With generative AI shoved down our throats more and more with each passing day, the shoving of which we ourselves must pay through price hikes in just about every tech-related aspect of life, it’s no surprise that video game companies are becoming a lot more brazen about their use of this modern software.
And thus the recently showcased Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis openly declared its use of generative AI on its Steam page, outlining that, though some early concepts and assets were replaced, others were merely “refined” and remain in the game. What exactly “refined” means here is anyone’s guess until we actually get to see it, but from what I can gather, it appears to be AI-generated art that was tweaked to whatever extent, but never fully cut from the game.
The full notice on Steam reads:
“AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content. Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team.”
I do understand it’s become unavoidable for AI to make its way into every software pipeline under the sun, but it seems to have to be quite extensive and crucial to the development process for a publisher to publicly declare it. Valve does require devs to clearly state how AI was used, but I think streamlining rudimentary assignments in coding and such do not apply.
To me, this reads like AI was used heavily for art and visible assets in the game, as we’ve seen companies like Activision do for calling cards. Those assets in CoD were out in the open and very easy to spot, making me fear the same will be true in Legacy of Atlantis.
As Kotaku writes, citing Game File, Crystal Dynamics’ chief previously called AI “the most powerful technology or tool of our generation for driving efficiency” and even said it somehow amplifies creativity, though I’m more of the opinion it dilutes creativity and imagination, especially since you’re replacing your own thoughts and ideas with the average of all art produced.
So it’s completely to be expected that the company with such stances would opt to use this so-called “powerful” slop generator.
And more will likely follow suit.
