Watch: Can Convai's Intelligent Bots Help Grow Second Life's User Base?

Courtesy Convai,the AI company partnering with Linden Lab to bring helpful NPC guides for new Second Life uers, here's an in-world demo of Convai bots in action.

It's an early prototype demo, so I don't want to judge too harshly, but I think Convai's "intelligent bots" will need to be deployed much differently to have a substantial impact on new user retention. For starters:

• Most new new users quit during download/installation, so these bots would actually need to be part of the website/set-up process (and maybe they will).
• Second Life is already crawling with bots, most them not as intelligent as what Convai is showing off here -- but that's also trained active users to generally avoid all bots. (So I'm not seeing a scenario where a Convai bot acts like someone's wingman at a nightclub, like the video suggests.)
• Second Life is inherently and at its most valuable as a social space with other live human people, so I strongly believe there needs to be a clear demarcation between Convai bots and human-driven avatars. That's not evident here, except perhaps for the android-looking bots. (But then again, many human SLers have android avatars.)

Just as key: Will Second Life's content creator community also get to play around with Convai's platform? No word there (unless I missed it). I've reached out to Linden Lab to check on that.

Anyway, those are just my initial thoughts to this very early demo. Looking forward to how this project evolves.

More feature details from the official announcement and a video demo by Linden Lab's Brad Oberwager:

Growing up being a resident @SecondLife, we're excited to announce our partnership with this pioneering virtual world to give it even more magic.

According to Brad Oberwager, Exec Chair of @LindenLab, "... these AI characters can not only ease the learning curve for new users… pic.twitter.com/mArcATfRoz

— Convai (@convaitech) March 19, 2024

"We're excited to partner with Convai to bring its conversational AI into Second Life to add new and exciting engagement experiences to our community," says Brad Oberwager, chairman of Linden Lab. "This partnership is just the latest example of our ongoing commitment to innovation in virtual worlds as Second Life has been a pioneer and leader in the establishment of digital economies, cultures, and communities. These AI characters can not only ease the learning curve for new users by providing necessary information, but also help entertain and engage them by giving them a tour of the virtual world, carrying out different actions based on conversation, and connecting them with other players and characters.”

The key new features and updates to Convai include:

Convai Connect: This new feature will mitigate the risks of potential runaway costs in having real-time AI-based character interactions within games. Convai Connect seamlessly enables end users to use their Convai account to play the developers' game. This approach eliminates the need for developers to bear upfront licensing fees or worry about unpredictable expenses. Furthermore, Convai incentivizes developers by sharing revenue when users upgrade to a paid subscription through their game.

Narrative Design: This feature enables game developers and narrative designers with more control over their AI characters. It enables characters with agency and purpose, enabling them to drive conversations and actions toward a predetermined set of outcomes while keeping the open-ended generative nature and fostering emergent actions and behaviors.

Long-Term Character Memory: Enables game characters to remember end users, fostering deeper, personalized relationships. Characters can now have memories with gamers based on prior conversations and experiences, recall player preferences and choices, and adapt to players’ style for a truly unique experience.

Multilingual Support: Addressing global language diversity, this feature is pivotal for the widespread adoption of human-like AI systems in games and digital human applications. Currently supporting 21 languages, Convai is committed to expanding its linguistic repertoire, ensuring more inclusive and accessible AI interactions across different cultures and regions.

Modding Framework: Enables studios to easily integrate AI-driven NPCs into their existing titles to drive further engagement and retention. Convai intends to work closely with both AAA and indie titles to let gamers engage with both known and new characters in a deeper manner.

Test Framework: Brings a full set of test suites that enables designers and developers to robustly test AI NPC characters to ensure they stay within the intended paradigm. This early access feature enables the creation of character-specific test sets through a feedback mechanism, allowing for comprehensive testing across different character versions. It focuses on identifying how updates affect character behavior, particularly in edge cases, ensuring consistency with the game's lore and mitigating unintended knowledge disclosure.

