Square Enix partners with Google for new Slime AI chatbot in Dragon Quest

Google is teaming up with Square Enix to put Gemini AI into Dragon Quest 10, as Capcom outlines its stance on the technology.

Between the uproar around Nvidia’s DLSS 5 and Crimson Desert’s AI use, it’s been a pretty dramatic month for generative AI in video games.

If you need one more dystopian nightmare to add to the list, Square Enix has your back, with the announcement of a partnership with Google’s Gemini to power a ‘conversational AI’ companion called Chatty Slimey in Dragon Quest 10.

According to Japanese outlet Sankei, players can talk to Chatty Slimey using the chat function, and it ‘automatically generates voices and engages in conversation’. It’s said the AI can react to information from the game too, prompting Slimey to ‘initiate conversations when a powerful enemy is defeated or a rare item is obtained’.

Speaking about the tech, Takashi Anzai, head of development on Dragon Quest 10, said: ‘New players won’t feel lonely wondering where to start playing, it will become their own personal companion.’

If you’d rather bury Chatty Slimey beneath a far away ocean, from a UK perspective it already has been. Dragon Quest 10 is a Japanese-only MMO, which originally released on the Wii in 2012, but was later ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and mobile.

While we might be safe from Chatty Slimey for the time being, it’s a worrying sign for future Square Enix titles, if the company continues down this path. Additionally, it’s unclear if there are any precautions in place to stop Slimey yelling slurs and hallucinating about who knows what – as happened with Fortnite’s Darth Vader chatbot fiasco from last year.

Dragon Quest 10 won’t be the first MMO to get an AI chatbot. Where Winds Meet also had AI non-playable characters, which naturally led players to try and break the technology by asking increasingly bonkers questions.

Even if Square Enix has opened its arms to chatbots, it seems like Capcom won’t be taking the same approach, at least for now.

In a briefing session with investors (via Automaton), the company behind Resident Evil Requiem said it would not be using AI generated assets, but that it will use the technology to ‘improve efficiency and productivity’ during the development process.

‘Our company will not be implementing any AI-generated assets into our video game content,’ a briefing session summary reads. ‘On the other hand, going forward, we plan to actively utilise this technology in order to improve efficiency and productivity of game development.

‘That is why we are currently testing out various methods of usage across our departments, including graphics, sound, and programming.’

Capcom technical director, Kazuki Abe, has spoken before about using generative AI to create ‘hundreds of thousands of unique ideas’ related to in-game environments, citing, for example, how you can’t put the existing design of a TV inside your game without adding unique elements.

While generative AI can be used to cut down time in certain areas, the worry is if these kinds of uses slip into a larger acceptance across the board.

We’ve already seen how leftover AI assets can accidentally be left in a game, and Capcom was a key partner during the reveal of the Nvidia DLSS 5 tech, which has been heavily criticised for scrubbing over the original artistic intent of the designs.

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