AI may be causing 'more problems than it solves' for game developers

The world's largest tech companies are embracing AI in the hope of streamlining workflows and eliminating waste, but the move might be backfiring for the games industry.

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Just days ago, Ubisoft confirmed that generative AI is now being used organization-wide, with every office and development team incorporating gen AI. The entire tech sector is betting big on AI, especially in gaming. Microsoft created gen AI tools like MUSE that eliminate the need for game dev coding, and EA is creating a ChatGPT-like chatbotthat can change gameplay in real time.

The widespread use of AI comes with some drawbacks and growing pains, though. Recent reports say AI is causing problems for EA, leading to extra work as developers have to come in and clean up critical mistakes made by the tech. Despite the presentations and assurances, dev teams aren't really showing how AI is used in their games, perhaps to avoid controversy. Or perhaps, as Bloomberg's Jason Schreier suggests, AI is causing more harm than good for game developers.

In a recent interview with 404 Media, Schreier briefly talked about AI in gaming, saying that his own personal use of AI has led to "hallucinations" that were flat out incorrect. Apparently, game devs have told Schreier that the AI tech isn't incredibly helpful in some aspects>

"In my experience, and in the experience of the people who I've talked to about this, it seems like it causes more problems than it solves," Schreier said.

It's an interesting contrast to all the public-facing words and assurances of cost-savings and accelerated content production. If this is the case, and AI is able to increase the workflows of developers, this could end up being a bad thing as asset pipelines become more crowded and more time is needed to sift through the content.

Like all media production, making games requires a lot of wasteful content creation. Much of what is produced and made doesn't make it into the final game. Accelerating content production in this way could make it even harder for game development teams to refine and single out the best content that shows up in the final game.