The developer of an AI-powered driving instruction simulator is spending $1,000 per month just to keep its demo running

One of the many ways AI will (supposedly) revolutionise the games industry in facilitating highly reactive NPCs via LLM-powered chatbots. Yet so far, only a handful of games like Where Winds Meet have attempted to implement the tech, and the results have been less than spectacular. But there might also be another reason why relatively few games feature LLM-powered NPCs, which is that powering such chatbots can be costly, as recently demonstrated by the developers of an upcoming driving instructor simulator

As reported by FRVR (via Kotaku) Teach My Little Sister How To Drive is a comic simulation game in which you coach your virtual sibling on driving technique from the comfort of the passenger seat. The twist is that behind your sister's dinner-plate eyes is an LLM chatbot (currently powered by an OpenAI model, though the developers intend to use Gemini for the final release) In the role of instructor, players can both converse with the chatbot and issue …