With Convai's technology, developers can swiftly modify a character's backstory, personality, and knowledge, bringing to life NPCs that respond uniquely and adapt to their surroundings. This can be done through the user-friendly playground or programmatically via the API. Within minutes, creators can witness their characters responding in their unique style while embodying a spatially aware NPC capable of performing a wide array of actions, offering unparalleled dynamic conversation.

More about it on Convai.com. 

Comments

[Ava]

Looks promising,if not a little unnerving. There would definitely have to be some very kind of indication that you weren't dealing with a human. A couple of initial questions come to mind regarding the scenes shown. What if the club is empty at that time, will it try taking you somewhere else? How does a location get on the list of places the bots might take you? Would it be based on entries in the Destination Guide, or a list venues can apply (pay?) to be on.

[Kaylee West]

I agree with all the points you make and your reservations. As someone who has used "intelligent" NPCs in SL as part of our formal undergraduate curriculum for 15 years, I would love to see if Convai NPCs could be deployed for our educational purposes. A big one for me would be can their NPCs handle Languages other than English (especially Asian languageslike Chinese). Sadly Inwworld.ai, which has a similar set-up to Convai can't handle Chinese (at least the last time I looked a few months ago). That's where ChatGPT is superlative. The other problem with both platforms is that there is no way for ordinary users to deploy these NPCs in SL as far as I can see (nor in VRChat which is where I have another research/training project that needs intelligent NPCs). Would love it if both platforms would facilitate easy implementation. For the moment I'm sticking with Mistral AI and ChatGPT.

[Ava]

The bots are apparently already broken. There's a discussion in the official Discord server between residents that have visited them. There's no bot/npc/ai type identification and none of them have the scripted agent box ticked, so they're in breach of the TOS as well.

[Ava]

The Lab should know by now that because they have a user base made of tech types, saying "We've got this new thing, come check it out!" is basically a request to stress-test and critique yor shiny new thing. Which in all likelihood will break in short order.

[Ikarus3D]

This partnership between Convai and Linden Lab to integrate AI-driven NPC guides into Second Life holds significant potential for enhancing the user experience and community engagement within the virtual world. The demo provides an intriguing glimpse into how Convai's conversational AI can contribute to guiding new users through the complexities of Second Life.

However, as highlighted in your insightful analysis, several considerations must be addressed for effectively deploying these intelligent bots. Integrating them seamlessly into the website/setup process could significantly impact new user retention, particularly by addressing the common drop-off during download/installation. Moreover, distinguishing Convai bots from human-driven avatars is crucial, ensuring a clear demarcation that respects the inherently social nature of Second Life.

Your point regarding the involvement of Second Life's content creator community in utilizing Convai's platform is also noteworthy. Empowering creators to leverage Convai's technology could foster innovation and further enrich the virtual experience for all users.

The announced features and updates to Convai, such as Convai Connect, Narrative Design, Long-Term Character Memory, Multilingual Support, and the Modding Framework, demonstrate a comprehensive approach to integrating AI-driven NPCs into virtual worlds. These features enhance user engagement and offer developers greater flexibility and control in shaping NPC interactions.

Overall, while this demo represents an early stage in the evolution of Convai's integration into Second Life, it's exciting to envision the possibilities for creating dynamic and immersive experiences within the virtual realm. I look forward to seeing how this partnership evolves and the positive impact it may have on the Second Life community.

[Nadeja]

This surely has potential.
I agree that they should be easily identifiable.
When I had a look on 2024-03-22 at Castaway Cove, there was one of them called "Greeter Bot", not as a display-name, the last name was really "Bot".
See: secondlife:///app/agent/f401c81b-1600-4a95-b6d4-e7bc7b0c720d/about
I wonder if they are considering to use that last name for them all; I think it would be a good idea. There are other ways, of course, on top of that. Some games adds an icon or a question mark atop their quest or info NPCs, for example; gamers would recognize that, I think.