Sidekicks, Guides, Buddies, & More
Representations of AI companions in Video Games
The AI & Culture Festival
The AI & Cultural Festival is an online publication that brings together different forms of cultural expression about AI and its implications and impact on the world. As part of this online festival, this post features a selection of AI characters in video games who function as sidekicks, guides, buddies, and other similar supporting roles in the games narrative.
Behaviors and Forms of Future Artificial Intelligence
These representations of AI cover a broad spectrum of functions, and each perform their role in slightly different ways. Some are strictly informative while others are humors or even a possible love interest. These characters engage the player through a range of interactions and emotions, including humor, sorrow, love, and friendship. These characters give players a very immersive way of imagining how interacting with such AI agents in real life might be like.
Another perspective on human-AI interaction offered by these characters is how we might expect AI agents to look like in the real world. Embodiment of AI is represented in the diverse forms of these characters. The choices game designers make when deciding how to represent AI characters impact the players experience with that character, as well as their expectations of future AI technologies.
Let’s Get Started
What follows are brief snapshots of these AI companion characters. (While I have tried to leave out spoilers, be aware that linking articles and videos may contain spoilers.) My hope is to acquaint you with the fascinating world of AI companions represented in video games. The list runs in alphabetical order, with what I hope to be a bit of a twist at the end.
AI Character: BD-1
Game: Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order (2019)
A companion droid designed to assist operations in remote or dangerous locations across the galaxy, BD-1 has an almost disturbing enthusiasm for data collection and little regard for self-preservation. Like other BD units, this droid was programmed to be the ideal assistant to a researcher or explorer operating alone in the field with its ability to traverse all types of terrain.
BD-1’s entry on www.starwars.com/
BD-1 functions primarily as a guide, helping a new player learn how best to navigate through the game. This tiny droid “speaks” in a language of blips, beeps and coos, like many of the other droids in the Star Wars universe. While the player might not consider BD-1 to be a friend by the end of the game, this tiny robotic companion is endearing, maybe something closer to a really, really smart dog.
Find out more about this game HERE!
AI Character: BT-7274 / “BT”
Game: Titanfall 2 (2016)
In the game Titanfall 2, you play as a lowly rifleman in a futuristic military. Through the chaos of battle, you find yourself in a situation that demands you become a pilot of a titan, a giant weaponized robot. The name of your titan is BT-7274. BT functions as both a vehicle/exo-suit and an AI robot companion. BT can function independent of the pilot through advanced artificial intelligence, allowing the titan and the pilot to work as a team. Different scenarios require you to make use of both modes. BT acts as a guide, a protector, a resource, and more. By the end of the single-player campaign mode, you may find yourself quite attached to BT.
BT’s entry on the Titanfall 2 fandom.com wiki
Find out more about this game HERE!
AI Character: Buddy Unit
Game: Outbuddies (2019)
Following a shipwreck, marine biologist John regains consciousness 36.000 feet under the sea. He’s severely wounded and unwillingly connected to a supernatural Buddy-unit, which can be controlled at will to manipulate his surroundings using various abilities like hacking, scanning and telekinesis. Searching for answers about his displacement John quickly realises that there’s danger lurking in the dark…
The AI sidekick in Outbuddies is a good example of a sidekick that expands the abilities of the player. In a way, the player of the game actually plays as two characters, both John and the Buddy Unit. The Buddy Unit seems to be responsible for reviving the main character, and never falls behind. Some minor dialogue text enhances the interaction between the two. The Buddy Unit is essentially a floating robot that seems to not be limited by the same physical walls that the main character is bound by.
Find out more about this game HERE!
AI Character: Claptrap
Game: Borderlands franchise (2009, 2012, 2014, 2019)
Claptrap is a CL4P-TP general purpose robot manufactured by Hyperion. It has been programmed with an overenthusiastic personality, and brags frequently, yet also expresses severe loneliness and cowardice.
https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Claptrap
My primary experience with Claptrap is watching the first 14 minutes of this game on following YouTube, and right from the start it’s obvious that this character is along for the ride to provide snarky humor and comic relief in addition to guidance through the game and movement through a plot line. He seems to be talking non-stop. He is given the form of a small robot with a central eye and brow, two thin arms, and a speed single wheel for locomotion.
Find out more about this game HERE!
AI Character: Cortana
Game: Halo franchise (2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015)
So far, all the AI characters we’ve met have had a very robotic appearance. Now, meet Cortana, a buxom female humanoid, holographic AI agent that plays major role in most of the games of the Halo franchise. In addition to her typical cool blue coloration, her form often appears to have type of matrix-like code running through it.
I seriously have to wonder if the design of Cortana’s appearance may single-handedly be responsible for the sterotypical appearance of AI as embodied in some form of blue code-like patterning, like you will if you search Google for “artificial intelligence.”
Because Cortana has been in this franchise for so long, the game designers have shifted her role and personality as the series progresses. She starts off as a very pragmatic and helpful assistant to Master Chief, the player’s character. In later games she becomes more emotional. In the most recent installment, Halo 5, Cortana takes on a very different role as she rebels, and becomes something of a Ruthless AI Super Galactic Queen.
In addition to some very intense representations of AI seizing power from humans, fans of this franchise delve into a great many avenues of drama regarding Cortana. I’ll let you search YouTube for “Why is Cortana NAKED?” or “Do Chief and Cortana LOVE Each Other!?”
