(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Activision–Blizzard, the video game company responsible for producing the Call of Duty franchise, announced that they will deploy an artificial intelligence tool to censor “toxic” speech.
The AI tool would have the power to monitor players in real time, censoring or banning them outright if the offense is severe enough, according to a report from Breitbart.
Activision announced the partnership with Modulate, an AI company, excited for the integration of their voice moderation tool known as ToxMod.
Modern Warfare 2, Warzone 2 and upcoming Modern Warfare 3 will all have the technology.
The video game creator said ToxMod will “identify in real-time and enforce against toxic speech—including hate speech, discriminatory language, harassment and more.”
Bans from video games can cost players hundreds of dollars, with the game starting at $69.99 to pre-order, on top of the initial investment in a gaming system.
Moreover, whatever in-game purchases the player opts to buy may be totally useless at a slip of the tongue—or even based on a simple misunderstanding from the AI algorithm’s inability to distinguish nuance and context.
As AI’s power continues to grow, many leading voices in the tech field issued warnings against the further expansion of the technology.
Several leaders in the Big Tech sector, including Elon Musk, signed a letter to pause training artificial intelligence until researchers can do so ethically.
Several AI companies faced lawsuits for stealing private information to train their programs.
“The proliferation of AI—including Defendants’ products—pose an existential threat if not constrained by the reasonable guardrails of our laws and societal mores,” said a lawsuit against OpenAI, which allegedly stole private online content to teach Chat GPT.
“Defendants’ business and scraping practices raise fundamentally important legal and ethical questions that must also be addressed,” it continued. “Enforcing the law will not amount to stifling AI innovation, but rather a safe and just AI future for all.”
A recent report asserted that artificial intelligence will create an estimated 90% of online content by 2026.
President Joe Biden tasked Vice President Kamala Harris with the handling of AI regulation in May, but apart from securing voluntary commitments from several major tech companies to ensure the safety of their AI products, the White House has made no apparent progress in developing a clear set of guidelines.
