Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

249 AI in Gaming Part 1 – The Co-Pilot Conundrum

• Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

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In this first of two episodes exploring AI and gaming, Jem, Matt, and Alex discuss the arrival of AI co-pilots — new tools from Microsoft and Google designed to sit within your game and offer real-time hints, walkthroughs, and quest support.

The team examine whether these helpers could make games more accessible and inclusive, or if they risk taking over and removing the joy (and sometimes frustration) of discovery. We discuss how AI advice compares to walkthroughs, guides, and playground tips that have long been part of gaming culture, and consider whether convenience might come at the cost of creativity and community engagement.

Will using AI co-pilots blur the line between helping and cheating? Or could they usher in lazy game design? If we rely too heavily on AI, do we risk losing access to our own critical thinking? 

We discuss the very nature of challenge, support and accessibility, before circling back to one key theme, trust. Can we truly depend on AI to provide the right advice when it still generates incorrect answers and risks stripping away the human touch that makes gaming culture so rich? What will we lose if we no longer rely on walkthroughs written with care, the sibling hints shouted across the room and the sense of solving something for yourself?

In part two, we will explore what happens when AI begins to influence the characters we meet and the worlds we inhabit.

Join the conversation by sharing your thoughts on AI, gaming, and what “help” really means.

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Matt:

it's a bit soulless, having a soulless person sat next to you. Rather than a human being who has written or created the walkthroughs, just having it going. next, the next step is round the corner. There we are here to help you get back in the game. that puts me off.

Alex:

I think generally trust of AI is always going to be difficult because it's big scary robot that we all. hear about sci-fi films is gonna take over the world. And I think that influences our trust levels quite a lot, how we've grown up, told that eventually AI's going to turn on us and we'll be in trouble.

Speaker:

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. I'm your host for today. I'm Gem, and I'm here with my friends Alex and Matt. So before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our patron at patron.com/gaming the system for some exclusive content. Or you can send us a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address. We are gaming the system@gmail.com.

Jem (2):

Hello and welcome to another episode of Gaming the System, we've talked a bit about AI already on the podcast and it's just. Constantly changing and there's been a couple of new stories recently that have piqued our interest and I wanted to explore those with you guys and see what your thoughts were on it. Whether we love it or loathe it, AI is definitely here. And gaming is one of the places where I think it will have a big impact. We. Talked a little bit about the sort of moral issues around ai and concern within the creative industries about the impact of AI on, writing creativity and art we are going to try and sidestep that today and talk about AI as your co-pilot. We've been, hearing some news recently that Microsoft have brought out a copilot edition where an AI can help support you while you are gaming. And Google are also bringing out something similar with Gemini. So we're going to dive into this new wave of ai, which isn't just running in the background. It's actually going to become increasingly part of your, hud. And it's. Going to be helping to guide you through quests, explain mechanics, and maybe even suggest, things that you might want to do or builds that you might need for your, setup this sounds really interesting. It's a bit of a breakthrough potentially for accessibility. I would like to talk about that, whether we feel that is the case players who struggle with memory or coordination, which we talked a little bit about in our open world episodes about how those can sometimes be limiting factors for people on these bigger games. And on the other hand it also raises tricky questions about when AI is. Ready to step in? Is it, going to get it right? Are we going to want it to step in? How do we get that balance between something that's supportive and helpful and something that's actually taking over? There's an impact on the experience. We've talked about easy modes and what you. Enjoy out of a game where the challenge and the entertainment meet, how is this gonna fit into that? So we're gonna be asking about where the line is between helping and cheating empowerment and immersion, breaking engagement. First of all, I just wanted to ask if, either of you have heard about, or what you've heard about these two new, additions to the sort of AI world.

Matt:

I have not seen these things specifically. main thing I've been noticing is. The slightly more sophisticated gameplay hints that come along mainly with PlayStation. I've looked at trophies, I have Platinum Spider-Man two, and there are some of the, some of the trophies that are a bit more difficult to. To work how to do on your own, and there were video clips included with them that could just shortcut having to Google it and work it out that way. I'd be interested to see how sophisticated this AI stuff is being pitched as. There's the Google, Gemini ai, I've been exposed to a lot because I do everything through Google Drive curious about what they come up with. I could do with a bit more information about what these AI co-pilots are claiming to do.

