Forget faster frame rates, the PlayStation 6's trump card could be AI? That's one theory anyway

What's going to be the big step forward taken by Sony's next-gen console? It could well be seriously upping the quality of games using AI, if one leaker is right.

This comes from Moore's Law is Dead (MLID) on YouTube, who in the latest episode of Broken Silicon discussed a wide swathe of topics, including the PlayStation 6 and what features it might have in terms of how the console will really advance the world of gaming.

That could well be some of the usual stuff - even faster loading (although with the PS5 we already have blazing speeds), better graphics, faster frame rates and so forth. Which is all great - particularly the latter in terms of 4K gaming on your big-screen TV - but the real difference will be made somewhere else.

We're told MLID has heard recently that AI is going to be the killer PS6 feature - and that he feels pretty dumb for not realizing this already. We get where the leaker is coming from there - given that AI is becoming the latest and greatest killer feature everywhere right now, or so it seems.

MLID specifically touches on AI powering up NPCs in games, imagining a next-gen Elder Scrolls as an off-the-cuff example. Instead of having dialogue choices and branches as in traditional gaming, you could literally type - or even talk - to an AI-powered NPC, and they would think and respond to you like they were a real person.

They'll also remember what you've done, react differently as a result, and so on - which has been done in games before, but this should be a quantum leap in terms of realism.

More broadly, MLID imagines that if you're being silly blocking a character from moving on their intended path, they will question you for your impolite and rude behavior. Or perhaps ask you why on earth you are dancing around on top of a table like an idiot (and perhaps take you less seriously in any ensuing conversation).

In-game chatbots

As mentioned, it's an obvious route to travel with AI, and one that's been discussed before - NPCs kind of becoming in-game chatbots in their own right. But it seems that MLID has been hearing that this is the kind of thing to expect with the PS6, though obviously we can't tell exactly what has been said via the grapevine from sources, and what the leaker is inferring and guessing himself.

Another point mentioned - and also aired elsewhere before - is the idea of AI masterminding game difficulty. So beyond choosing easy, medium, hard or nightmare, the AI will get a feel for your abilities and pitch the difficultly level to suit you perfectly (in theory anyway).

Exciting times ahead for console gaming then? It is, of course, not going to be the exclusive domain of the PS6 to have these kinds of supercharged AI experiences in games.

But reading between the lines, it sounds like Sony might just be planning a fairly beefy dedicated neural engine to handle the AI processing side of the equation in the PS6 - and that this should be a big focus for the next-gen console. The game-changing feature, quite literally, perhaps...