One of the most pervasive toxic elements in any game since voice communication was invented, has been players using it to abuse one another. Sometimes this can be fun banter, but sometimes it's truly obnoxious. From racists shouting slurs across the map, to 12-year-olds playing music on a constant stream, voice comms can be useless at best, and downright nasty at worst. Now a new tool called ToxMod is purporting to leverage AI to eliminate some of the most distasteful aspects of this age old problem.
As PCGamesN explains, ToxMod works by using machine learning to identify aggressive, abusive, or otherwise toxic patterns in speech, capturing abusive words and intent, and bleeping out nasty language dynamically so you never have to listen to it.
It responds in a manner that is befitting the game, though, making sure to take a heavier handed response to aggressive voice chat in games that are designed to be less stressful or competitive, and being more lenient in games that are more so.
"How highly do you want to rate violent speech as a potential threat? If you’re playing Call of Duty, maybe that’s less of a big problem, unless it’s extremely severe," developer Mike Pappas says. "Whereas if you’re playing Roblox, then maybe it’s a problem no matter what."
ToxMod can produce profiles on gamers, letting developers more easily ban them, or mix them with other toxic players in matchmaking, so that they are less likely to ruin the experience for others who want a less aggressive playspace to game in.
That's not necessarily how it has to go though. If you lose a few games in a row, maybe matchmaking can help you out a little so that everyone has a good time.
"Instead, it might be that we have learned that you get aggravated really quickly, and so when you’ve lost the last few rounds, maybe we should advise the matchmaking system, ‘hey, throw this guy a bone, give him some more experienced teammates so that he gets a win in, so that he stays in a kind of emotional state where he’s not likely to explode at people."
Toxmod has no official partnerships yet, but it's working with a wide collection of developers which could mean Toxmod is included in a bunch of titles in the near future.
