The rise of AI NPCs has seemed like a looming threat for years, as if developers were eager to get rid of human writers and hand over NPC conversations to generative AI models. At CES 2025, NVIDIA made it clear that the technology is upon us. PUBG Developer Krafton, for example, plans to use NVIDIA’s ACE (Avatar Cloud Engine) to power AI companions, who will assist and joke with you during matches. Krafton doesn’t stop there: it also uses ACE in its life simulation title In ZOI to make characters smarter and generate items.
Although the use of generative AI in games seems almost inevitable, as the medium has always played with new methods to make enemies and NPCs smarter and more realistic, seeing several NVIDIA ACE demos in a row really got me hurts your stomach. This wasn’t just a slightly smarter enemy AI: ACE can create entire conversations out of thin air, simulating voices and trying to give NPCs a sense of personality. It also does this work locally on your PC, powered by NVIDIA’s RTX GPUs. But while this all sounds cool on paper, I hated almost every second I saw the AI NPCs in action.
TiGames’ ZooPunk is a great example: it relies on NVIDIA ACE to generate dialogue, virtual voice, and lip sync for an NPC named Buck. But as you can see in the video above, Buck looks like a robot on stilts with a slight country accent. If he’s supposed to have some sort of relationship with the main character, it’s not evident from the performance.
I think my visceral dislike of NVIDIA’s ACE-powered AI boils down to this: There’s simply nothing compelling about it. No joy, no warmth, no humanity. Every character in ACE AI feels like a developer cutting corners in the worst possible way, as if you’re seeing their contempt for the audience displayed by an annoying NPC. I would much rather scroll through text on the screen, at least I wouldn’t have to have conversations with weird robot voices.
At NVIDIA’s Publisher Day at CES, a gathering for media to learn more about the new RTX 5000 series GPUs and their associated technology, I was also disappointed by a demo of PUBG AI Ally. His responses sounded like what you would hear in a pre-recorded phone tree. The Ally also failed to find a gun when the player asked for it, which could have been a deadly mistake on a crowded map. At some point, the PUBG The companion also spent about 15 seconds attacking enemies while the demo player yelled at him to get into a car. What good is an AI assistant if it plays like a noob?
Browse NVIDIA’s YouTube channel and you’ll find other disappointing ACE examples, like the MMO’s basic talking animations. Jade Dynasty World (above) and Alien: Raid of Thieves. I’m sure many developers would like to avoid the hassle of developing decent lip sync technology or adopting someone else’s, but for these games, relying on AI just seems awful.
To be clear, I don’t think NVIDIA’s AI efforts are all wasted. I’ve loved seeing DLSS steadily improve over the years, and I’m intrigued to see how DLSS 4’s multi-frame generation could improve 4K and ray tracing performance for demanding games. The company’s neural shader technology also looks compelling, particularly its ability to apply a realistic sheen to a material like silk, or to evoke the slight transparency you’d see on skin. To be clear, these aren’t huge visual advancements, but they could help provide a better sense of immersion.
Now, I’m sure some AI proponents will argue that the technology will improve from here on out and that at some undefinable point in the future it might approach the quality of human ingenuity. Maybe. But I’m personally tired of being convinced by AI fantasies, when we know that the key to quality writing and performances is giving human talent the time and resources to perfect their craft. And on some level, I think I’ll always feel like I’m the director Hayao Miyazakiwho described an early example of an AI CG creature as “an affront to life itself.”
AI, like any new technology, is a tool that could be deployed in many ways. For things like graphics and gameplay (like smart enemies in FEAR And The last of us), it makes sense. But when it comes to communicating with NPCs, writing their dialogue, and creating their performances, I’ve learned to appreciate human effort more than anything else. Replacing that with lifeless AI doesn’t seem like a step forward in any way.
