Have you ever heard of the Jam Man of Silent Hill: Ascension? You are about to. Within the third episode of what began out as a doubtlessly attention-grabbing experiment and has shortly snowballed into a whole catastrophe, Karl Johansen (a Norwegian farmer) runs into the Jam Man.
I am simply going to let this clip shared by VoidBurger on Twitter play out (you can too watch the complete episode right here. The Jam Man materialises at round 24:33).
Outdated: “It is bread”New: “I prefer to make jams” pic.twitter.com/GzVTdKrqIzNovember 25, 2023
Silent Hill: Ascension has some stilted dialogue, however it is a significantly egregious instance. One which had the morbidly curious questioning if the entire thing was AI-generated: “This random NPC pops in, declares he is berry looking, says he is seen bizarre shit and doesn’t expound on it, supplies no data, leaves for extra berries. Goodbye without end, BerryMan,” writes VoidBurger in a follow-up quote Tweet with over 13,000 likes.
The character’s precise title is “Forager”, or CrimsonRain722. For those who’re questioning why a Silent Hill character has numbers subsequent to their title, that is as a result of Forager/Jam Man/Berry Man is a cameo, a side-character gamers can spend “tickets” on. This will get their title plastered subsequent to them, and makes use of their customisable avatar as a mannequin. This is one other enjoyable instance courtesy of AnonyMooseXIV on Twitter.
Nothing will get me within the temper for horror like seeing a Twitch-style username and a subtitle telling me precisely what the factor I am is, throughout a bizarre close-up of somebody’s bland Silent Hill mii. Very immersive. Anyway, Genvid’s CEO, Jacob Navrok, has mentioned that Jam Man isn’t the product of a deep studying algorithm, as per a statement on his Twitter.
“Each phrase in Ascension was written by actual folks … throughout our 100,000+ phrases, zero are authored by LLMs or AI, and all are from devoted work of a gifted staff,” says Navrok. I am form of keen to imagine him, solely as a result of I believe we’re all getting a contact too snug with pointing at issues which can be downright dangerous and saying ‘Ah, this should be AI-generated!’
However one thing is totally going mistaken with Silent Hill: Ascension’s scripting typically. One hefty tick within the ‘AI shlock’ column is how Jam Man says: “Now that you simply point out it, I’ve seen some unusual issues out in these woods. You?” Earlier than instantly veering again into his newest hyperfixation, rowan berries.
I determine a few issues may’ve occurred right here. One, this scene was initially longer, however it was lower for time. From a manufacturing standpoint, a number of errors have been made, however within the enhancing sales space that is completely the correct transfer. If you should snip one thing, Jam Man’s waffling dialogue to justify the worth of a cameo must be the very first thing on the reducing room flooring.
This might additionally simply be a case of poor course given to the voice actor. That “You?” may have deliberately been one thing like ‘I’ve seen unusual issues in these woods, like you.’ Which might make sense. A Norwegian farmer within the woods with a gun is fairly unusual. Perhaps the Forager was simply getting defensive, he was simply making an attempt to make his Jams.
Jam Man additionally mentions a “patch” of rowan berries. Rowan berries develop on bushes, and when you may describe a bunch of bushes as a patch in case you thought actual exhausting about it, it is not likely the proper language, particularly if berries are your ardour. This would not be the primary time a author’s fumbled phrasing or not performed the analysis, so underneath every other circumstance it would be a non-event.
My level being, there are a thousand various things that would go mistaken earlier than AI will get concerned. The suspicion is warranted, although, contemplating how vocal Navrok has been about exploring AI prior to now. He goes into this in a separate post: The staff examined AI-directed scenes, however “they do not have a correct sense of timing for TV”, they examined utilizing AI for chase scenes, however “they’d simply get caught too usually.”
“We beforehand used AI to attempt to do chat moderation, however this failed,” which is why textual content chat is at present disabled, by the best way. It was a trainwreck. “We’re utilizing AI to detect offensive names for account registration. That is working to an extent. Nonetheless not excellent, however higher than earlier options … We’re actively engaged on a brand new chat moderation resolution, although simply your customary fashions accessible for license.”
Once more, you might be free to use pinches of salt as a lot as you need. I for one am comfortable to take Navrok at his phrase, although that is to not say a rogue author could not be utilizing LLMs on the sly. Nonetheless, generally a factor simply is not that good. Even when everybody’s making an attempt their damndest to make it so. One factor’s for sure: I’ll always remember Jam Man. His jams will all the time have a spot in my coronary heart.
