Sony Wants an AI 'Ghost' to Play Your Games For You, Because Tutorials Are Too Hard Now

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Written By NLM Team

If you thought video game hand-holding couldn't get any worse, Sony just asked someone to hold their beer.

AI is the new loot box. It is the shiny, desperate trend that tech companies are currently trying to shove into every orifice of the gaming industry whether we want it or not. Microsoft already tried to sell us on an AI chatbot to help us craft in Minecraft, and now Sony is apparently looking at a system where the game literally plays itself. A recent report from BoingBoing highlighted a new patent application for something called an "AI-Generated Ghost Player," and it sounds like the ultimate admission of defeat for game design.

The Ghost in the Machine

The concept outlined in the documents is technically fascinating and spiritually depressing. The system proposes generating an AI "ghost" character trained on gameplay data from other players.

This digital buddy wouldn't just float around offering advice. The patent suggests it could actively assist you with specific facets of the game. Stuck on a combat encounter? The ghost steps in. Can't solve a puzzle? The ghost handles it. There is even a mention of a "Full Game" mode, which presumably means the AI just drags your lifeless avatar across the finish line while you eat chips.

It is basically a glorified "Super Guide" from the Nintendo Wii era, but powered by an algorithm that probably costs more electricity than my entire apartment uses in a month.

Artificial Incompetence

There is a glaring issue here that anyone who has used an LLM knows all too well. AI is frequently wrong.

We are talking about technology that still struggles to draw hands correctly. Do we really trust it to teach us the parry windows in a Souls game? As St. Clair points out, an AI model left to its own devices is just as likely to turn you into a red smear on the wall as it is to help you win.

It also highlights a sad decline in actual game design. We went from Half-Life 2 teaching us complex physics mechanics without uttering a single word, to a potential future where a robotic ghost has to physically grab the controller to show us how to jump.

Hold Your Horses (and Your Patents)

Before we start sharpening the pitchforks, we need to look at the legal reality.

As a helpful patent attorney on Reddit pointed out, Sony hasn't actually patented this yet. They have simply filed a patent application. This is a "PCT application," which is essentially a placeholder allowing them to file for patents globally later on. The claims haven't been examined, and there is no guarantee this will ever be granted or implemented.

Companies file patents for things they never use all the time. It is a defense mechanism. But the fact that Sony is spending R&D money figuring out how to automate the act of playing a video game says a lot about where their head is at. If I wanted to watch a game play itself, I would just open Twitch.

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NLM Team
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