Alex:

I am in a similar boat to Matt. I think I hadn't heard about, these new developments specifically, but like Matt, I also. Have seen the game hints on PlayStation, it knows exactly where you are in the game and, your next challenge might be. It will pop up on the home screen and say, did you need help with finding this collectible or solving this puzzle, or whatever else. It's quite interesting to think about. I think it's a brilliant topic for us to discuss because a lot of people are quite wary about AI right now and what the future holds. In relation to gaming, it certainly is beginning to have an impact. I'd be interested to see how that develops the coming years. thinking about the topic broadly. There is, ways in which it could be utilized to help, get gamers started on things. We've talked a lot about if you have a long break from a, a game where the controls are quite complex, you've come back in, you've got no idea what you're doing. After two or three months if the AI were to pop up and say, don't you remember this is how to fight your weapon That might be helpful, but I think where it starts to become more involved, that's an interesting thing to think about. Where is the line with that? You don't want developers to become too reliant on not making the game easier to follow, because the AI will solve the problem for them. I'm not saying that's what's gonna happen, but. There's always a danger that, once you get used to them and how they work, you could become overly reliant on them. I've found in my working life, I'm beginning to use AI more to help with initiating tasks, and just getting my brain working. But I can sense that sometimes I'll be thinking like. Where do I start with this? Oh, I'll just use AI to prompt myself rather than sitting down and thinking about it. is a time saver in that way, but I do get a creeping sense that I may, is a danger, there's a slippery slope, I think to becoming, overly reliant on AI giving us all the answers. Which I'm not sure how I feel about in terms of gaming. Part of the buzz that I get from gaming is solving problems myself.

Jem:

Yeah. It's interesting that you raised that because I've listened. To quite a lot of podcasts that talk about AI and education and one of the biggest concerns is that AI prevents, or at least, minimizes cognitive reasoning because it just provides the answers you just go and ask it and it tells you, and you don't have to think things through for yourself. So obviously that is a concern and I have the same. Experience that you were just describing where I could sit down and write this from scratch or I could, ask chat GBT to put something together and edit it. Because I've been writing for many years professionally and personally, editing is something that I find quite. Easy to do but how much am I losing by getting chat GPT to write the first draft of something and does it, matter? There are very big discussions around all of this, and I think when you then apply that same logic to gaming, it opens up a whole new area of questioning. Let's put this into context a little bit. Microsoft Gaming copilot, hit windows. In, public BETA recently. And it's going live for, PC players. It's on Xbox through the game bar. And I think it's also, available on PC through the Xbox game bar as well. Matt, I think you said you had the Xbox, game system.

Matt:

Pass,

Jem:

Game pass. Not the system. Sorry. I knew you heard me pause as I said that and I was like, oh, Matt's gonna get cross if I get this wrong. I dunno if you've come across it yet, but it's being rolled out so I dunno how long that's going to take. And it's, obviously only in beta at the moment. The idea is that it's going to help you find achievements, plan builds, navigate quests, and basically reduce the need to alt tab out of your game and go into a wiki or, watch something on YouTube. There is a big moral issue there because that's another factor that people have raised about ai, that if you are going to an AI chat bot or whatever for your answers, you're not going to websites. So you're not going to be accessing sites that are. Putting that information out there, which means that you're not going to be seeing the adverts that they have on their sites, which is how they make their money or supplement their business, the content is being scraped by the AI bots, the people who are creating the content are no longer getting any kind of return for creating that content why will people create websites and wikis and videos about how to play a game if they're not able to gain anything in return for that other than, a warm, fuzzy feeling that they're letting the chatbots know how to play a game. That's a, a very big topic. The Google one is, basically adding on something called a games sidekick, which they describe as a helpful new in-game overlay that curates relevant gaming information and provides real time guidance with Gemini Live, which is Google's ai. Sidekick provides helpful information and support when and where you need it so you can stay in the game. So again, this looks like it's trying to provide you with in-game information that sits within it.

Matt:

Another problem with AI stuff is the tone of voice is the same

Jem:

Yeah.

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

And them saying, stay in the game, and that kind of bullshit,

Alex:

Mm-hmm.

