PS5 Could Get a Toxic Player Detection System Ran by AI After Sony Files “Bad Actor” Patent

Sony may be gearing up to implement a toxic player detection system in PlayStation 5. According to a patent filed, the publisher is looking to crack down on “bad actors” in their games. The dystopian feature would use AI machine learning to analyze whether a user is being “bad” while playing on PS5 or other consoles.

PS5 May Get AI System That Detects Toxic Behavior

Although it was originally filed last year, the “bad actor” system patent was recently made public on May 22. In its description, the detection system seeks to analyze a player’s behavior over time to determine whether they are toxic or not. According to the patent, the feature would rely heavily on machine learning (AI) to gather data on a user to determine whether their account gets flagged. As far as what is deemed “bad actor” behavior, the patent goes into pretty detailed descriptions.

One of the examples is a user quitting a multiplayer game early. “A bad actor may quit an instance of the game during a round, in order to seek another instance. This behaviour may also be similar to so-called ‘rage quitting.’” Apparently, playing a game too much without using chat features may also trigger the system. “A bad actor may be identified if they have a lower ratio of play to chat than is normal within the game. Again, a machine learning model may be used to correlate chat density during game play in order to identify typical levels.”

Strangely, the patent also says that sending a friend request too early on PS5 may also make you a bad actor. “A bad actor may send friend requests (inviting private chat outside of a game context) after relatively few interactions in-game.” In all fairness, I can kind of understand this one. Trolls will often spam chat messages to people they don’t know, for example. But it’s just the way the patent reads that is a little bit eerie.

What Happens to “Bad Actors”?

So, what exactly happens if you are a bad actor on your PS5? The patent doesn’t go into depth in this regard. However, it does explain, “a bad actor may result in different responses or mitigating actions,” which sounds vaguely ominous. I recommend you read the full patent here, because it goes into greater detail.

Although I warn you, it’s pretty wordy stuff. Sony goes to exhaustive lengths to explain how they would track the toxic behaviors of players. It should also be pointed out that the “bad actor” patent has not been confirmed for PS5 consoles. It could be something they are working on for PSN in general, or the future release of PS6.

It’s also not uncommon for companies to patent ideas without ever actually releasing them. Still, this shows that Sony has thought heavily about moderating toxic behavior on their devices. And based on the “bad actor” patent, we could see a future where AI is used to start moderating player behavior. This could be potentially beneficial if it’s actually accurate. But then, on the other hand, also terrifying if users get falsely lumped in with other “bad actors”.