Call of Duty, a shooter video game published by Activision, has started using artificial intelligence to monitor what players say during online matches in order to flag and crack down on “toxic speech” more effectively as online gaming looks poised to become the newest frontier of censorship.
Activision said recently on its blog that Call of Duty is doubling down on its fight against “hate speech” and other types of “toxic and disruptive behavior” among players in online chatrooms by enlisting the help of AI to identify and police player conduct.
“Call of Duty’s new voice chat moderation system utilizes 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 company said in the post.
The speech policing algorithms, which online players can only disable by turning off voice chat, will monitor and record what they say in order to identify speech that the company deems unfit for its virtual game spaces.
Strict penalties await for violators of Activision’s online speech rules, which bar derogatory comments based on race, sexual orientation, or “gender identity or expression.”
Punishment for rule-breakers ranges from temporary suspensions and account renaming to permanent bans and stat resets.
“Any user who is found to use aggressive, offensive, derogatory, or culturally charged language is subject to penalty,” the company warns in its Call of Duty Security and Enforcement Policy.
“Cyber-bullying and other forms of harassment are considered extreme offenses and will result in the harshest penalty,” it added.
AI-Powered Censorship
Around 60 million people—mostly men—play Call of Duty every month, according to activeplayer.io, and a common part of the multiplayer online gaming experience is banter.
But Activision has been keen to keep that banter within guardrails, as stipulated in its Code of Conduct.
“We do not tolerate bullying or harassment, including derogatory comments based on race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, culture, faith, mental or physical abilities, or country of origin,” the rules stipulate.
“Communication with others, whether using text or voice chat, must be free of offensive or harmful language. Hate speech and discriminatory language is offensive and unacceptable, as is harassment and threatening another player,” the Code of Conduct further states.
By Tom Ozimek
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