Generative AI

Generative-AI NPCs: A Production Risk Checklist

Published 5 September 2026 · Evaluate latency, safety, narrative control, privacy and fallback behaviour.

A demo conversation is not a production NPC. Shipping requires bounded knowledge, predictable actions, acceptable latency, safety controls and fallback behaviour.

Separate speech from authority

Model output should not directly grant items or execute arbitrary commands. Translate approved intents through deterministic validation; narrative state remains authoritative.

Plan for failure

NVIDIA’s ACE material describes speech recognition, language models, retrieval, synthesis and animation. Each stage adds delay. Set timeouts and keep authored fallbacks.

Control memory

Retrieve from curated lore and filter what a character may know. Keep memories scoped and deletable. Do not send voice or identifiers externally without disclosure and a valid privacy basis.

Test adversarially

Probe prompt injection, harassment, hidden instructions, contradictions and unsafe actions. Measure player value against authored alternatives. Connect models to bounded perception and testable actions.

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