Roblox is aiming for Westworld-like ease of design with generative AI tools

Roblox CEO David Baszucki envisions that its generative AI systems might someday work in a way that’s somewhat similar to what you might have seen on the sci-fi show Westworld, based on comments during Roblox’s Q2 2023 earnings call on Wednesday.

The Westworld comparison came up as part of a longer answer about how AI might be able to help Roblox developers.

Ultimately, we’ll enter an age on on Roblox where anyone can make their avatar or clothing 100 percent through text prompts. So if I or you wanted to build a piece of clothing, we could describe it. We’re gonna see that created in real time.

Then, he pulled in Westworld.

We think for developers, this is going to accelerate quality up and down the stack. There’s a great video clip — we’re not going to claim when we will achieve this — on Westworld, where there’s a text-based interaction of 3D creation. And we do think that’s the product vision, where developers will have all tools at their disposal.

While potentially a dystopian metaphor — I haven’t seen Westworld, but my understanding is that it wasn’t exactly a feel-good show — when I think about what’s more realistic within the bounds of Roblox, I can see what Baszucki is going for.

Roblox encourages people to build games, experiences, and avatar items on its self-contained platform that they can choose to make money from in various different ways. If people with no coding or design experience could just type an idea for a piece of clothing and then put it up for sale on Roblox, that could be an easier way for people to make stuff and sell it on the platform.

And this sort of generative AI work would add to the two generative AI tests it announced in February that were baby steps in this direction: a way to generate materials for in-game assets like a car just by typing a description in a text box and a tool to have generative AI write code.

Baszucki wrapped up his answer by touching on an even more expansive vision for AI-assisted creation that goes beyond just making avatar items:

We’ll see a greater diversity of experiences. We will see people who before didn’t expect to be creators making immersive 3D experiences. And we’ll see the [experiences] that are created by developers become more rich and dynamic. We may ultimately even see experiences that are dynamically personalized for each individual player. So it’s really early, but we think it’s a really exciting frontier for 3D creation.

Later, Baszucki gave a vague answer on whether Roblox might come to new platforms like PlayStation or Nintendo Switch. The app recently had a big beta launch on Quest VR headsets, surpassing one million downloads in a matter of days, and a questioner on the call asked for an update on the company’s plans to bring it to other places. “High level, we believe immersive, 3D, human co-experience should be on every platform,” Baszucki said. “We of course have our eyes on those platforms, and stay tuned.”

Baszucki is set to appear at the Code event in September, so perhaps he’ll touch more on these topics at the show.