Voice acting is an influential element of any video game experience. Whether the graphics are immaculate and the story-telling is entrancing, a game, specifically the characters, can still feel flat if the voice acting isn’t up to par. It requires years of practice and establishing one’s presence in the industry. Voice actors such as Troy Baker, Nolan North, Jennifer Hale, and Keith David all have successful careers in video game voice acting and can easily have influence over a person’s interest in purchasing a game. Yet the advancement of technology is changing voice acting as we know it, and it raises more concerns than anything else.

Earlier in April, developer Nicich340 released a mod for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine expansion pack titled “A Night to Remember” available on Nexus Mods, and it is certainly living up to that name. With nearly 13,000 downloads, the mod adds an entirely new adventure to the game, featuring old and new characters, new cutscenes, game assets, and voice acting.

Specifically, Geralt of Rivia’s lines were produced by an AI using CyberVoice, accurately reproducing the voice of Doug Cackle who plays him in The Witcher 3. The fact the AI’s lines are indistinguishable from the voice actor’s has proven to be a big worry amongst voice actors and fans themselves.

Voice actor Jay Britton, a British voice actor known for Divinity: Origin Sin II, expressed his concerns on Twitter at the time.

If this is true, this is just heartbreaking. Yes, AI might be able to replace things but should it? We literally get to decide.

Replacing actors with AI is not only a legal minefield but an utterly souless choice.

Why not remove all human creativity from games and use AI… https://t.co/aYLiBe9iqn

— Jay Britton (@JayBritton) April 12, 2021

Some replies shared Britton’s concerns while others said that such technology is inevitable. Natalie WInter, another British voice actor known for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, also believes it is likely to happen.

It is sad to think that if AI voices become good enough to be widely used, then those opportunities will decrease again.” Natalie Winter, Input Mag.

Yet is the replacement of voice actors with AI voices inevitable? It is said the greater the voice actor’s work, the easier it is to replicate that voice. Yet the voice actors with the most work are the ones that have accumulated a following that buys games specifically to support their work. So would fans let the replacement of their favourite voice actors slide? Or can we see technology taking over like many sci-fi worlds depict?

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The post The Witcher 3 Mod: Is This the Future of Voice Acting? first appeared on Get2Gaming.

While we wait for any news on the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI, fans of the franchise have blown us away with their incredibly creative minds and have made an AI version of the fifth highest-selling video game franchise of all time.

Grand Theft Auto V, the most latest instalment of the franchise, was released over seven years ago, yet it is constantly being re-released for the latest gaming consoles (PS4 and Xbox One versions, and there are talks of it being re-released again for PS5 and Xbox Series X), and players are still able to find new and interesting ways to make use and have fun with the game that keeps on giving.

Previously, one player dedicated themselves to complete the game without taking a single hit, one developer managed to decrease the Grand Theft Auto Online loading time, which Rockstar Games appreciated so much thanked them personally by paying them $10,000, and another developer, Intel Labs, transformed its visuals into a highly realistic version of itself. Other completely useless but still fascinating trivia that other players have noticed can be found here.

Now, Harrison Kingsley, also known as sentdax on YouTube and author of Neural Networks from Scratch, has made an AI version of Grand Theft Auto with fellow developer Daniel Kukiela, known as GAN Theft Auto.

GAN stands for Generative Adversarial Network and it works like this: there are two neural networks with the first one being the generator in charge of consuming a sample dataset which then generates content from said data and the second network takes the generated content and compares it to the original sample, removing data that is considered too different so that the generator can produce content more accurate to the sample.

Here is a more detailed explanation of how GAN works and a visual insight into how it can be played:

The neural network is the entire game. It’s handling what happens when you press a key to turn left or right, there are no rules written here by us or the original Grand Theft Auto engine. The neural network is controlling all of this along with what happens when we turn into another car or hit a wall… It’s doing all of this based on our imputs.

And the best part of all is that everyone else is free to try it out while we inevitably wait for Grand Theft Auto VI.

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The post AI Makes Grand Theft Auto Game From Scratch first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates

Concerned about machines becoming super intelligent 

“I am in the camp that is concerned about super-intelligence,” Bill Gates has said. “First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super-intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.”

Bill Gates is concerned about machines becoming super intelligent and is wondering why no one else is sharing his concern on the matter. As part of a wide-ranging and fascinating recent Reddit AMA, a fan asked Gates if he thought machine super-intelligence might become a concern going forward. Gates said, at first, machines will do human-helping jobs like picking fruit, but danger could come as they grow smarter and smarter.

Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, said last summer that super-intelligent AI systems are “potentially more dangerous than nukes.”

Bill Gates was also asked if he thought full end-to-end encryption of all Internet activity could do anything to protect humanity from the threat of super-intelligent machines. Unfortunately, Gates didn’t answer.

You can read the full Bill Gates Reddit AMA right HERE!

The post Bill Gates – Concerned About Machines Becoming Super-Intelligent first appeared on Get2Gaming.