Earlier this year, Neil Newbon revealed the Pixel Pack, a stunning representation of some of the finest talent in gaming. The goal of the Pixel Pack is to better represent actors in games, oppose the arduous rise of AI voice replication, and provide a stalwart figure of inspiration to a community that’s facing many difficulties.
At the BAFTA Games Awards in London, I chatted with Neil Newbon about the Pixel Pack and what’s next for the group, learning more about the impact AI is having on skilled actors and developers everywhere.
Here’s the full video interview:
‘The Problem is Awareness’
Neil Newbon couldn’t tell me too much about what the Pixel Pack had in the pipeline, but I picked up a nice mission statement for the group:
We’re deciding how we can use and galvanise the goodwill that we’ve got at the moment and also how to better represent and try to champion actors. A big part of it is really just about the conversation to not use AI to supplement performers, but also on the fact that game actors are actors, we’re not just voice actors, and we’re doing as good work as films and television, theatre…
Actually, just to make people aware that some of these incredible, talented people should continue to work.
There’s a lot of talk about AI performers, it’s honestly boring as hell, nobody really wants to use them. I have spoken to many people in the industry, developers as well.
The problem is awareness of this, it’s making people aware that these actors are doing such incredible, sometimes very challenging experiences, in a good way… But they deserve to be honoured.
One of the chief goals of the Pixel Pack is to show that ‘anybody from any background can enter into games,’ and to accomplish that, the group is made up of a wide variety of professionals, from motion capture artists to voice actors, and from creature performers to performance capture experts.
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Neil continued, and our discussion turned more earnestly towards the use of AI for replication and replacement:
I think the point is making awareness of it and saying it’s absolutely not cool, that is a big part of the fight, because ultimately, it comes down to the consumer of the games, the player of the games. Are they going to be as satifsifed with really substandard performances, because I personally think that narrative is the same as gameplay now.
Back in the day, the gameplay was the thing, narrative was sort of shoved in there a little bit, not always but a lot of the time. Now, I think that people have the appetite for great narrative as well as great gameplay, but I think that’s a big part of defending against misuse of AI, because people just don’t want it, ultimately.
Some of the people I’ve spoken to, nobody is interested in playing a game that’s made by AI.
The lack of the human element is always key in these debates. There are certain things that AI can’t replicate, such as the natural imperfection of humanity, which Neil said can often lead to ‘happy accidents’ in a creative environment. In his words, ‘You can’t reproduce that, you can’t create that through software – you just can’t.’
The Pixel Pack will undoubtedly be making its collective voice heard very soon as these topics continue to thrive in the wider gaming industry.
For more GPlayr coverage, check out the news that Astro Bot won five BAFTA Games Awards