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Sony Could Bring Cortana-Like “Chatbot” To PlayStation 5

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

In one patent, the unannounced artificial intelligence-powered system was dubbed as PlayStation Assistant. In another, the new DualSense controller for PS5 was suggested to be able to take voice commands through a built-in microphone array. Both patents from Sony highlighted how the Siri- or Cortana-like virtual assistant could help answer queries voiced by the user.

In a more recently updated patent, Sony has once again put forth the idea of a chatbot that can process voice commands based on their intent. Thus, allowing the dubbed PlayStation Assistant to provide the user with additional information on top of and in relation to the original query. It’s worth mentioning here that voice command features like these obviously, have been used in other Sony electronic devices including mobile phones. So it would be interesting to see an AI in PS5 taking voice commands.

Similar to how internet searches work these days, a user asking when the next God of War will release will also have the voice assistant gather information such as features and latest development updates. Hence, in a way, as Sony envisions, answering queries before they are made.

A chatbot learns a person’s related intents when asking for information and thereafter, in response to an initial query, which the chatbot answers, the chatbot generates a secondary dialogue, either providing the person with additional information or inquiring as to whether the person wishes to know more about a subject. The chatbot may use an external trigger such as time, event, etc. and automatically generate a query or give information to the person without any initial query from the person.

Interestingly, the patent also suggests that the potential voice assistant of PlayStation 5 will actually have an avatar capable of lip syncing during communications. That being said, note that not everything mentioned in patents and trademarks get to see the light. It all comes down to design and what is deemed most suitable for release.
 

Nankatsu

Member
I'm 100% Knack on this.

tumblr_inline_o8usunX4SD1qgck7s_500.gif


Just imagine having Knack popping up on your PS5 UI.
 
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EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Cortona wasn't a home run for Microsoft for what its worth so I don't see SONY investing much time into voice commands.
 

Relativ9

Member
Voice assistants are the perfect examples of how tech enthusiasm around any idea that's even vaguely cool or futuristic will always beat practicality and usability. And beyond being a more cumbersome and less efficient way to find information, now you've got a microphone listening to you all the time that may or may not be secure.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Cortona wasn't a home run for Microsoft for what its worth so I don't see SONY investing much time into voice commands.
Although this time is easier to implement this with training neural network, many of them work quite good for english even offline.

on-device-light-blue-background.gif


 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
I was pretty upset when they took "Xbox On" functionality away...then they added Cortana and I just felt stupid say "Hey Cortana". Now I'm just lukewarm on the whole thing. If they can't find a way to make it feel more natural then just don't do it.
 

Barakov

Gold Member
First thing I'll do is turn it off. I don't need robots talking to me. In fact I'd prefer they didn't.
 
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Kdad

Member
What is new here? Wired talked about the patent and asked Cerny (who didn't answer) about it back in October.
 

jakinov

Member
It's good that they are looking into it to stay competitive with Xbox and Stadia. Stadia plans to add help stuff too from what I recall. I think Amazon plans to do this for their streaming service, that Albert guy who moved from Xbox to Amazon was asking people about voice assistants and gaming not too long ago and what people wanted. Big tech companies are also hungry for patents though so they could just be creating patents without the intention of actual implementing this.

To anyone comparing this to Kinect's voice capabilities, Kinect came out almost a decade ago. AI in general has exploded since then and there's been a lot of researchers and major tech companies investing into natural language processing and speech recognition. Even large tech companies tend to publish how they did things so others can adapt too.
 
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