Matt:

slogan, nonsense. That is another problem with AI it's never just Disjointed human thought. It's start, middle, end

Alex:

Going out of a game to YouTube to find the answer to whatever it is you're doing. Actually thinking about how many times I do that, it's pretty common for some games. If we're messed up, we just go onto a walkthrough website or a YouTube video. Right from the beginning of my gaming life, we were using things like gaming guides in book form. You'd go out and buy a gaming guide or a magazine, and then of course it turned into websites where you'd have all the walkthroughs for each level and maybe some cheat codes so there's always been help for games out there, but this is perhaps the next loop forward in terms of, I say leap. The next transition from having websites and video content to help you. Now to having AI help you, but what is it taking away the content that's already existing? It's, quite an interesting to consider, and I'm sure a lot of people are quite worried, particularly the authors of these websites and these, gaming help channels. You know, quite a lot, do quite well on YouTube. Like finding platinum trophy channels and all that sort of thing. I'm sure they are very concerned about what's on the horizon.

Matt:

It's been a, a, a trajectory in terms of gaming supports systems, right? Because you're right at the very start, there was nothing.

Alex:

Nothing.

Matt:

The only chance you had was if your friends were playing it

Alex:

Exactly. You'd hear it in the playground

Matt:

and then there were the walkthrough actual physical books, which were really cool. Little bits of art really usually made by the game developers, I think, that would talk you through how to do things. I remember in the first God of War game, there was a. rule might was stuck in, and there were these pillars that came up underwater when you pressed the button. at the base of one of those pillars was a little nook that you had to go and sit inside and then it would take you back down. Then now the, the advent of the internet, the reservoir of walkthroughs of games has grown until there's practically. I walked through of every type of game. I was playing Pokemon Emerald recently and got stuck I didn't know where I was and Googled the answer, where do I go next from here? And there was this basic text only massive

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

this guy had made and just searched through that and go, oh yeah, there's the answer. And then YouTube channels you can be shown absolutely anything on there

Alex:

Hmm.

Matt:

I don't know whether this is a good evolution of

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

subsystem.

Jem:

so I suppose the question is, as Matt says, is this a good evolution of those handheld supports that we used to be able to buy, or search up on the internet? I certainly. Use walkthroughs and guides. Don't use walkthroughs as much as I used to. But I definitely do use, guides when I get stuck especially if I'm playing games where there's lots of recipes or, you are making lots of things. It's quite nice to, not have to sit there and spend hours just randomly trying combinations of things. So, that's the sort of thing that I might use, an AI copilot for. Would you actually use a copilot in your gaming? And, why or why not?

Matt:

I don't think I would just because I have been. Sufficiently supported by the resources that are available at the moment, Being able to Google my way to the answer that I need with relative ease in most things that I do. I think most of these things can be solved with good game design.

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

In terms of how much, so the support with it going through the game is very different to accessibility support for the game. So if we're talking just about assistance the game designers should be building in the assistive. Elements in terms of the level design color scheme and lighting, using all of those things where you go, if you stop for a second, go, I dunno where I need to go next. The game should an answer for that built it. And if it doesn't, it's not as well. And there is ways to do this and preserve the things that make the game challenging. But it's no fun when you reach a bit and go, i'm bored now.

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

And that's more immersion breaking because you're running around in a circle was a a bit in Expedition 33, 1 of the earlier levels where. That it absolutely wasn't clear where I needed to go. I was just running around in circles thinking, I'm not lost because the game wants me to the lost, I'm lost because the game isn't telling me where to go next. That's the difference. If you're thinking this bit is difficult because that's how the game is made versus this is difficult'cause it's poorly made.

Jem:

Yeah.

Matt:

And, I have found that Googling and walkthroughs and if necessary YouTube walkthroughs for specific bits as well. I have said before that I think that something like an older sibling mode. The biggest problem with looking through walkthroughs is the danger of spoilers. Because you don't know what you don't know about a game,

Jem:

No, exactly.

