10 Biggest Dangers To Gaming Right Now (From A Dev's Perspective)
6. Artificial Integrity (AI In Game Development)
“Artificial intelligence” is the buzzphrase of 2024 and beyond, as everyone from mobile phone manufacturers to furry art aficionados attempt to shoehorn some form of generative AI (not to be confused with closed-system AI, where programmers build a proprietary closed system, such as for foliage etc) into their respective fields.
And, as a gaming artist myself, I can see plenty of applications for AI as a tool to mitigate some of the more rote or laborious parts of the job (ask any 2D animator to draw in-between frames for a 60FPS game and you’ll hear a whinging wail that’ll make Left 4 Dead’s Witch seem positively upbeat by comparison). And, clearly, many of my peers think so too - but only in theory.
In practice, sadly, most generative AI systems available now are as potent as they are through underhanded means. Systems like Midjourney are trained on stolen (or “scraped”) images, doing nothing to seek consent on private, protected or copyrighted works, using these to interpolate data points and generate final products you might consider as intricate “mashups” of those ill-gotten pieces.
Yet, for some, this is collateral damage - casualties in a relentless stampede of progress.
Recent games such as The Finals and Foamstars have dabbled with generative AI in the high-profile development space (with many others rumoured to have used it) in a way they’ve considered “inconsequential” to their studios’ staff, but the proof is in the pudding - the layoffs, in all areas (but junior sectors specifically), have been astronomically high in 2023/2024, with genAI being considered something of a factor.
I, myself, have even lost an ongoing animation contract as the studio in question transitioned to genAI.
In this wild west of unregulated genAI, studio heads are looking purely at costs, and right now if “the magic robot” can do it all without incurring any legal issues, why would anyone hire human beings, other than all that pesky intent, context, and creativity?
After all, it’s only art, eh?