Sony Working on AI-Powered AFK Helper

With the recent publication of one of its patents, there is some indication that Sony is looking to add a new AI-powered product to its gaming-focused product line. Although AI has quickly grown in ubiquity across the general computing market, tech companies like Sony are only scratching the surface when it comes to leveraging the technology in their gaming-focused hardware.

Despite how AI has been dominating headlines since 2022 and continues to be a buzzword within the broader tech landscape, it's unlikely that Sony will formally unveil its first dalliance with this emerging technology any time soon. Case in point, Sony only recently released the PlayStation Portal with Remote Play, almost two decades following the feature's introduction during the PlayStation 3's life cycle.

Based on Sony's recently published patent, its hypothetical AI-powered product will likely serve a limited, highly specific function. Going by the patent, Sony is hoping to leverage the power of AI technology to offer players a «helper» that will make the PlayStation VR experience more seamless in between play session interruptions. As covered in the patent, this hardware would leverage AI to assist players at the very moment a player goes AFK, the duration of time a player spends AFK, and the moment a player returns from being AFK.

It is currently unclear how this potential addition to PS VR's lineup of accessories will function should it ever end up in the hands of consumers. Going by its description in the patent, it appears that Sony intends to deploy the helper as a way to automatically pause VR games during play interruptions or, at the very least, escort players to safe locations in-game to prevent them from getting greeted with a game over screen upon resuming their play sessions.

As this product would mark Sony's first attempt at integrating AI into the PlayStation experience at a hardware level, it wouldn't make much sense for the company to reinvent the wheel during its first dance