Call of Duty voice chats are going to be moderated by AI
Call of Duty lobbies and voice chats have always had a reputation for being toxic, going all the way back to the days of CoD 4 and MW2 (2009).
While Activision has attempted to crack down on this behaviour multiple times over the years, it's extremely difficult to moderate voice chat compared to just text.
Well, the CoD devs may have found a solution, but it's almost guaranteed to cause a divide with the game's community.
Rolling out with the release of Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty will begin using AI to moderate lobby voice chat and combat toxic behaviour.
ToxMod AI will moderate Call of Duty voice chats
Click to enlargeAccording to reports, Activision has partnered with a company called Modulate to introduce ToxMod AI to Call of Duty.
This AI is described as a "proactive voice chat moderation solution" that will monitor lobbies in the hopes of shutting down negative behaviour.
The website reveals that ToxMod "triages voice chat to flag bad behaviour, analyzes the nuances of each conversation to determine toxicity, and enables moderators to quickly respond to each incident by supplying relevant and accurate context."
It's worth noting that the software itself will not take immediate action against players. Instead, it will instead submit reports to moderators. These reports will then be analysed and then punishment will handed out on a case-by-case basis.
CoD community divided over AI voice chat moderation
Taking to Twitter on August 30, popular Call of Duty account ModernWarzone asked its followers for their "thoughts" on the new moderation system.
The response was mixed, with some players celebrating the feature and claiming "I like it for the fact that it can detect some truly hateful speech and get those people banned, ain’t no room for that in a game." Others were less keen, arguing "I think it's a terrible idea, being toxic in COD is a staple that shouldn't be touched."
At the end of the day, we'll just have to see how strict the system is when it goes live on November 10 alongside the release of MW3. While there are concerns it could result in a lot of shadowbans, it also has the potential to increase the quality of lobbies.
