to generate voice lines based on its hired voice actors' recorded lines. The CEO of Nexon, the parent company of Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios, contended "all game studios" were investing in gen-AI tools, prompting indie developers like Strange Scaffold's Xalavier Nelson Jr. to argue "players deserve better" than AI slop.

It looks like generative AI isn't going anywhere, especially in Sony's eyes. Last year, Sony was granted a patent for AI-generated "ghost" characters that can swoop into a game to help out players who become stuck. "The interactive actions by the ghost character are configured to progress the ghost character along an interactive path of the game," the patent reads.

Though the podcast and tutorial patents have been granted, that doesn't mean the AI-generated content described in them will be coming to PlayStations any time soon, or at all. They do, however, shed light on how the video game industry is evolving, or at least on how the top brass at Sony expects it to evolve.