AI in Gaming: What does the future hold?
I'm leaving this as a more open post for discussion from the community since I'm legitimately curious about what folks here think about the use of AI in the gaming space. (And yes... it'll be funny to see the bot comments roll through here, given the context.) I put similar disclaimers on the majority of my "open discussion" posts, and it's more or less common sense, but remember: this is meant to be supporting conversation and civil debate, not bickering or arguments. Don't be rude or troll-y, we're all here to celebrate free keys and new tech advances, so let's keep the fun rolling.
AI isn't a new concept, however, we are at the forefront of brand new legal and philosophical/ethical conversations forming in industries that AI has entered, as the waters are still murky with this burgeoning tech. Many elements of the gaming industry are up for AI grabs, as we're seeing gaming companies use AI to create concept art, generate code, write stories, and entertain/interact with people (such as Vtuber streamers). While AI as a whole is still a long way from being perfect and still has some wrinkles to iron out (take this recent Vtuber controversy here), it doesn't appear like AI is going to go away any time soon. Some people (like Hideo Kojima) are embracing AI as the absolute future, with the aforementioned gaming icon saying he'll likely forego death and become an AI to continue collaborating and creating in the gaming space. (It's a joke now, but wait a few decades and it could be closer to reality than we think.) Others are worried about very legitimate issues like human job security, intellectual property rights, biased training sets, etc., and have a harsher disposition regarding how AI should be utilized in the industry.
So, I want to ask: What are your thoughts on AI, in general, and in gaming? Is it going to be a boon to the industry, or will it create more discord and issues than it's worth? Another question: would you play a game made by AI? What if there was a game, hypothetically, made with 100% AI-generated material? Assets, code, QA testing, and all the bells and whistles took care of by various machine learning. Would it even hold up compared to a "human" game? While AI-generated games have been made (and have not been well received for, well, several technical reasons) the reality of them catching up and becoming more viable will likely be here sooner than we think.
It's impressive to think about, but at least for me, it generates many deeper philosophical questions about art and the human experience. Sure, not all games are art-- sometimes, I just want to sit back after a long day at work and play a mindless shooter to blow off steam. Many games can be straightforward enough, but some games, even games that aren't meant to be particularly beautiful, have a compelling human element to them that feels impossible to mimic from a machine. Personally speaking? I'm suspicious and unimpressed by nature, so I am inclined toward being dubious of this newfangled software being used to generate things like art, music, and stories (that match a human caliber). (Cue the David Lynch meme format here.) There's not a great black-and-white definition for what to do about this new technology, and I don't expect "easy" answers. Still, this is a brand-new frontier of human technology, so it is worth asking yourself how you feel about it and its presence in industries you care about. We'll need to learn how to regulate and co-exist with AI at some point, and let's all hope we do a better job than the Quarians!
Let me know your thoughts below! I even generated the images attached to this write-up using an AI generator, just to interact with it more and get a sense of how it operates. (For those curious, I used 'gaming ai' as my prompt for the card, which is admittedly pretty basic but allows for a decent amount of extrapolation on the machine's behalf to interpret it as it would.)