Find out more about Cortana here:
https://www.halopedia.org/Cortana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortana_%28Halo%29
Find out more about this game HERE!
AI Character: Ghost
Game: Destiny franchise (2014, 2017)
The Destiny game franchise offers in-game assistance to players, new and old, with the provision of a Ghost, a soft-ball-sized floating drone that offers a wealth of information, suggestions, and comic interaction. Players can customize both the appearance of their Ghost, as well as enhance its abilities. Here is a guide to how you can increase your Ghost’s range when searching for loot chests and other resources.
This AI sidekick was initially voiced by Peter Dinklage, but was completely changed over to be voiced by Nolan North in 2015. That many long-time fans found this transition to be jarring is evidenced by YouTube videos with such titles as “The Peter Dinklage Destiny Lines We’ll Miss Most” and “Destiny: Nolan North Vs. Peter Dinklage” Players clearly become emotionally attached to these AI characters.
Find out more about this game HERE!
AI Character: HK-47
Game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)
If you are a fan of dark humor, HK-47 might be the AI companion for you. This robotic droid, again in the world of Star Wars, has dark tendencies that verge on absurd, and carry over to a certain type of humor that many people seem to enjoy. As I began this project HK-47 showed up on a number of lists of “best video game companions.” Here is a quote from one such list:
HK-47 loves his job, which just so happens to be killing humans, which he refers to as ‘meatbags.’ He seems pretty harmless when you first purchase him; only after does he reveal how sadistic he truly is, relishing the though of having a master, but fully enjoying putting holes in “meatbags.” For a droid, he is extremely sociopathic, enjoying death and destruction with no regards for anyone innocent, and as his master you are the only safe thing in his path.
Brandon Morgan, Top 5 Companions in Gaming
While this description sounds horrifying, the actual in-game delivery of dialogue is so rye and humorous. In some ways, HK-47 is almost a parody on the deadly AI troupe. Do yourself a favor, and watch a few minutes of the following YouTube video, The Best of HK-47.
Find out more about this game HERE!
AI Character: Sprite Companion
Game: Hyper Light Drifter (2016)
An indispensable personalized drone, the Sprite manages your inventory virtually, maintains your shields, seeks out hidden paths and lights the way in the darkest of times. Functionality may be expanded with new modules.Core
Mechanics Section of Hyper Light Drifter’s Kickstarter page
The very tiny Sprite Companion of Hyper Light Drifter is very similar to Destiny’s Ghost character in appearance. It is a small drone that floats and follows the main player. The player is also able to customize the appearance of the Sprite Companion, according to the Hyper Light Drifter fandom.com website.
A major difference between Destiny’s Ghost, and HLD’s Sprite Companion is that it has no speaking part at all, and many of its contributions may go unnoticed both due to their subtlety and this drones abilities to feel like a natural extension of the main character’s abilities.
Find out more about this game HERE!
AI Character: Wheatley
Game: Portal 2 (2011)
Wheatley is the first character the player meets in Portal 2. Right from the start he seems to be much more about personality than really guiding the character. In fact, some of this AI’s instructions turn out to be wrong in someway or just impossible for your character to accomplish. Without getting into spoilers, it turns out that Wheatley takes on the role of plot device than any other role you might suspect.
Wheatley is portrayed a sphere with a very large blue lit “eye” in the middle of one side. For a robotic figure, he has a surprising capacity to portray facial expressions and gestures.
Find out more about Wheatley here:
https://theportalwiki.com/wiki/Wheatley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatley_(Portal)
https://neoencyclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Wheatley_(Portal)
Find out more about this game HERE!
AI Character: YOU / “The Operator”
Game: In Other Waters (2020)
On a strange planet in the distant future xenobiologist Ellery Vas finds herself with an old and mysterious dive suit, a planet that should be devoid of life teeming with it…just not on the surface, a missing colleague and an incredibly strange AI that appears to have no idea what it’s doing. It’s you. You’re the AI.
Maia Rose, In Other Waters Review: A Delightful Research Simulation
Here’s the twist: in some games you are the AI character. In Other Waters offers the player an opportunity to see what it’s like to assist a human as an AI agent. It seems the human you are assisting, Ellery Vas, trust the decisions you make as an AI, and only gives you subtle directions every now and then, communicated through text messages that appear on the game’s UI console. Ellery even begins speaking very candid personal thoughts only to realize she’s speaking to an AI who probably isn’t capable of understanding the sentiments she’s experiencing.
Find out more about this game HERE!
Some Closing Thoughts
Most all of these games are single-player experiences, but with an AI buddy at your side, the experience of interaction with others is greatly increased. Because most of these AI sidekicks and companions are portrayed as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) the player comes to expect them to behave very nearly to that of a human companion.
As I have compiled this list of characters, I have found myself asking a lot of questions. What do these portrayals say about popular perceptions of AI?
What do we want AI to be, to do? Should it only be informing, and guiding? Do we want AI companions to entertain us? Can we find friendship or companionship in future forms of AI? Video games offer us a very immersive way of exploring these questions and confronting potential futures we have yet to imagine.
Articles Referenced
Morgan, B. (2014, February 18). Top 5 Companions in Gaming. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://www.gameskinny.com/le6qg/top-5-companions-in-gaming
Rose, M. (2020, March 31). In Other Waters Review: A Delightful Research Simulation — But Why Tho? Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://butwhythopodcast.com/2020/03/31/review-in-other-waters-is-a-delightful-research-simulation/
