Microsoft Is Making an Xbox AI Chatbot That Can Give You Game Refunds

Microsoft has developed an animated generative AI chatbot to take care of Xbox assist requests on-line and is now testing the bot internally.

Xbox’s AI chatbot, dubbed the Xbox Digital Help Agent, is an “embodied AI character” designed to resolve person issues like subscription points, Xbox {hardware} issues, recreation refund requests, or support-related questions. The animated chatbot is educated on Xbox assist information and might reply voice- or text-based queries, Xbox Normal Supervisor of Gaming AI Haiyan Zhang tells The Verge, which first reported the information.

Given the emphasis on the bot’s standing as an “animated character,” the chatbot could possible have some persona of its personal. Zhang says that whereas the bot continues to be being examined, it “makes it simpler and faster for gamers to get assist with assist subjects utilizing pure language, taking data from present Xbox Help pages.”

Whereas a lot of the data the bot can present might be already viewable elsewhere on a Microsoft web site, the bot might velocity up and simplify the method for customers who do not need to trawl by assist boards or Xbox’s assist subjects to search out a solution to their drawback. It is unclear how a lot energy the bot will even have in comparison with a human assist agent, nevertheless, and it is also unclear whether or not the bot has entry to further data or information past what’s already publicly accessible on-line.

Microsoft is at present testing the Xbox Digital Help Agent on Minecraft Realms server internet hosting assist queries, The Verge studies.

It is price noting that Xbox already provides a “digital agent” to take care of on-line assist requests by offering automated solutions, however this bot is not capable of perceive primary questions on whether or not it makes use of generative AI, for instance. As a substitute, it responds to most messages by linking to an present article on Xbox’s assist pages. For these seeking to converse with a human, Xbox at present provides telephone and internet chat assist as nicely.

Microsoft’s new Xbox chatbot is part of the tech large’s broader push into creating generative AI instruments throughout all of its companies, together with gaming. Final 12 months, it introduced a partnership with startup InworldAI to provide recreation builders generative AI-powered instruments to assist them construct video video games. However this collaboration proved instantly controversial and was lambasted by quite a few recreation business writers and voice actors, who referred to as Microsoft’s deliberate AI toolkit “disrespectful and harmful.”