At CES 2025, NVIDIA unveiled an AI innovation in PUBG – the ‘PUBG Ally’. This AI companion system will grant players a buddy to run around the map with, performing tasks and helping them out on a strategic level, being driven entirely by NVIDIA’s AI technology.
It was claimed that PUBG Ally characters will be capable of human-like behaviour, including sharp decision-making and advanced levels of audio and visual perception. The technology is set to appear in Naraka: Bladepoint and inZOI, but the most-talked-about introduction is in PUBG, the popular battle royale game.
Not The First Time
In August 2024, I sat down with Arena Breakout: Infinite’s development team to learn about FACUL, a revolutionary AI companion system that would align players with AI support in place of real-world gamers. The system was yet to be finessed into the game, but the potential of the system seemed white-hot when it was presented at Gamescom.
It was a throwback of sorts to the decades-old command system found in games like SOCOM.
The PUBG Ally model promises to work the same way as MoreFun Studio’s FACUL engine. In PUBG, a proposed ‘co-playable character’ will support players by finding loot, driving vehicles, and providing cover fire. It’ll use ‘small language models’ to accomplish most of this, empowering the ‘CPC’ to act as a human would in every scenario imaginable.
If you avoid playing PUBG because you’re afraid of running solo in a battle royale game, look no further than the PUBG Ally model.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t confirmed when the system would be added to PUBG. It was stressed during the CES 2025 presentation that viewers were watching a tech demo and not a live representation of the model.
Would you consider using AI companions in PUBG to enhance your solo gaming experience? Let us know on the GPlayr forum.
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