AI will monitor voice chat for the next ‘Call Of Duty’ title

Voice chat lets players talk to each other while playing a video game. — AFP Relaxnews

The gaming world is no stranger to innovation when it comes to using technology. This time, the technology concerns not the game itself but rather online play – for the launch of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Activision has announced the introduction of a moderation system that uses AI to detect any hate speech during real-time voice chat.

On Nov 10, in addition to discovering the latest Call Of Duty video game, players will also be confronted by another “player”: voice chat moderation powered by artificial intelligence.

“Call Of Duty’s new voice chat moderation system uses ToxMod, the AI-powered voice chat moderation technology from Modulate, to identify in real-time and enforce against toxic speech – including hate speech, discriminatory language, harassment and more,” the official blog outlines.

Launched in collaboration with Modulate, the system is intended to deliver "global real-time voice chat moderation at scale."

A first beta test took place in North America on Aug 30, in the games Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call Of Duty: Warzone. The rest of the world will have to wait until Nov 10. Moderators will be able to analyze voice chat discussions initially in English. Other languages will be added, but Activision has not specified when. Asia will not be included in this rollout.

Currently moderation checks for compliance with anti-toxicity rules in 14 languages, both in chat discussions and in usernames. Players can also report other gamers in-game. A strategy whose results have yet to fully bear fruit, since only 20% of players have not reoffended after receiving an initial warning, according to data from Call Of Duty, which nevertheless specifies: "Those who did reoffend were met with account penalties, which include but are not limited to feature restrictions (such as voice and text chat bans) and temporary account restrictions."

Most platforms use AI to moderate comments and other content by blocking certain words chosen by the user. But some internet users are becoming increasingly inventive in their attempts to circumvent this system. – AFP Relaxnews