My general experience of AI tools so far has been somewhat underwhelming; I don’t need an AI agent to rewrite an email for me, and while the likes of Google’s Magic Editor are great at transforming a ‘meh’ photo into something more artistic, AI has never felt that useful to me.
But Logitech is taking a different path. The company’s ‘G’ gaming arm, specifically its streamer-centric Streamlabs unit, has come up with something it calls the ‘Intelligent Gaming Agent’, and I’ve seen it in action at Logitech’s big yearly LogiPlay event.
Rather than paint pictures of dogs in Salvador Dali paintings, the Intelligent Gaming Agent is set up to be a gaming advisor, production assistant, and tech support for game streamers.
Demoing the agent, a Logitech rep asked the AI-powered tool to give her advice on where to drop in Fortnite, via a voice query and external microphone. The AI responded, advising a drop point that should enable a good start to the battle royale game.
Responding to queries in a conversational and friendly tone, the agent can be customized to look a variety of ways, but also respond in specific ways; notably, the agent can take on a sassy tone and lightly mock the streamer — as if the gaming world isn’t already awash with less than pleasant comments.
But the agent can be hidden from the streamer if one doesn’t want a virtual entity on screen, yet all its services and skills can still be accessed.
Of course, such help is just an aside. Where the Intelligent Gaming Agent can be truly handy is on the producer side.
Per the demo, the AI can be asked to create a poll for stream watchers, say, where they think a player should land in Fortnite, then the AI processes the responses and feeds them back without the streamer needing to do anything. It can also clip videos from the streamed game and add sound effects.
Then on the tech side, the Agent can detect things like the streamer having not spoken for a while and then infer that there could be a problem with the AI setup.
Equally, steamers can ask the AI if there’s anything wrong with their setup, and it will try its best to come up with a solution to it. When prompted if there was anything wrong with the audio, the Agent looked into it and noticed the user’s microphone was off, and so turned it on. It all seems rather smart and could make for a very handy tool for new streamers.
Powering all of this is Logitech’s Streamlabs AI, which uses tech from Inworld AI to deliver custom learning models, and, according to a Logitech rep, also taps into ChatGPT. Nvidia also provided a load of its tech, like DLSS, for the rendering of the AI assistant.
While the Intelligent gaming agent did seem a little slow in generating its responses, those it delivered seemed on the money. So I could see the agent being of some use to streamers who’ve got a lot to juggle and want to build an engaged user base without some crazy multitasking.
If anything, I didn’t expect useful AI to pop up in the gaming peripheral area. But it does look like a smart use of AI that could augment one’s gaming experience for the better.
You can try the Intelligent Streaming Assistant yourself if you install it to Logitech’s Streamlabs Desktop software, just bear in mind that to get the most out of it, you’ll need to opt for the paid-for Streamlabs Ultra.
