Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a new patent that revealed AI-powered technology that would let them censor games in real time.
The new patents were filed back in May 2024 and only made public this month on December 4th. The patents reveal Sony is working on AI that censors content automatically, in real time, to purportedly give users a tailored experience to remove sensitive elements from games.
The patents (viewable in full here) show a dedicated processor to access data from both the audio and video of whatever the user is viewing, utilizing AI to identify content that falls within a user-specified parameter for offensive content. A second processor then hides said content from the user.
“The at least one processor system may also be programmed with instructions to execute a model to identify, from the data, one or more aspects of the first AV content that have been indicated for obfuscation via end-user input,” the patent’s description reads. “The at least one processor system may also be also programmed with instructions to, responsive to the identification, take one or more actions to obfuscate the one or more aspects of the first AV content. Thus, the first AV content may be edited and tailored to particular users in light of their personal content sensitivities.”
The descriptions for the new technology goes on to suggest it could be used to mute certain scenes from content that included spoken language that was deemed offensive.
In this case, the tech could reportedly replace the censored audio with a different piece of content, or with something produced with genAI or other tech. The AI would naturally be able to identify other words deemed offensive.
Sony’s patent also naturally suggests the new tech could block other potentially offensive things like nudity, alcohol use, hard drug use, and even clowns or red balloons. The tech is reportedly granular so users could say the “S” word is ok but the “F” word is not, or that implied nudity is acceptable while actual nudity isn’t, and so on.
This isn’t the first and won’t be the last time Sony has experimented or toyed with using AI for their products or how content is shown to their users.
Sony has been reportedly planning on using AI-based models of characters from their games, like Horizon Zero Dawn, which would then answer questions from players in real time. The tech is expected to work in tandem with genAI, which would replicate voice actors’ likeness in real time with players.
