COD AI voice chat moderation update criticized as Modern Warfare 2 & Warzone players fear getting banned

With the latest Season 05 update in COD, Activision is attempting to minimize toxicity and hate speech with the help of AI voice chat moderation.

The developers have collaborated with a company called Modulate to track down discrimination and harassment in real-time.

Modulate’s AI system, ToxMod, will then scan voice chats and identify any topics that require more investigation. However, this announcement is already giving players a hard time.

COD players wary of potential bans related to AI voice chat moderation

The recent implementation of AI-driven voice chat moderation in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone has sparked concerns among players who fear unjustified bans (1,2,3,4,5).

@Activision thanks to catering to all the snowflake campers out there and ruining @CallofDuty even more with your stupid ass ai voice chat ban. Keep giving the real #cod players reason to not buy the new game.
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Activision started using AI to moderate voice chat in Call of Duty today. The AI, called ToxMod, listens to CoD players in voice and flags toxic behavior. It was trained on 10 million hours of audio. I’ve been in those lobbies. TM is going to be filing a lot of reports.
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According to players, the AI might not be able to tell the difference between hate speech and harmless banter. This fear is possibly rooted in the history of systems that flag normal conversations too.

Some are even speculating that Activision will monitor private chats with your friends for hate speech. So this unpredictable nature of AI has made players fearful that they might get banned for making innocent jokes.

Status of the current voice moderator

Modulate’s ToxMod is currently accessible in North America as a beta release. It will be available globally (excluding Asia) with the release of COD Modern Warfare 3 on November 10.

It’ll be interesting to note how the developers strike the right balance between promoting a safe gaming environment and preserving the authentic player interactions.

While it’s absolutely important to address toxic behavior, it’s equally essential to avoid stifling the entertaining conversations emerging during the gameplay.

That said, we’ll keep tabs on the latest developments and update this article accordingly.

Note: We also have a dedicated gaming section, so be sure to check it out as well.

Featured and inline image source: Call of Duty

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