Roblox's AI chatbot builds virtual worlds

Roblox announced a new conversational assistant at its 2023 Roblox Conference(R) to help creators more easily create experiences for the popular social app. The new tool, Roblox Assistant, builds on previously announced features that let creators build virtual assets and write code with the help of generative AI.

With the Roblox Assistant, creators will be able to type prompts to do things like generate virtual environments. In one demo, someone typed, "I want to make a game set in ancient ruins" -- and Roblox dropped some stones, moss-covered pillars, and crumbling buildings. "Make the player spawn by a campfire in the ruins" -- that added a campfire and stools, as well as some nearby trees for the player to chop down. Roblox spokesperson An Skuratovskiy said Roblox will pull in information from its marketplace or your own library of visual libraries.

I'm usually skeptical of generative AI, but I think this is a very interesting use of the technology. In an interview with The Verge, Roblox CTO Daniel Sturman described how the tool can create basic game behaviors, such as teleporting you to a place if you touch a door. The Roblox Assistant can also help write code and answer questions about developing on Roblox, which can be a useful tool for creators on the platform.

Unfortunately, creators won’t be able to use the Roblox Assistant right away, as Sturman said the tool will be available by the end of this year or early next year.

Ultimately, Roblox has bigger visions for the Roblox Assistant, which Sturman teased could generate complex games and even make 3D models from scratch. If that all works out, Roblox could live up to CEO David Baszucki's vision of Westworld-like ease of design.

That said, I asked Sturman what he would say to people who are concerned that these generative AI tools could take jobs away from Roblox’s developer and creator community. “I firmly believe that generative AI will reduce creators’ reliance on specific technical skills and enable the huge differences between creators to be their spark of genius in what the experience should be and how it should work,” he said.

Roblox also discussed a few other AI-based updates at RDC. One of them will let you create an avatar from images and text prompts, meaning it might be easier to make an avatar that looks more like yourself. On stage at RDC, Baszucki showed how you can use the tool to make buffs and cartoon versions of yourself. The tool will be released in 2024. The company also wants to let you use generative AI to make things directly in other Roblox experiences.

Another tool, which uses artificial intelligence to moderate voice conversations in real time, began testing the tool in August and will “soon deploy it in English and four more languages ​​by the end of the year,” said Roman Skuratovskiy, a company spokesman. The languages ​​will include Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese.

Roblox, like many companies, believes it is ready to use artificial intelligence to help the people who use its services.

Review editor: Liu Qing