Update 06/09/2021: This article has been adjusted to more accurately represent AI Dungeon's AI systems.
The experimental text-based narrative game AI Dungeon rolled out a new test system to prevent the program from allowing or generating sexual content involving minors. The developer, Latitude, put out a statement regarding the change, noting, “We remain true to the principles on which Latitude was founded, which involve promoting freedom of thought and expression through our advanced AI platform. At the same time, we have zero tolerance for sexual content involving minors.” These measures were necessary, as some players were seeing highly inappropriate content from the AI Dungeon narrative generator.
The response from Latitude is a thorough one, and while it shows the developers seem to have the right priorities, AI Dungeon is still an often-unpredictable experience. Due to AI learning, prior to the implementation of these new safeguards, some players noted that innocuous situations involving child characters would become sexualized without any player prompting in that direction. Some players note these occurrences are an ongoing problem, although in theory the new safeguard system should flag such instances. AI Dungeon does not enter into a scenario with an entire imagined narrative in mind, like a human Dungeon Master running a Dungeons & Dragons game might. AI Dungeon knows that certain words and phrases have been associated in the past, and offers new content accordingly, often at the expense of a coherent plotline, but also, prior to the safeguards, in some unacceptable directions. Some AI Dungeon community members stress that the origin of these inappropriate stories may be from the database of entirely human-generated narratives that the developers used to train AI Dungeon, not subsequent users of the AI Dungeon program itself. Regardless of its source, the content the program generated certainly called for safeguards.
More recent tests of AI Dungeon show that the system seems to work, for the most part, although it is far from perfect. While some complain about false-flags, innocuous content blocked because of system concerns that it might be sexual content involving minors, these seem to be the exception. Broadly speaking, the safeguards seem to recognize overtly sexual content, and will block this based on filter settings, but the consistency will need to be judged over time. The developers note this is done through an automated system, appropriately, not a group of people reading through AI Dungeon game transcripts like the HBO show Silicon Valley’s “not a hotdog” team, manually scouring for inappropriate sexual content. However, suspect incidents flagged by the automated system are then reviewed by human staff members to see if they actually fit the criteria, which is a potential privacy issue that is of concern to some users.
AI Dungeon Resembles "Bad Physics" Games, Text-Based
Despite these changes, AI Dungeon is probably still not suited for children to play. The game is rated as 17+ on app stores, due in part to the ongoing nature of AI moderation as a perpetual work in progress, and the inherent problems of AI Dungeon’s word association-based procedural story generation. Even when the program is well regulated against offensive content, the stories generated are garbled and incoherent, more often than not. This can be an amusing experience for some players, but also unsettling at times, as the plot and setting changes without warning or reason, story contradictions abound, and a coherent narrative rarely emerges. The AI Dungeon experience is similar to the Charlie Kaufman film I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, with names and backstories constantly being reassigned on a whim by the AI storyteller. Games like D&D can help youths develop storytelling skills and exercise imagination. AI Dungeon can lead to some amusing anecdotes, but the nature of the program does not currently lend to proper storytelling and world-building.
While video games have came a long way in procedural generation of maps and environments, AI Dungeon shows that they have a long way to go before they can approximate a human storyteller. Its text-based stories remain a peculiar oddity, more akin to the “bad physics, bad controls,” sub-genre of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator and Surgeon Simulator, where the goal of the game is not an immersive experience, but a farcical depiction of combat and surgery, respectively. AI Dungeon produces bizarre stories that might be worth a laugh, and perhaps someday, AI storytelling might advance closer to respectability. By taking the right steps to protect users, and the integrity of their product, from highly inappropriate content, Latitude is at least working to ensure the program does not continue to add offensive content to stories, and can hopefully maintain its status as a largely safe, albeit strange, experiment in text-based gaming.
Source: Latitude