Matt:

To work out the little bit of information that you need without spoiling gonna happen next in the game. And that's where like, if you have an older sibling who's played the game before and you go, oh, I dunno what I do next. And they come in and go, oh yeah, you see that bit there? That's a grappling point, and you need to go and jump off that. And you go, oh, thank you. And then they go off and you're back running smooth. So, yeah, I just think, it's a bit soulless, having a soulless person sat next to you. Rather than a human being who has written or created the walkthroughs, just having it going. next, the next step is round the corner. There we are here to help you get back in the game. that puts me off.

Alex:

Yeah, that's the interesting point isn't it? It does feel a bit soulless, I think, when you think about the ways we access help in the past, whether it be through. Family and friends or a guide that's been written by the developer or a walkthrough website they've come from other human beings. Whereas if it comes from ai, there's a chance that it's not going to be 100% correct. That was also true of things you'd hear on the playground often sprinkled with hefty of, of, rumor and such. Like, you know, if you press this button combination, your character will explode. You never know. But, yeah, there's a danger. We'll lose something. If it turns solely into, AI help, there's also a danger that we'd lose out on choice of asking for help it becomes so. Prevalent to the point that it is just basically telling us what to do without us asking, that's going to be a problem. Because then what's the point in playing, you know, if you're just gonna have this AI thing telling you what the answer is, if you stay still for five minutes or something.

Matt:

Game developers constantly getting flack for that.

Alex:

With

Matt:

with NPCs.'cause you go, you walk into a place and you go, Ooh. And the character will say, oh, I need to match these three things over there. What's that up there? Now I have this key. That means I can go and open this door and go up the lift to get to the thing. I hope there isn't another thing up there and happened in God of war, in the Horizon games and in the last of us, some of the absolute biggest ones. People universally hate that.

Alex:

don't

Matt:

That's the really where you need to be creative and minimalist

Alex:

Hmm.

Matt:

Knowing when your player has hit a point, you've play tested enough that if you watch a thousand people play this same little puzzle bit, you know the bit where they all go. Uh, and then that's when you get your character to say, oh, what's that up there? Or those little prompts, that point you gently in the right direction one of the most impactful tiny little snippets of dialogue in the God a war games is when Atress goes. Oh, where should we go next? Or something? Some all the, the water's lowered so we could go and look at somewhere else if we want. And there's tiny little things are going, oh yeah, this is the point where we can turn off and go and explore. Through the writing and the way the game's made, it's an art form in itself

Alex:

Mm.

Matt:

the players where it wants to go.

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

AI is very soulless art.

Jem:

Yeah. I mean, the next, in the, in the next part of this, AI parter that we're, that we're doing at the moment, we will actually explore. AI and NPC. I want to stick a pin in what you've just said about that, Matt, because I think that's something we might come back to in, in the next episode. And is obviously completely valid for what we're talking about at the moment. When you two were just chatting I was thinking about how. Some games have help built into the game already. I find those annoying because sometimes when they're automated it'll be like, oh, do you need help? And it's like, no, I literally just walked in the room. Just give me a minute to work out what I'm doing. And you know, it makes me feel harassed.

Alex:

it's like going into a shop and the shop assistant come up and be like, can I help you with anything? Like, no, no, no, I Just want to browse. Please,

Jem:

i've literally just walked in here. I'm not even sure that I know what you're selling, let alone what I wanna buy from you. And I think that. It would be very important that any AI support is set at the right level. But the flip side of that is that I would say that what AI could bring to that and the point that you made, Matt, about not knowing if you're gonna get spoilers when you're looking for help online or, when you're asking for help. Is that good AI might be able to. Properly pitch that at a level that you can choose. So you could set I want you to work on older sibling mode and that sort of, reluctantly giving you advice in a sort of oh, come on, you should have worked this out yourself way.

Matt:

Even if it's like the, positive older sibling who wants to support you through things. I can't tell you the amount of cursing and names. I've been called helping mom and Meghan with their gaming.'cause if I go in and sit with them, I see things quicker than they do because I've been gaming for twenty years.

Jem:

Hmm.

Matt:

twenty five years actually. Jesus, I am older than I think I am

Jem:

Aren't

Matt:

And so I'll be there and I say, you try it. Because they know what they need to do, they know how to do it. It's just gonna take them a bit longer. I could offer a shortcut if you go, right, press x now don't hold it then overcorrect all these things are helpful, but sometimes you don't want to be helped. You just go, I'll get there on my own. I know what I need to do, so leave me

Jem:

Yeah.

