Roblox wants to let people create virtual worlds just by typing • TechCrunch

AI chatbots can spit out compelling – and sometimes overconfident – ​​natural language responses, but what if an AI could create personalized virtual worlds based solely on a textual description?

Roblox is exploring this possibility with its Developer Toolkit, which are designed to allow almost anyone to create virtual experiences and items in the youth-focused virtual ecosystem.

The company says it’s testing two different implementations of generative AI, one that creates virtual materials based on a natural language prompt (the car textures in the video below) and another that can create code based on text entries. Both will be rolling out to Roblox Studio developers in the coming weeks.

“…Some creators know how to code, but may have limited experience creating high-fidelity 3D models. Others may be more experienced with designing templates, but less experienced with code,” wrote Roblox CTO Daniel Sturman in a blog post. “In either case, we see a future in which even a newbie (like me for example – I’m a terrible artist!) can get a head start as they seek to bring their imaginations to life in a Roblox experience. .”

Over the past few years, the company has defined its goal of becoming the infrastructure of the metaverse – not just the place where people go to hang out in virtual worlds, but the set of tools they use to build those worlds. to start. Roblox certainly has competition (Epic Games, to name one), but AI-powered tools like this could make it an even more attractive platform for novice game developers to create. the hit virtual spaces that make Roblox so sticky with younger users.