Dead Space creator and ex Call of Duty boss Glen Schofield says AI is "the right investment" and downplays theft concerns: "Picasso said 'good artists always borrow, great artists steal'"

Former Call of Duty lead and Dead Space creator Glen Schofield is going all in on AI. Speaking to VGC at GamesCom Asia, Schofield gave some of his ideas to "save" the games industry.

"First, let’s train everybody [with AI]. We know this new wave is coming." He adds, "people will say 'well, the software isn’t ready yet'. If you’re telling me about it, it’s ready. I mean, ready to play with at least. You play with it. You learn it. You grow with it. Right?"

He urges companies, "if everybody would just train their people… It’s not a huge investment, it’s the right investment."

When it comes to concerns about Generative AI stealing from actual artists and creators, Schofield notes, "Every artist, every concept artist, is already doing photobashing. They’ve been doing it for 5-10 years. That’s not your work." He adds, "that same person… was the one who said 'I don’t want them taking work', and all that, and I’m like, you gotta be kidding me." Schofield, who has created artwork for games himself, admits he was concerned about this at first. However, his mindset is currently that "Picasso said 'good artists always borrow, great artists steal'."

For developers who are not keen to steal others' work, Schofield suggests "make your own rules on how you want to deal with it," citing that he uses his own paintings and drawings to create a model for his prompts. But even without doing all that, he says, "use it. Let the lawyers figure it out. It’s going to be figured out someday."