In the realm of virtual pets, Niantic, the company behind the popular augmented reality (AR) game Pokémon GO, has taken a significant leap forward with its latest mobile AR adventure, Peridot. By integrating Meta's open-source language model, Llama 2, Niantic has created a groundbreaking experience where virtual creatures, called "Dots," exhibit lifelike behaviours and interactions, elevating the immersive nature of the game.
Niantic has enabled the Dots to react dynamically to their surroundings, generating unique responses in real-time based on the creature's personality, hunger, attention status, and detected objects in the environment.
Asim Ahmed, Global Marketing Lead for Peridot at Niantic, explains, "Instead of manually programming a limited range of reactions when our creatures encounter various elements in our real world, we've used Llama 2 to help determine how the creature might react and select appropriate responses from our vast library of animations."
Niantic's decision to leverage an open-source model like Llama 2 has significantly expedited the development process, allowing the team to prioritise data privacy and forego lengthy approval functions.
The flexibility offered by Llama's framework has enabled Niantic to enhance its generative AI capabilities and deliver new, immersive features for Peridot in just under three months. The integration was initially focused on the Dots' reactions to their surroundings, later expanding to enable "conversations", between players and their virtual pets.
The success of Peridot's integration of generative AI showcases the potential. As Ahmed notes, "Peridot's success with generative AI gives us a glimpse into what's possible, and we plan to elevate the way players interact with Peridot across devices."
While the integration has been largely successful, the team at Niantic faced challenges in creating prompts with the right balance of expressiveness and creativity while maintaining consistent formatting and response times. Overloading the language model with too much information in a single prompt could slow down the system, highlighting the need for efficient data processing and optimisation.
By leveraging the power of generative AI, Niantic has created a world where virtual creatures exhibit lifelike behaviours and personalities,enhancing the overall immersive experience.