Wizards of the Coast is once again under fire from the community for its use of generative AI, this time in the context of video games.
Generative AI remains a hot topic for the tabletop and video game communities. By and large, people want stories and games made by actual humans, not generic, clunky “AI” trained on Reddit posts and copy-pastes. Meanwhile, companies want to cut costs by keeping tedious humans from doing the creative work that brings in big profits.
It's a combination made in hell. And we've all experienced it. Generative AI in video games and tabletop RPGs both evoke the same emotions. WotC, which is heavily invested in both fields, is once again under fire for the potential use of generative AI, this time for video games.
This is significant because, despite adopting a position on using generative AI to create video game assets, WotC maintains that its stance on AI art and reliance on human work has not changed.
Wizards of the Coast seems to have decided to use AI after all
This is why we continue this conversation. Last August, an AI image BigB Presents: Glory of the GiantsIt sparked a huge backlash among the community, which led Wizards of the Coast to issue a statement saying they would never use generative AI to create art or writing.
And earlier this year, the Magic: The Gathering Twitter account once again caught the attention of the community when it used AI art in promotional materials for an upcoming set, sparking backlash and new controversy.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, VentureBeat interviewed Hasbro CEO Chris Cox, who revealed he was “excited about AI,” before issuing a new statement saying that WotC doesn't use AI and is focused on creating content by humans, for humans.
We are looking for AI engineers
Naturally, we are back again, this time with Wizards of the Coast under fire for a new job ad. Now, the relationship between video games and AI is more nuanced. After all, your enemies need AI. This is a problem that arises from terminology. We call generative AI an art when it is neither artificial intelligence nor art.
A new job ad is seeking to hire a Principal AI Engineer, which would be fine except for a few key points.
The big takeaway is that AI engineers will build and deploy “systems that intelligently generate text dialogue, audio, and art assets,” and will use AI for “content creation and audio generation.” In other words, instead of paying voice actors and writers, they'll use generative AI.
And WotC's response to the community outcry in the first place seems to be “it's for a video game, so it doesn't count,” WotC told Comicbook.com:
Our stance on AI has not changed. This job description is for a role on a future video game project. You can find our AI FAQ here.
This may be WotC trying to kill two birds with one stone, but either way, it seems WotC is still adamant about not using AI for D&D and Magic, at least in the main versions of those products. Other than that, who knows for now.
As generative AI becomes more prevalent, the future for us all becomes uncertain.
