AI moderation of all voice comms helps Call of Duty dramatically reduce toxicity, repeat offenders drop by 67%

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As a seasoned gamer who has weathered countless battles and verbal assaults in the wild west of Call of Duty lobbies, I can’t help but feel a wave of relief and gratitude for the AI moderator, ToxMod. For years, we’ve put up with the cacophony of hate speech, but now, it seems like the tide is turning.

2007 saw the explosive popularity of Call of Duty with the release of Call of Duty 4 (CoD 4). As gamers transitioned to Xbox 360 and PS3, there was a significant rise in online multiplayer participation. The multiplayer lobbies during that time were notorious for their toxicity, and even today, discussions about older Call of Duty games often bring up instances of abusive communication.

Instead of allowing our gaming spaces to resemble the chaotic and intolerant Wild West, we certainly don’t want them to harbor racism and homophobia. Most Call of Duty players, often misjudged by others, are essentially good people who simply seek enjoyment in their gaming experience. Fortunately, those few “spoiled apples” among the community are being effectively dealt with thanks to advancements in AI moderation. This development is promising as we approach the release of BO6, a game that looks incredibly impressive, by the way.

Call of Duty’s AI moderator has been a massive success

Recently, the Disruptive Behavior team from Call of Duty introduced an AI moderator named ToxMod, which started monitoring all voice and text conversations across all servers, excluding those in Asia. The feedback has been extremely encouraging:

  • Over 45 million offensive text messages were blocked
  • Exposure to disruptive voice chat fell by 43%
  • Repeat offending for voice-chat violations fell by 67%

At present, voice moderation is operational for English, Spanish, and Portuguese; but the Disruptive Behavior team intends to add German and French when Black Ops 6 debuts on October 25. As of now, they have not disclosed any plans to extend this feature to Asian languages.

Initially, the concept of an AI moderator monitoring conversations sparked significant opposition among Call of Duty players a few years back. However, considering the substantial amount of offensive behavior they’ve managed to thwart, it appears their stance may have been justified. Let’s hope other games adopt similar measures.

What are your thoughts about utilizing artificial intelligence for monitoring conversations within video games, do you consider it an invasion of privacy or a positive development towards progress?

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2024-10-14 13:09