PlayStation patent aims to use AI to change video game art styles

Sony has filed a new patent that aims to use artificial intelligence to completely change the art style of a video game in real-time. Using AI, the PlayStation patent will allow a user to input the style they want to see and convert a game’s assets on the fly.

Titled “Scene Annotation and Action Description using Machine Learning”, the PlayStation patent is mostly plugged as an accessibility tool for gamers. Using the tool, gamers could add more easily discernible visual features to help play games.

However, alongside being an accessibility tool, Sony wants to give gamers the ability to completely change art styles on a whim. While developers may spend years creating an art style for their game, the PlayStation patent will let users do whatever they want with it.

In one example, PlayStation’s iconic and beautiful gothic action-RPG Bloodborne is described as having its art style changed to the CGI-esque aesthetic of Epic Games’ battle royale game Fortnite.

The Fortnite aesthetic is referenced yet again, this time as a conversion of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto. In the patent, Sony explains that players would be able to convert the realistic style of GTA a games into Fortnite’s art style if they wanted.

Sony’s patent explains that the geometric details of a game would remain the exact same, not altering any of the gameplay. However, the visual AI program would replace all textures with converted ones.

There’s no way of knowing how Sony plans on implementing this AI technology into games at the time of writing. While the tech could be used in game-making titles such as Dreams, it could also be implemented at a console level to alter each and every game on the system.

AI art has already been criticised for being built on the theft of human artists’ existing works. While US law dictates that AI-made art cannot be protected by copyright and Japan is making moves to protect artists against AI models, it’s still a largely unregulated industry.

Gamers have largely revolted against AI artwork in video games, especially after the failed crypto movement just a year before. Whether or not this PlayStation patent actually results in anything is yet to be determined.