Bethesda Game Studios executive producer Todd Howard says there's a place for AI in video game development, but not of the generative variety, thank goodness.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Howard tread carefully through the minefield that is AI in video games discourse, stressing the irreplaceability of human creativity, but clarifying that AI can be a useful "tool" in game development, specifically to help with iterative processes that would take a lot longer by human hand.
"I view it as a tool," Howard said. "Creative intention comes from human artists, number one.
"But, I think we look at it as a tool for, is there a way we can use it to help us go through some iterations that we do ourselves faster. Not in generating things, but we are always working on our toolset for how we build our worlds or check things."
Howard is far from the first high-profile game developer to suggest AI as a tool to cut down on grunt work in game development; Metal Gear and Death Stranding auteur Hideo Kojima just recently he thinks of AI as a "friend," but one he would only want around to "handle the tedious tasks" of development "that would lower cost and cut down on time."
"I think if you go back 10 years ago, that version of Photoshop, you wouldn't want to go back to that version of Photoshop," Howard added.
"That's our view on it. But we want to protect the artistry. The human intention of it is what makes our stuff special."
Howard and Kojima are both on the moderate end of the spectrum of AI embrace, with other high-level executives like Valve founder Gabe Newell and Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot taking a much more explicitly bullish approach, not to mention giant companies like EA investing eye-watering amounts in full embrace. All things considered, Howard's thoughts on AI seem pretty tame.