Alex:

I've got a

Jem:

Yeah.

Alex:

You could have a mode, backseat gamer girlfriend

Matt:

Yes.

Alex:

which has been happening

Matt:

oh, writing that down.

Alex:

We've been swapping controls. Basically we'll do a mission each and then swap back and, during the stealthy bits. Tom will start going in to like a camp or something and I'll be like, I think you should get up high. That would be the time to go climb that building. And he's just like going, no, what I'm doing, stop talking. And I'll be like, well, I would've used this weapon at this point, and I know it annoys him. I just can't help it. I want to be in control'cause it's such a fun game and I enjoy watching it as well, but it is hard. When you want to play it at the same time. That could definitely be a fun marriage to include into the AI cannon. Definitely backseat gamer, that happens quite regularly,

Matt:

It is literally the same as backseat driving because whenever I'm, in the passenger seat of someone, I need to proactively stop myself. Looking as if I'm driving. And so when you are watching someone game, it's exactly the same of going and you go, I would've jumped then.

Alex:

Yeah.

Matt:

So your brain is reacting as if you're playing it

Alex:

Yes,

Matt:

and it's very funny.

Alex:

it is funny.

Jem:

Yeah, so if we have AI supporting us in the games, we want it to be able to be adapted to our specific needs in that environment and to drip feed us information as we need it, somehow it's gotta work out when that is and how to do that without annoying us. I can see how it could be quite useful. Especially in games where they're very immersive and you're getting very emotionally involved. It's really jarring to sometimes have to come out of that environment and go search for a load of, Reddit. Posts or random videos on YouTube to get the information. So it would be quite nice if you could just have a little voice in your ear, go, perhaps you could look under the mat or something like that. I can see how that would be useful. I can also see how this would be beneficial to people who. Maybe need a little bit more assistance in their gaming, but don't want to be constantly asking somebody else for help or feeling that they are, struggling with or failing at the gaming experience, in some way cheating or not experiencing. The game in the way that it's meant to be. We've talked a lot about that with regards to what mode you play in. We've also been very forthright in our support that you should play the game in the way that you enjoy and there isn't a right way to play games. I think that it would be very easy for people to sort of feel that this is in some way cheating. However, I do, I'm just minded of. When we spoke to, your friend Alex, Ross. and he was talking about some of the assistance in the last of us and how that it had been so revolutionary for him to play a game without having to get somebody to come and do bits for him. How do you feel the line between that assistance and too much help that might lead into sort of cheating is, where do you think that's going to lie? Or do you think that's just gonna be different for everyone? And how do we deal with that on a sort of broader attitudes basis?

Alex:

I would hope that it would have some applications for things like audio description. I think it could be very useful for that sort of thing. provided obviously it's tested by people who use audio description and rely on audio description and make sure that it quality that they need it to be. I think that could certainly save a lot of time and perhaps, some money as well. But then also. How is audio description regularly produced? No, that's an interesting question, isn't it? Is it reliant on a particularly trained person to describe a scene in a particular way? or is it something that AI could learn to do? That's definitely a question for the future. So I think. It's difficult to know where the line is between being a useful application and being something that goes too far the other way. Tricky.

Matt:

If we're thinking about cheating and assistance, unless it's a competitive multiplayer game, then concept of cheating is pretty much irrelevant. if you're playing on your own and there's no competitive element, you should be able to play exactly the way you want to, to get the experience that you want when it comes to stuff like accessibility features in the last verse. So what makes it so I like positively impactful is the, the amount of customization available. not just a one size fits all, which is what most games do. It's got presets for different kinds of access needs, and inside those things you can tweak pretty much everything and the elements that allow. People to play the game who otherwise wouldn't be able to. And enhance the game experience for people who don't necessarily need them. The main thing is, will it improve your gaming experience if you feel any shame related to doing any of it, that is just completely pointless because, you're not getting the experience that you want. If, if you are, if you get stuck, like with Eldon Ring, I got to the point where I, I wasn't enjoying myself anymore. I was a little, tiny little bit into the, the shadow of the archery expansion and just got utterly stuck and I wanted to explore the world and experience it. Without it having to be a massive grind fest. So I used mods to make that possible. Modding is doing the, customization elements that the game designers should be doing themselves. The more you move away from console gaming the more you realize you deserve better in terms of custom options, when you look at the sheer scale of these days. Maybe finding the mods that would help you. Most AI could be useful for finding those things, but what is better is. Mod developers and mod users. You can create collections on the mod website basically a list of particular mods that you want but that would take people manually going through and choosing the mods that would be useful, for visual disabilities, audio disabilities. It still feels like human, human interventions in these things are preferable. Because ai, I don't think it's, I don't think it's up to the task of, of allowing that kind of customization it should feel like a tool you're using to get the result you want rather than it being a cop out we seem to be going in circles of going, oh, there are good bits, but is it better than human bits? Should we be doing this or should we doing that? So it's, yeah. It shows what a complex topic it is

