PUBG Ally brings the ‘Dead Internet’ theory to video games

Because everyone loves playing with bots so much

KRAFTON / NVIDIA

Ever heard of the ‘Dead Internet’ theory? No worries if not – it basically boils down to followers of the theory believing that a majority of interactions between “people” on the internet do not involve any living beings. Those posts you see on social media? Bots. The comments under that video? Bots. That VTuber you found recently? Actually an AI. Sounds pretty terrible, right? Good thing we still have video games – when we indicate to a fellow player that we had close relations with their mother the night before, then we can be sure it was imaginary intercourse between humans, not us sticking something into a USB-C interface.

Well, not for much longer. KRAFTON and NVIDIA have unveiled PUBG Ally, a so-called “CPC” – short for “co-playable character” as opposed to “non-player character” or NPC. These CPCs are supposed to understand and react to unfolding game situations in a human manner, following the orders of human players and even chatting with them thanks to their in-built tech. The Ally uses NVIDIA’s ACE technology, which promises to make AI capable of “realistic decision making.”

The PUBG Ally will carry out player commands, like fetching specific equipment pieces, as well as banter with its human comrades – or try, at least, because its creepy robot voice isn’t funny. Supposedly, the PUBG Ally won’t be depending on cheats to be competitive, but that’s still up in the air.

KRAFTON CEO Chang-han Kim said that this AI technology “will revolutionize the gaming industry” and “redefine the future of gaming” – lofty ambitions for the South Korean company.

Whether this is terrible or good for gaming will wholly depend on the execution of this feature. In many games, bot matches are already a part of the DNA despite no one liking them, so if this is capable of transforming that type of match into something halfway interesting, it could be a good innovation. But if this ends up leading to multiplayer games being reduced to bots slaughtering other bots with some lone humans observing the carnage, then what are we even doing here?

PUBG has close to a quarter of a million concurrent players on Steam alone every day, which one would think is enough to form a few lobbies without using bots.

Aside from PUBG, the studio’s upcoming Sims-like inZOI will also make use of the technology. A release date for the PUBG Ally has not been announced just yet.