Sony patents NPCs that learn from you: AI wants to study how you play

Sony has filed a new patent that proposes using artificial intelligence to train non-player characters, better known as NPCs, based on the data generated by the people who play. As reported by IGN España, this proposal has nothing to do with turning your controller into a card payment terminal, an idea that has already raised plenty of eyebrows. This one has more substance: the game gets to know you better and its characters learn from you.

Why does it matter? Because it isn't an isolated case. Over the past year, both Sony and Microsoft have made it clear that they want to bring AI features to the next generation of consoles. Every patent is a hint of where they're heading, and this one hits two things we care about a lot: how challenge is designed in a video game, and what happens to the data we leave behind every time we pick up a controller.

What you need to know

• New Sony patent: it proposes using AI to train NPCs based on player data.
• Not the controller-as-payment-terminal one: IGN España presents it as a different idea, and a more interesting one than some of the company's other recent patents.
• Industry context: Sony and Microsoft have spent the past year showing their interest in AI for the next generation.
• It's only a patent: there's no game, console or date attached to it. Registering an idea doesn't guarantee it will ever reach our hands.

Context: from passing idea to trend

Big companies file patents all the time, and many of those ideas end up gathering dust. It's worth reading this news with that caution in mind. Even so, the concept carries weight: until now, an NPC's intelligence has usually been handwritten by the studio, with patterns that players eventually learn and exploit. Sony's proposal flips that relationship around: the NPCs would be the ones learning from the players.

This affects three groups at once. Studios, which could design less predictable enemies or allies without scripting every single behavior. Players, who would face opponents that, in theory, feel more like a real person. And everyone's privacy, because training those characters requires feeding the system information about how we play.

What we still don't know

The source doesn't go into technical detail, so there are plenty of open questions to keep an eye on if this idea ever becomes reality:

1. What specific data would be collected, and for how long?
2. Will you be able to choose whether to take part, or will it be on by default?
3. Would NPCs learn from you specifically, or from the community as a whole?
4. Would it apply to single-player experiences, online modes, or both?

Until Sony shows something playable, everything else is speculation, and it should be treated as such.

Our take

Here at Underworld Lordz, we see huge potential for training. Imagine a practice partner that learns your quirks, punishes your repetitive habits and forces you to mix things up. Done right, that would be gold for any competitive player who doesn't always have a skilled opponent available at three in the morning. A bot that evolves with you can be a better sparring partner than one that always follows the same script.

But we're also skeptical. Competition is built on consistent rules: learning a matchup, mastering it and seeing your skill pay off. If NPCs change depending on who's playing, it becomes harder to compare performances, plan speedrun routes or design fair challenges for the community. For content creators, it's a mixed bag: more unique and surprising runs, yes, but also less reproducible ones, and a guide that works today might be useless tomorrow. And let's not forget the elephant in the room: data. We want full transparency and real control over what gets collected, not a paragraph buried in the terms of service.

Bottom line: the idea strikes us as more sensible than shoehorning AI in for the sake of it, but the industry has spent months selling artificial intelligence as the answer to everything. What will win us over isn't a patent, but a game that proves this makes the experience better and not just more profitable.

What do you think?

We want to hear what the community thinks, both those who live for competitive play and those who play just for fun. Would you like to face NPCs that learn from your playstyle, or do you prefer predictable opponents you can master through practice? Let us know in the team chat or on our Discord.