Jem:

it is a complex topic with many aspects that we have discussed a lot in our time on gaming the system, but haven't necessarily reached definite conclusions for, one thing that came to mind for me is. That both of the descriptions for these co-pilots, are talking about, oh, it might be able to help you with achievements and things like that. Achievements are supposed to be difficult things that the vast majority of people. Don't do either because they can't be bothered don't have time or don't need to do them to complete the game. They're just extra things that you do to be that sort of step above the average player. So would having an AI system that told you how to. Do those things actually just cheapen the whole concept of achievements and be something that you don't have that feeling of achievement. By completing them in the same way, because effectively anyone who. Has the time can do it. And then we get into the whole discussion, which we've talked about a lot about being time poor for gaming and how that affects people's gaming experiences.

Alex:

The interesting thing for me with achievements or trophies, if you're on police station, is the, for the ones I've platinum. So take for example, like the Spyro Remastered trilogy, there were some bits where you had to. Collect certain eggs or do certain types of races under a certain time. I would naturally turn to Google to find maybe the one last location I couldn't find or to see a shortcut I hadn't spotted in a race. So I was essentially cheating by using Google to get those. So to me, I don't suppose it's that much different. If you were to use AI compared to using Google just to get those last few, I try as much as possible to get the trophies naturally, through my own gameplay. and sometimes also they're hidden trophies. But of course we all know you can press square on PlayStation to see what it is, and sometimes it might be spoilery. But once you've completed the main story of a game, Okay to look at the, the trophy, unless you are like a completionist and you just want to know without, getting spoilers no matter what. But, I was making is that I don't think it's too different to what most people probably do now, which is just go to Google. For those last few missing trophies, if they desperately want to get their platinum.

Jem:

Yeah.

Alex:

differently, Matt.

Matt:

Yeah. One unfortunate thing about gaming on PC now is that I am un uncom compelled by the trophy system. Yeah, with PlayStation, having the bronze, silver, and then the platinum incredibly enticing to spend your time And I, I only do it quite rarely for games because again, it's, the. can be used as a way to enhance your gaming experience my perspective is that they should be made to force you to experience the full range of what is in the game. You have to. Skydive for a certain amount of time. Run from one part of the place to the other part in a certain amount of time. You have to collect everything. You have to visit everywhere. You have to talk to everyone. the, the best kind of trophies are the ones where it goes, oh yeah, you have to go to this specific place and do this specific thing, then that leads you off on a, it's the journey to get to that thing and then a journey to do it. And yeah, as long as you, as long as you enjoy getting to the thing, that's what matters. One thing that gaming is good for is that you can have failures and achievements in a safe place that doesn't. It doesn't matter in the real world. It doesn't. not a tangible like impact in the real world. You don't need to do achievements. You don't need to do trophies. If you're doing anything based on feelings of shame or external pressure then you need to stop and go, okay, none of that stuff matters. Are you enjoying it the way that you want to? And if you're not, then you should. You need to find the way to do that rather than being, oh, I need to complete every plat, I need to get every platinum that I play, otherwise I'm not playing the game properly. People have all sorts of like negative internal pressures that they, really notice that they're. Falling prey to, I hope that, yeah. One way that these co-pilots could help is offering an alternative to these messages you're not a proper gamer if you use help or support or anything like that.

Jem:

Have you guys heard about the concept of hallucinations of AI hallucinations?

