EA Says It’s Going to Use AI to Fix The Sims 4’s Really Annoying User Content Gallery

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Everyone knows that The Sims 4 Gallery, the game’s hub where players can share and download their creations, is terrible. It’s difficult to browse, search results rarely return what you’re looking for, and the hashtag system is temperamental at best. Even EA knows, because it has a plan to fix the gallery with AI-powered image search.

During Electronic Arts’ investor presentation this week, where it was also explained that there is no Sims 5 reallyEA Entertainment & Technology President Laura Miele elaborated on the features that are envisioned for the future “Sims Hub.”

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Laura Miele shows off an AI tool for searching images in The Sims user content gallery. (Photo source: Electronic Arts)

Miele explains the “AI app that uses a photo-based search function”: Think of it as Google’s reverse image search function. Instead of searching for “a red house with white trim,” Miele explains, players can simply upload a photo. “The function is actually live today, and it’s scheduled to be released soon,” he says, adding that the video shown (above) actually used search results from the tool.

As Miele notes, there’s a ton of content in the current The Sims 4 gallery, and image search helps bypass language barriers and spelling mistakes. During the same presentationMiele explained that EA plans to make multiple Sims games available in one gallery. With even more content being pushed into it, making it easier to employ will be key. As for the employ of AI imaging tools, that seems great.

I’m a bit more circumspect about how Miele describes using the same tool to create a Sim. “That same AI-powered image search can unlock the ability to create. Uploading a photo of a model wearing a specific outfit — clothes, shoes, jewelry, everything. Using images to create content will empower our players.”

It’s unclear whether Miele has in mind a tool that can take an image and identify similar clothing items available in The Sims 4 content and then create a Sim wearing that outfit, or if the tool is intended to generate novel content for the game without the artist’s involvement.

If it’s the latter, it sounds a lot like what Krafton recently toyed with in demos for its upcoming Sims competitor InzoiIt has an AI tool that can generate in-game patterns based on text clues or swap a photo of a real-world object for an in-game photo.

That was just part of a surprisingly huge amount of Sims-related information that EA shared this week. In addition to explaining Project Rene’s place in “The Sims Universe,” EA also shared that it’s going to do something closed beta testing of the Rene project multiplayer.

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