AI was predictably one of Epic's contributions to today's State of Unreal live , with creator platform VP Andrew Grant demoing a "conversation" with an LLM AI persona, one example of the "Persona Device" coming later this year. Tech heads simply cannot resist any opportunity to name things like Dr. Robotnik.
The intent was to show "how simple it is to set up a character for your game," which brings the unavoidable subtext of how simple it might be to replace a writer you would – gasp – have to pay. The method was back-and-forth with an AI trying to get Grant to press a button in-game. (I've outsmarted the computers once again; I would simply not press the button.) The result was a hackneyed conversation with a character that unavoidably lacks soul – not something I personally look for in games.
