Call of Duty creator Activision released a new report showing the results of its AI-powered anti-toxicity efforts.
Activision completed the research paper in collaboration with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). It provides a glimpse at the effectiveness of the publisher's anti-toxicity moderation efforts. The studio introduced these in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.
Activision's Anti-Toxicity Efforts
This comes as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is just two weeks away from launch. Activision's Disruptive Behavior team released a new blog post that details how their moderation efforts would translate to the newest entry in the series.
The report also comes as online competitive gameplay often comes with trash talk. However, the majority of Call of Duty players have most likely experienced some form of trash talk that quickly turned into pure toxicity at least once in their gaming sessions, according to WindowsCentral.
The franchise has such a rampant history of toxicity that it has almost become a meme on the internet. Some people even argue that you would not survive a Call of Duty lobby when discussions about hate speech, sexism, or general toxicity are brought up.
Based on the results of Activision's internal research, this toxicity has had negative effects on both the game and across additional platforms. They seemingly normalize hate speech, racism, and sexism.
The studio has been using ToxMod from Modulate which uses artificial intelligence to identify in real-time and enforce against toxic speech. These include hate speech, discriminatory language, and harassment, IGN said.
Moderation in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Activision insisted that voice chat is only monitored and recorded "for the express purpose of moderation."
The statement was made to address concerns from the Call of Duty community. It added that it is focused on detecting harm within voice chat versus specific keywords.
In a fresh progress update, the company said that the Disruptive Behavior team knows that hype and passion are part of the Call of Duty franchise. It added that voice and text-based moderation tools in Call of Duty do not target their competitive spirit.
The company said that the AI-powered anti-toxicity efforts resulted in a 43% drop in voice toxicity among English, Spanish, and Portuguese speakers in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.
Activision also plans to implement the same technology in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on day one when it releases on Oct. 25, 2024.
The game would also expand voice moderation support to French and German on top of the previously mentioned languages, according to Blizzard News.
