What if you could stop bugs in video games before they’re even made? Ubisoft is hoping to do just that: say hello to the Commit Assistant, an AI tool that will be used to warn developers when they’re on the verge of making a common or catastrophic error.
A report by Wired outlines the Commit Assistant’s programming; the system stems from looking over the past decade’s worth of code and data and then pulling out patterns in corrections made, and then warn a coder if they’re possibly going to make a similar mistake.
Not only will it protect Ubisoft from the tide of controversy surrounding some of its less, let’s say, instantly-playable releases, it could go some way to speeding up development cycles. Theoretically, if a mistake – which could take days to fix – is averted through Minority Report-style means, that can only increase efficiency through dev teams.
The AI assistant has already been brought into projects, but it’s unclear how much of an effect it has had on workload and actually identifying game-breaking bugs. In fact, the Commit Assistant will not be mandatory according to Yves Jacquier, the head of La Forge, Ubisoft Montreal’s R&D Division, stating, “If you don’t want to use that, fine, don’t use it. It’s just another tool.”
As of right now, the Commit Assistant will only be available to Ubisoft’s dev teams, but one can only hope similar strides are made industry-wide. We can point and laugh when they come to the fore but troublesome bugs do no one any favors, and this looks like the best way to stop multi-million dollar games from turning into memes overnight.
Image: Ubisoft/Hikaru (Steam)
