Let’s talk about what to expect when the AI Xbox comes to market next year, and we’ll close with my Product of the Week, a new AI-enabled processor from Intel Lunar Lake.

The AI Xbox

Xbox — and, to be fair, PlayStation — sales are down sharply this year, mainly due to the lack of new hardware releases. Normally, a new, lower-cost platform would have been introduced by now. However, with processor manufacturing plants (fabs) operating at full capacity, there hasn’t been room to produce the kind of low-cost processor that would have fueled a sales pop this year.

However, the next major release should be fascinating. I anticipate a lower-cost version of the Ryzen AI 300 series accelerated processing unit (APU) with a powerful neural processing unit (NPU) will be available as early as next year. That will deliver amazing new capabilities in new and revised Xbox games.

AI Games Are Coming, Look for AI NPCs

Nvidia has been aggressively pushing the concept of AI NPCs (non-player characters). But right now, Nvidia isn’t in any gaming consoles. Instead, AMD has captured both Microsoft’s and Sony’s gaming platforms. Sony must know that if it doesn’t have AI-enabled games when the AI Xbox launches, it will lose a ton of share because AI games are expected to be game changers.

The concept of an AI NPC is an NPC that behaves more like humans. It can engage in conversation. You don’t need to use canned prompts and trial-and-error or spend a lot of time on the web looking for cheats to figure out how to get through the game or solve a puzzle.

In addition, with many games, it is more fun to play with others, but it is often hard to find teams that will take in new players or cater to players who may be socially awkward. I’m expecting a host of AI tools that could help people learn to flirt appropriately and overcome this social awkwardness without the downside of trying to learn with real people who can be pretty cruel if you get it wrong.

AI Party Members

So, imagine being able to fill a team with AI NPCs that you either build over time or are based on alternative game avatars. For instance, in one game I play, I have 61 game avatars that I’ve fully developed, and it would be fun to either fight them or build a team with them if I can’t find someone online to play with. For many of us who have experienced griefers, bullies, and rude players while gaming, this could also be a way for the most sensitive of us to have a fun, safe gaming experience. Another advantage of AI NPCs is the ability of the game to be more dynamic.

Most video games today are pretty scripted, so once we’ve been through them a few times, they tend to feel old and stale. But with AI NPCs, even when people aren’t playing, the NPCs could interact with each other to change trials, rewards, and the way you progress through the game, suggesting subsequent gameplay will be the same with new surprises every time you log in and play.

This same AI-driven approach also points to the ability to AI-enable games beyond the NPCs so that games can modify themselves based on gamer feedback and observations tied to metrics that show players are becoming angry or frustrated and working autonomously to address and remove the cause of this frustration and anger.

AI Mods

Moderators in games tend to be few, not very helpful, and anything but timely. I’ve had mods respond to complaints hours or even days after I no longer needed them, which is really annoying. You often need answers and help in real time.

For instance, say you’ve just spent several hours trying to complete a quest, and an NPC gets stuck in a wall, floor, or ceiling, preventing you from progressing and forcing you to start over without achieving any of the goals or rewards that your time and success would have otherwise generated.

An AI moderator could respond instantly. In fact, it could monitor your gameplay and make suggestions, and when a problem looks to be emerging, it could proactively prevent that emergence. Have you ever quit a new game after asking a valid question, only to be bombarded by a host of snarky people questioning your age and intelligence?

It can be hard for a new player to ask questions because of the grief they’ll get, but we’re all newbies (noobs) at one time or another. There have been several games where I struggled to understand the gameplay, asked a question, and then stopped playing the game because the response angered me so much.

Mods have always been overworked because the position tends to be understaffed. Still, an AI mod can scale up according to the number of players, which would allow for faster rulings and better help for both noobs and experienced players who don’t want to come off as noobs.

Plus, this scale should allow the AI mod to respond more quickly to griefers and bullies, potentially eliminating this behavior from the games that have this feature.

Wrapping Up

I think the AI Xbox will be a massive game-changer. It will enable more dynamic games and NPCs that are more like humans and potentially create a safer gaming environment.

Years ago, Microsoft launched an avatar-based social network targeting young women. I was given an ID and password to observe the interaction (which made me very nervous, given the girls were all underage), only to find a man with two daughters running around with a penis avatar. I reported it, and Microsoft pulled the plug shortly thereafter.

AI games can be developed to instantly identify people who shouldn’t be in kids’ games, protect the players, and make gameplay more interesting, exciting, and uniquely attractive. AI companions are already available in the market, and I don’t think it is a stretch to see future gamers having relationships with their AI NPCs, which could have some repercussions if a game is then canceled.

With AMD’s support for Microsoft’s Copilot+, the AI Xbox is coming, and it’ll be a game-changer. I can hardly wait!

Intel’s Lunar Lake

Of the three major PC processor vendors — AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm — Intel is the last to support Microsoft’s Copilot+ features, but late doesn’t mean non-performant. In fact, the part code-named Lunar Lake and marketed under the brand Core Ultra is incredibly impressive.

This processor is unusual because it was fast-tracked from its original 2026 release date, representing some of the fastest work Intel has ever done. Because of its advanced nature, it will hit the market as a premium product and should be the most advanced laptop mobile processor.

Sept. 3, 2024 — Pavan Davuluri (right), corporate vice president for Windows + Devices at Microsoft, joins Michelle Johnston Holthaus, executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group at Intel, at a launch event in advance of IFA Berlin to introduce Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors. (Image Credit: Intel)

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What is impressive is that prior leadership didn’t believe in the NPU at all and didn’t fund the development of one. It wasn’t until Pat Gelsinger came on board that Intel pivoted hard toward AI, and while they were years late to start working on AI, they were only months late on its arrival.

The work required to make this happen is impressive and a testament to the development team’s long hours, focus, and hard work. I’ve worked with teams like this, and they seldom get credit for that effort, for the long hours, lost weekends, lost holidays, and family stress that result.

So, this is as much about recognizing the work that went into this incredible project as it is about the product’s capabilities. This effort was truly impressive, so Intel’s new Core Ultra (Lunar Lake) is my Product of the Week, but really, I wanted to recognize the team that got this done. Impressive job!