Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer today appeared on a moderated panel with Double Fine Studio head Tim Schafer at the Paley International Council Summit in Palo Alto, California, discussing “Big Ideas, Small Games: Creativity Beyond the Hit.” On a panel moderated by Idilio CEO Gabriela Tafur, Spencer was asked about the operate of artificial intelligence on Xbox. That said, Xbox does operate AI, but probably not in the way you think.
“Our AI applications today are largely around the security and protection of our networks,” he said, referring to voice and text chat on Xbox Live. “It’s at such a scale now that you can’t really limit the security of people who are alone. The volume is too loud. So we have artificial intelligence that we use to make sure that conversations and topics that are being discussed, as well as children’s protected accounts and other things, and who can talk to those accounts with those people, are blocked by parents or guardians who set those controls. That’s our main use of artificial intelligence in our organization, which may not be the most effective use of artificial intelligence, but it is something I fundamentally believe in.”
However, he touched on the important issue of using artificial intelligence in the creative process of game development: “When it comes to creativity, I really leave it to the teams,” he said. “I’ve found that creative teams will use tools that make their job easier when it makes their job easier, and any top-down mandate that says, ‘You have to use a certain tool’… is not really the path to success. I look at the teams, we share the tools, and I kind of let that percolate organically.
He stayed with the topic of artificial intelligence, but focused on the idea of how it could be used for game discovery. “The interesting area you talked about is discovery,” he told Tafur. “How do I find the next thing I might like? In this scenario where we’re looking at some AI tools – that’s not in practice right now – but is there a way that we can operate discovery based on things you’ve done in the past to reveal the next thing you might not know about that might be intriguing to you?”
“In terms of production, which I think a lot of people are moving towards… we don’t have any goals in our model for that to happen. I’m thinking more about the pace of creativity, maybe the number of things we can try and take risks before we commit to the next opportunity. But our operate of AI today is much more operational than it is in the artistic space.”
Be sure to join our weekly Xbox Unlocked show for a long discussion about everything happening in the world of Xbox.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive previews editor and host of IGN’s weekly shows on Xbox, Podcast unlockedas well as our monthly interview program, IGN without filter. It’s from North Jersey, so it’s a “Taylor ham,” not a “pork roll.” Chat with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
