PlayStation Assist: 8 Ways That Sony Is Leading the Future of A.I.

Gamers love to fight over which console is best. The truth is that each console has its strengths and weaknesses. However, every new generation of gaming manages to completely change the landscape for players.

Sony is a great example of this. In this generation, Sony has cornered the market on game exclusives and pioneered the PlayStation VR.

What’s next on their agenda? Artificial intelligence. Here are eight ways Sony is leading the future of A.I.

PlayStation Assist

It all started when Sony filed a new patent in September 2019. The nature of the patent describes a kind of virtual assistant that players can access while using the PlayStation 5. Sony calls it PlayStation Assist.

At first blush, this sounds a bit like “same old, same old.” After all, the PlayStation 4 already features voice commands. And the Xbox offers access to both Cortana and Alexa. What makes PlayStation Assist so special?

Sony believes that this innovation will go far beyond existing features.

More Than Navigation

Think about the ways that you use smartphone A.I. such as Siri. While Siri is not a perfect system, it makes it very easy to ask for directions, call friends, get weather reports, and so on.

Existing console features in this regard have been much more limited. For example, existing PlayStation voice commands mostly let you take screenshots, start broadcasting, and jump between the home screen and games.

Sony conceives of Playstation Assist as actually integrating with games. You might be able to ask where a nearby health pack is or get tips on how to defeat a typical boss (the patent explicitly mentions helping players defeat God of War bosses).

While Sony hasn’t said much more than this, such announcements illustrate their commitment to taking A.I. to a whole new level.