Published: March 28, 2021

Intel is Developing a Real-Time Language Filter for Online Games

Intel is Developing a Real-Time Language Filter for Online Games

Intel is developing a new voice AI tool to filter out offensive and abusive language during in-game voice chats. Unveiled at Intel’s GDS showcase, as seen in the video above, the new Bleep program applies the AI on Intel PC chips in real-time to detect and remove any slurs uttered by one player before another hears it.

BLEEP INTEL

The program is still evolving, and whether people with the feature active will hear an actual bleep sound, a silent moment, or something else is not clear. The filter is fairly flexible, allowing users to adjust how much of any toxic language gets flagged and edited out of the conversation. The sensitivity filters are all divided into a long list of categories, including swearing, white nationalism, misogyny, and ableism and body shaming, among others. Bleep was first announced as a concept a couple of years ago when Intel started working with Spirit AI, which hunts for similarly abusive language in the texts posted when people play video games online.

“Now, for all of us gamers out there we can use the intelligence of Bleep to remove toxic speech from our in-game chat,” Intel marketing engineer Craig Raymond said during the presentation.”With Bleep we’re enabling a tool to empower gamers to take control of their conversation; one key step to eliminating toxicity in gaming today. We are very excited to bring Bleep and the power of AI and Intel to gamers everywhere.”

MODULATING LANGUAGE

Intel’s announcement comes as concern about toxic chat during video games is matched by language AI capable of spotting and responding to it in real-time. Voice technology startup Modulate launched a tool with a similar purpose to Bleep only a few months ago. The ToxMod tool can flag problematic and toxic speech in real-time video game voice chat as well, alerting moderators. The filters are set by developers but include not just the language but context and emotional indicators. That way, only actual problems are flagged, and not just someone getting overexcited. The trust in voice AI that these projects show how the industry has progressed. Experiments with voice assistants and video games are popping up everywhere. A startup called HCS is selling voice controls in Star Wars: Squadrons, and Fridai, part of the Microsoft for Startups accelerator, create video game-specific voice assistants.

https://voicebot.ai/2021/03/26/intel-is-developing-a-real-time-language-filter-for-online-games/