Roblox has unveiled a real-time, AI-driven chat rephrasing tool that substitutes banned words with more respectful language, the company announced on Thursday. This feature surpasses Roblox’s previous text filter, which replaced banned content with “#.” The previous system often disrupted conversations with strings of “####” that were difficult to understand.
Now, instead of just so many hash marks, the filtered text will be rephrased to better match the user’s intended sentiment. For example, a message like “Hurry TF up!” would have been “####,” but now becomes “Hurry up!” All chat participants are informed about rephrasings for maintaining civility.
“Chat is crucial for connection and coordination on Roblox,” stated Rajiv Bhatia, Roblox’s User and Discovery Product VP, in a press release. “Real-time rephrasing keeps gameplay and chats focused, guiding discussions toward appropriateness. It lessens chat friction while preserving community standards.”
While rephrasing addresses chat disruptions, Roblox’s safety protocols for severe issues remain active. The feature supports all languages available through Roblox’s translation tools.
The company is enhancing its text-filtering system to catch more variations of banned languages. Results show improvement in handling leetspeak and sophisticated bypass techniques, reducing false negatives in personal information exchanges by 20x.
This announcement follows Roblox’s introduction of mandatory facial verification for chat access amidst lawsuits on child safety from attorneys general in Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and others. These legal actions respond to reports of Roblox exposing young users to dangers like grooming and explicit content.