A modder named Art From The Machine is developing a Skyrim mod that utilises ChatGPT and other AI tools.
The mod gives non-playable characters (NPCs) a memory of the player’s adventure, allowing them to make endless comments and respond to voice questions.
According to PC Gamer, the mod combines ChatGPT with xVASynth for text-to-speech functionality, enabling NPCs to speak with their own AI-generated voice. Additionally, the mod uses Whisper for speech-to-text capability, allowing players to use a microphone to ask NPCs questions.
As shown in the video below, the NPCs’ responses are not yet entirely natural and may be a bit slow. Nevertheless, the mod demonstrates a potential future where NPCs can offer comments on nearly every aspect of the player’s adventure and even answer questions directly, instead of providing canned responses from a limited list of dialogue options.
Ulfberth War-Bear from Warmaiden’s in Whiterun was featured in the video released by Art From The Machine. The player can ask Ulfberth questions about the store’s opening hours and closing time, based on the in-game clock. Furthermore, Ulfberth is seen describing a sword that the player picks up. This shows that any NPC – with the necessary knowledge – can provide dynamic explanations of various items in the world as part of a conversation instead of just presenting the information in a text-based menu.
Ulfberth describes the sword picked up by the player as, “a well-crafted iron sword with a soul gem embedded in the hilt. The enchantment on it allows the wielder to capture the souls of their enemies”.
Regarding NPCs remembering player conversations, Art From The Machine is currently working on incorporating a basic memory system in conjunction with ChatGPT to make this a reality.
On Reddit, Art From The Machine revealed, “I have set up a basic memory system where I request ChatGPT to summarise the conversation on exit to help condense it for future prompts. However, there are much more advanced tools available for memory such as Langchain that I plan to implement in the future.”
Despite the impressive technology, one of the major ongoing questions is whether AI-generated text can ever equal that of a human. Although it is exciting to have limitless content in a game, it is worth questioning if it truly matters if it doesn’t feel authentic or rich with context from our personal experiences and identity. Only time will tell.
