A generative artificial intelligence "recomposes" Quake II before players' eyes.
A few weeks ago, Microsoft presented "Muse". This was the first step, an artificial intelligence capable of generating video game sequences from a variety of data. The demonstration wasn't necessarily very impressive, with an image definition of 300 x 180 pixels and an animation speed of just 10 frames per second, but it did pave the way, and Microsoft has now taken it a step further, presenting us with what the firm envisages (perhaps?) for the future creation of video games. Today, we're talking about a playable demo of Quake II, developed in 1997 by id Software. A playable demo that didn't involve the studio at all, however, since the level was generated entirely by Microsoft's Copilot artificial intelligence. Technically, the thing is still limited, but the gap since the February version is immense: we're talking about 640 x 360 definition here, and Microsoft doesn't bother to hide the shortcomings of its project.
To discover the demo, click on this link.
For example, we're talking about enemies who, blurred, can disappear and reappear "as if by magic", explains Microsoft's development team. Yet the technical prowess is there for all to see: the Muse models here are designed to interpret the player's actions and deliver content accordingly. The level from Quake II - owned by Microsoft since the ZeniMax/Bethesda takeover - is just one example. The AI doesn't necessarily seek to reproduce the original game, but reinvents it as the player's actions unfold, which further explains the flaws and other bugs mentioned above. The aim here is not to make a copy of Quake II, any more than it is to replace the venerable ancestor, but to show what an AI is capable of producing in terms of a playable experience, an interactive world reacting to user requests. The question today is precisely to what extent an AI will be capable of producing a good video game.
The gap between the February presentation and this April demo is already remarkable, and Microsoft clearly has no intention of stopping there. The project will continue to progress, and it's hard to say where it will take us today. One thing is certain: this project raises the question of the creativity of artificial intelligence or, at the very least, of its ability to "deceive" its audience, in this case video game enthusiasts. We haven't finished talking about artificial intelligence and its potential.
