Roblox is introducing a real-time, AI-powered chat rephrasing feature that automatically replaces banned words with more respectful language, the company announced on Thursday.
The new feature goes beyond Roblox’s current text filter, which simply replaces banned words and phrases with the “#” symbol. But Roblox says that when users encounter strings of “####,” conversations can be disrupted and hard to follow.
Now, instead of simply displaying hash marks, filtered text will be rephrased into more respectful language that is close to the user’s original intent.
For example, a message that reads “Hurry TF up!” would previously have appeared as “####,” but will now be rephrased to “Hurry up!” Everyone in the chat is notified that the message has been rephrased to keep the conversation civil, Roblox says.
“Chat is central to how people connect, coordinate, and play on Roblox,” said Rajiv Bhatia, Vice President of User and Discovery Product at Roblox, in a press release. “Real-time rephrasing helps keep gameplay and conversations on track while guiding language toward what’s appropriate. This approach reduces friction in chat while maintaining the standards that help keep our community civil.”
Roblox notes that while rephrasing reduces some of the disruption in the chat, its safety system remains in effect for more serious behavior.
The new feature is supported in all languages currently available through Roblox’s automatic translation tools.
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The company is also upgrading the text-filtering system to detect more variations of banned language. Roblox says early results show that the system is getting better at detecting leetspeak, and more sophisticated attempts to bypass filters. This has allowed the company to reduce the prevalence of false negatives when sharing or soliciting personal information by 20x.
Thursday’s announcement comes shortly after Roblox introduced mandatory facial verification for access to chats on its platform following a wave of lawsuits over child safety from the attorneys general of Texas, Kentucky, and Louisiana, among others. The lawsuits were filed in response to reports that Roblox was exposing young users to dangerous risks, such as grooming and explicit content.
