What started as an April Fools' Day 2017 prank could actually become real technology. During Computex 2024, Nvidia revealed a tech demo of Project G-Assist, an artificial intelligence assistant that can improve the way people play video games.
The old joke was that AI could play for you with the push of a button. This new version is not as capable as its fantasy counterpart, but it can still help you with your game. According to the announcement post, G-Assist can answer questions about completing quests, finding items, or helping you beat difficult bosses.
To activate the AI, you will simply press a hotkey or speak an activation phase. A window will appear on the screen. From there, you can type a text message or speak it into the microphone.
Nvidia claims that G-Assist is contextually aware. Through visual models, you can provide recommendations on what a player should do next just by looking at the screen. It may suggest you create a certain equipment for your character or avoid an enemy on the screen. The information it will provide will depend on what you are playing. In the case of role-playing games, it can tell you about the history of the surrounding world. If you're playing a first-person shooter, G-Assist will recommend the best settings.
Of course, all the details of AI can be found with a simple Google search. It's not like G-Assist has access to a secret treasure trove of knowledge. The main draw here is that you don't have to quit the game. Lots of important data is just a push of a button away.
The source of information for a game has us curious. Nvidia says each output will provide “context-sensitive links” that will direct you to additional online resources, such as official community wikis. Whether or not that will include unofficial sources, such as YouTube videos, remains to be seen.
computer tune up
In addition to the gaming assistant, the assistant also has a feature that we think hardcore gamers will appreciate called Performance Tuning. Enabling this allows the AI to “evaluate your system settings… and instantly adjust them for an optimal experience.” You could, for example, decide to reduce the voltage of a graphics card to increase power efficiency, enable “safe GPU overclocking,” and activate Nvidia Reflex to reduce latency, among other things.
G-Assist even tracks your computer's performance while you play, letting you know key statistics, from a game's current frame rate to latency spikes. The corner window shows a graphical reading of a given statistic within a given time period. It depends on what you ask the assistant.
What's more, AI suggests actions you can take to improve a computer's overall performance or explain certain features. For example, DLAA (deep learning anti-aliasing) and DLSS (deep learning supersampling) are a pair of graphics software that Nvidia created to improve the visual fidelity of a video game. The average person may have a hard time understanding the differences between them and what exactly they do. G-Assist can help unravel complicated concepts to better educate people.
AI is shaping up to be another excellent application from Nvidia. It's definitely something we want to try out ourselves in our favorite titles. At the time of writing, G-Assist is on display at Computex. It is unknown if and when it will be released or if there will be a beta version at some point.
TechRadar reached out to Nvidia to ask if it plans to launch a public beta and if it will soon expand to non-gaming applications. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best gaming PCs for 2024 if you're in the market.
