Microsoft Gaming executive VP Phil Spencer, formerly the head of Xbox, has a softer stance on AI than you would think considering the wider company's big push on the tech, as he recently said studios under his gaming division can use AI if they want to, and if not, that's cool too. No pressure.
Per IGN, during a Paley International Council Summit talk with Double Fine's Tim Schafer, Spencer explained that the gaming division's "applications of AI today are mostly actually on the security and protection of our networks," like spotting bad apples on voice and text chat.
"And for protected child accounts and other things and who gets to talk to those accounts to those people, is locked down by parents or guardians who are setting those controls," he says. "That's our primary use of AI inside of our organization today, which maybe isn't the most glamorous use of AI, but it's something that I fundamentally believe in."
When it comes to game development, AI use is a totally different story within Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and Activision Blizzard, according to Spencer: "On the creative side, I really leave it up to the teams." Spencer's experience is that devs "will use tools that make their job easier when it makes their job easier," and top-down corporate mandates aren't "a path to success." So, he's pretty hands off in that sense.
"On the production side, which I think is where a lot of people go... we don't have any goals in our model for that to happen... but our AI use today is much more operational than it is in the creative space." After big publishers like Krafton have fully embraced AI, all I can say is phew.
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