Boring real-world AI is apparently helping improve video game AI through Nvidia ACE

If there was any doubt as to whether Nvidia was all-in on the generative AI hype train, now’s the time to dispel those notions. The announcement of RTX 5000 GPUs has been followed by a glut of other related information, including Nvꦜidia ACE: a new kind of AI-driven NPC.

To clarify right off the bat, AI has, over the past couple of years, become a universal moniker for advanced language models in the real world. These things aren’t really any sort of artificial intelligence, but calling them AI sure is neat and simple, so companies leverage that for marketing hype. , however, kind-of-sort-of fits into the classic definition of AI due to it driving in-game NPCs using small, localized language models. That’s right: Nvidia is now looking to improve video game AI using boring real-world AI (what a sentence that is), and though it’s a tad cringey right now, there’s loads of potential here.

Experience Nvidia ACE in PUBG and InZOI, with more to come

“Powered by generative AI,” says Nvidia’s pitch of the new ACE feature-set,”ACE will enable living, dynamic game worlds with companions that comprehend and support player goals, and enemies that adapt dynamically to player tactics.”

While Nvidia ACE might’ve been announced back in 2023, it wasn’t entirely clear what, exactly, might come of it. To that end, Nvidia’s prepared a curious gameplay video showing off PUBG‘s new “co-playable” characters. In the context of PUBG‘s gameplay loop, CPCs behave as partially autonomous party members who will source loot for the player, call out enemies and dangers, and provide strategic suggestions on the go. It’s an honestly neat idea, even if the gameplay video showing it off feels excessively corporate in some strange, indescribable way.

Crucially, CPCs won’t rely on online language models for decision-making. Instead, they’re going to be driven by Nvidia’s local SLMs (small language models) that the company claims will be “capable of planning at human-like frequencies required for realistic decision making.” Interesting stuff, for sure, but even more interesting is that decision-making SLMs will be backed by “multi-modal SLMs for vision and audio that allow AI characters to hear audio cues and perceive their environment.”

In other words, co-playable characters will have access to the e♉xact same information as the player does, which sits in stark contrast to r🦩egular, garden-variety video game AI.

As seen in the video featured above, PUBG is going to be one of the first games to use Nvidia ACE in regular gameplay: “Built with NVIDIA ACE, [PUBG Ally] utilizes the Mistral-Nemo-Minitron-8B-128k-instruct small language model that enables AI teammates to communicate using game-specific lingo, provide real-time strategic recommendations, find and share loot, drive vehicles, and fight other human players using the game’s extensive arsenal of weapons,” says the blog. PUBG Ally should launch sometime later this year.

Other games that will support Nvidia ACE in some capacity include Naraka: Bladepoint, InZOI, MIR5, Dead Meat, AI People, and ZooPunk. So, it won’t take too long before we see ACE spread its language-modeled wings to either fly or fall flat on its face. I will say, though, that not all of these implementations thrill me at face value.

MIR5, for example, is touting a fully SLM-driven boss monster that’s going to learn from its previous fights with players to constantly reinvent its strategy. This could very easily turn into a real pain in moment-to-moment gameplay, as creatures slowly become “immune” to common player tactics. The practical implementation will be crucial because, frankly, nobody wants to fight against an unbeatable, ever-shifting monstrosity time and again.

Nvidia ACE is, then, already quite widespread and very promising if it all materializes properly. As with most AI-driven things, though, only time will tell how reliable and effective these features are. It’s also going to be interesting to see if ACE’s small language model handling of AI will come with a major performance drop in gameplay, and if older GPU generations might be locked out of some of its offline features. Curious stuff, regardless!