Awful Sony patent proposes AI-generated podcasts featuring PlayStation characters

Sony has filed what might very well be one of its worst patents ever.

It’s titled ‘LLM-Based Generative Podcasts for Gamers’ and was applied for in July 2024 and made public late last month. In it, Sony describes using generative AI to have PlayStation characters host curated podcasts for players.

“Video game platforms currently lack the ability to provide unique and targeted content to gamers to update the gamers about things that are happening on the platform,” reads the patent. “There are currently no adequate solutions to the foregoing computer-related, technological problem.”

Sony’s solution to this “problem,” then, is to basically turn characters from the games that you’ve played into corporate mouthpieces. After drawing from things like your recently played games and friends lists, your console will present you with a personalized AI-generated podcast containing news about upcoming releases, game recommendations, updates on your friends’ activity (such as when one earns a Platinum trophy) and even jokes about your in-game performance.

An example of what the characters could say in the AI-generated podcasts. (Image credit: Sony)

While Sony doesn’t mention any specific game characters, it does say the podcasts would leverage “in game-specific character voices.” In theory, this means you could “hear” from, say, The Last of Us‘ Joel in his particular soft Southern accent in one podcast, or God of War‘s commanding Kratos in another.

Of course, this whole thing sounds rather gross, as is typical with AI-generated content. First off, why is this even necessary? Sony presents the patent as a solution to a problem that never really existed. After all, there are already plenty of ways to see news and updates on PlayStation games, including the company’s own official blog and corresponding social media platforms, while the console itself even once had a feed for friends activity that Sony opted to remove for whatever reason.

But more importantly, there are many concerns surrounding the use of generative AI with these characters. Above all else, the patent doesn’t explain how the voices of the actors who originally portrayed these characters might be used. This feels particularly tone-deaf given ongoing controversies regarding AI from actors, especially in such a tech-heavy space as gaming.

Last year, Ashly Burch, who plays protagonist Aloy in PlayStation’s popular Horizon games, sparked an important conversation about this very subject. At the time, an internal Sony video showed one of the company’s engineers having a conversation with an AI version of Aloy that had a robotic voice, not one based on Burch. In response, Burch said this sort of initiative had her “worried about game performance as an art form.”

Burch’s comments came as part of SAG-AFTRA’s wider strike against video game companies in which actors fought for protections against AI in games. Ultimately, an agreement was reached last June that instituted some additional guardrails around AI.

But even disregarding all of that, this patent feels especially egregious because PlayStation, best known for its big narrative-driven single-player games, is one of the industry leaders when it comes to showcasing the importance of human actors. In addition to Burch in Horizon, PlayStation games have long been defined by top-notch performers like Troy Baker (Joel), Ashley Johnson (Ellie) and Laura Bailey (Abby) in The Last of Us, Nolan North (Nathan Drake) and Emily Rose (Elena Fisher) in Uncharted, Christopher Judge (Kratos) in God of War and Yuri Lowenthal (Spider-Man) in Marvel’s Spider-Man.

And yet, PlayStation is seemingly thinking of replacing them either with dissimilar robotic voices, as we saw with Aloy, or AI-generated simulations of their voices. Hopefully, the patent doesn’t manifest anything, but either way, it sadly shows the kind of awful thinking coming from executives.

Source: Sony (via the World Intellectual Property Organization)