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

So, just for anyone who hasn't, it basically is where AI very confidently gives you completely the wrong answer. One of the things that I love about AI is that it is a little bit mansplaining in the way that it approaches things because what it'll do is it'll go, oh, what you need to do is this, and it'll very confidently say. You do this and this and this, X, Y, Z, and this will happen, and you can say to it, no, that's completely not true. I know this for a fact. And it will go, yes, you're absolutely right. It doesn't apologize for getting it wrong. It just then will move on with the new information. This is known as hallucinations, as it's hallucinating an answer. I recently had a scenario where it very confidently told me that Donald Trump was not president of the United States of America and that Biden was still president and I said, well, we might wish it were so, but that is not the case. I know it also told somebody else that the previous Pope was still alive this is big public information that's easily accessible, easily available out there. It is not ambiguous or confusing or difficult. I've also had other situations where when I'm learning a board game I might use, chat GPT to provide me with some information about what I can do in certain situations or what certain cards mean you can put in information about your specific situation and ask it to tell you what this specific set of, information means. So that's really useful. But again, on multiple occasions, it has completely. Got it wrong, and given me completely the wrong information. If I wasn't sanity checking it, I would've gone off down the wrong route and made gaming decisions that would've, caused me to lose a game or look very foolish. Obviously none of these are life and death scenarios, you were talking Matt, about how much better than people can AI actually be, and I think that whereas we still have this, situation where you can Google it or go on Reddit and get some information. The thing is, if somebody goes onto those forums and they say a load of rubbish, a bunch of other people will come in and say, actually, I think you'll find that you need to do this. Not that. There is a sort of sanity checking that goes on within those forum. By other players. Other people. That doesn't happen when you are in a one-to-one conversation with an AI copilot. So if you're in the middle of your game at a really key moment and it gives you some advice and you do something, you lose something. That could be quite problematic really. So how much do you think we can actually trust these ais? To give good advice.

Alex:

I think it's still got a lot of teething problems at the moment the hallucinations and also the fact that. How is it, is the AI being taught whereas it's getting its base information from, biased is that base information already? What kind of things are at play there? There's a lot of different factors to consider, so I think generally trust of AI is always going to be difficult because it's big scary robot that we all. hear about sci-fi films is gonna take over the world. And I think that influences our trust levels quite a lot, how we've grown up, told that eventually AI's going to turn on us and we'll be in trouble. So, I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but,

Jem:

No.

Alex:

I think that's always gonna be there.

Matt:

Young people who live in a world where AI has always been around and they've been using it in all sorts of things. They need to be educated enough to how AI works so they can be inoculated against the potential downfalls aI can only give responses based on the information it already has, and depending on that information, it can give tailored answers that aren't the objective truth. They are a certain perspective on things, so it, needs to be treated as just another source of information. If you are a historian and you read something written by. An English person about the empire written in 17 hundreds, and you might read it and it goes, oh, the, the empire is the Bastian of civilization. It's going around spreading technology in the British way of the world. But then if you read some works of a, person from the time, you are gonna get a very different perspective on it. The, skill is in recognizing the differences between sources and what their agendas might be, teaching, kids the processes behind things, rather than going directly to the answers, which is what AI can do. Needs to be part of the education system. In a better way than it is currently.

Jem:

Which brings us very nicely, full circle because I started out by saying that one of the concerns about AI is that it is harming our critical thinking and our. Logical reasoning that it is making us lazy in those respects. And as you've just described, Matt, really in order for us to be able to get the most out of ai, we need to be employing our critical thinking and our logical reasoning to be sure that we're getting the answers that actually make sense and are actually helpful in those situations. It's been really interesting conversation actually, because I came into it feeling like, it's the next logical step for ai adding these copilots in gaming. I'm not surprised they're doing it, but the question is how much help will it really be? Is it gonna be more of a hindrance than a help? So on that. Slightly negative light note. We will bring this episode to a close and we are going to be talking in our next episode about ai. About when NPCs wake up and, how AI might impact our in-game. Relationships and experiences. Thank you both very much for, talking so eloquently about this subject. Thank you for listening to us you can find us every Thursday wherever you get your podcast from. Please give us a, like, share and comment. We'd love to hear what you have to say about this topic. Thank you very much. Bye.

Matt:

Alright.