Tekken lead Katsuhiro Harada says he's spent decades "mentally preparing" for AI to overtake humans, but it's not happening: "If AI had really advanced, we wouldn't be pouring 10, 20, 30 billion Yen into making games"

AI is being pushed at us from all angles. From Google Docs and meetings to Minecraft assistants, you can't escape it. But Tekken legend Katsuhiro Harada doesn't think the technology is all it's hyped up to be.

"Back when I was a student, I was mentally preparing for the day AI would rapidly evolve and launch a war against humanity – like in Terminator," Harada tweets. "Now I'm well past the halfway point of life, and here I am, staring at a compiler that halts over a single dumb typo in game dev: 'Error on line 3082.' Seriously? You're telling me these AI programs are gonna declare war on us, but they still freeze up over a full-width space?"

AI is the kind of thing that's very impressive when you're not actually that much of an expert in whatever you're asking it to do, or you're asking it to do something incredibly simple, like make you a shopping list. Once you know anything about a topic, though, the facade starts to crumble.

"When exactly are you, AI, coming to kill me," Harada asks, "10 years? 20? At this rate, it's too late. Every time I see the news talk about 'amazing advances in AI,' I just roll my eyes."

Me too, Harada, me too. I find most AI arguments I have with people actually boil down to what they believe the technology will be able to do several years from now rather than what it actually does today. Sure, AI can summarize the work of other people, but right now, ChatGPT can't play a new game and write a guide of its own – it can only regurgitate what humans have already written.

"It's slow," Harada writes. "If AI had really advanced, we wouldn’t be pouring 10, 20, 30 billion Yen into making games. Truth is, anyone deep into high-end water-cooled PCs has already felt it: Moore's Law is slowing down. AI's progress? Way too damn slow. At this rate, I'm gonna die of old age before the Terminator shows up. If I die before Skynet comes online… doesn't that mean I win?"

Harada has a point here. At least for him, as long as he doesn't get replaced, what does he care what happens with AI? Sure, maybe I'll be out of a job one day because of it. But I think it's far more likely companies get sick of burning money and the planet, and they move onto the next fad in a few years.

AI could never replace someone as brilliantly online as Harada, anyway. Remember when he told us to stop sending him character ideas because he doesn't want to get sued? Or when he said he "didn't mean to lie" about Mishima's fate? Truly a generational talent.

Anyway, you should check out our list of the best fighting games if you want some more Tekken action.