Zenless Studio Zone Zero uses AI technology to “smooth” the development process

Zenless Zone Zero producer Zhenyu Li revealed in a recent interview with Eurogamer (via a translator) that AI-generated content is used in the game “programmatically” to “better smooth game progression”.

No specific programming examples were given, as Li is “not a tech guy,” but he emphasized that the AI ​​”is just a small piece of programming [in Zenless Zone Zero]mainly to help the programming team to streamline the production process, to make our work more efficient.”

One thing we do know is that the game’s urban and vibrant art style that sets it apart from miHoYo’s other titles, Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, isn’t something created with AI generation. Li says the team wants to “create something from our minds” when it comes to art-related content, and in a later statement given to Eurogamer to clarify some comments, added that it’s “something in which the whole team believes.”

Regarding voice work, while miHoYo has used an AI called Anti-Entropy in the past for their virtual avatar Lumi_N0va (and to replace a voice actor for an event in their romantic mystery, Tears of Themis, when they weren’t available), Zenless Zone Zero continues the developer’s streak of employing stellar voice actors in multiple languages ​​for their major releases, as we were given a fairly definitive “No” by Li after asking if AI technology had been used to generated voices in the game.

In addition to AI Anti-Entropy, we know that miHoYo also uses Nvidia’s Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) generation technology, as revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January this year. ACE is an AI-powered technology that helps generate facial animations and text-to-speech input to help create characters.

Although not confirmed, this sounds very similar to the technology that the Star Rail development team is using. They revealed to IGN last year that they use AI to improve the facial appearance and behavior patterns of in-game characters, also mentioning that their team is “paying a lot of attention to AI, especially its impact on the gaming industry.”

This ACE AI also makes sense as something that could “smooth the game progression” of Zenless Zone Zero, but without a specific example given by Li, we don’t know for sure if this specific technology was used.

While 62% of studios are said to already be using AI, and AI is changing video game development forever, from Li’s comments it appears that Zenless Zone Zero is continuing miHoYo’s trend of lightly dipping its toes into controversial technology , for now.