AI Is Getting Ridiculous
The rise in prominence of AI tools has been fascinating and unnerving. “Fascinating” through how technologically capable it is and for the speed at which it continues to improve, not to mention that — be honest here — it’s intriguing to see how far this will go. But it’s more “unnerving” to see how it’s being used. Programs like Midjourney (which recently improved the hands) and ChatGPT have the ultimate potential to put artists and writers out of jobs. Those are only the most popular two of the many emerging AI programs from corporations that desire to get in on the “fun.”
One vulnerable group largely wasn’t considered to be in danger from this: Video game development team members. Recent announcements and evidence are enough to suggest that they should start getting concerned too.
Ubisoft proudly announced the development of an “AI ghostwriter” program that will, according to them, “save scriptwriters time.” The so-called Ubisoft Ghostwriter will generate “the first draft of [their] NPC barks,” specifically the lines for NPCs wandering around the massive open worlds that AAA Ubisoft titles are wont to feature. (Whether those open worlds are worthwhile themselves is another complicated issue for a different post.) The tool, they also claim, was created by the company’s internal scriptwriters to “create more realistic NPC interactions” through the generation of dialogue. The video includes a small display of the impressive technology.
None of the selling points included alongside the video demonstration and in the YouTube description are nefarious. The technology likely was created to help scriptwriters with the repetitive dialogue for background NPCs, and perhaps for dialogue initiated by players upon directly interacting with one. It could save the scriptwriters time while they focus on the main game’s overarching story, which need all the attention they can get with how large the games themselves are.
It’s difficult to see how this won’t eventually replace the scriptwriters themselves in the future. Ubisoft perhaps still has employees who were directly assigned to writing the NPC dialogue, and are likely also tending to other tasks while handling their main jobs because that’s how employment works these days. Their main jobs will become editing dialogue AI creates for now, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if, or when, Ubisoft gets rid of them after the AI system is so significantly improved over time that it can edit itself. After further improvements, it could start writing entire video game scripts, with the capability of editing them too.
It’s not just video game scriptwriters whose jobs will be in peril when the AI improves, but others in game development as a whole. This was illustrated through slides over tweets and images from a presentation during this week’s Game Developer’s Conference. One shows how an AI program can produce “tiling textures” and “mapping” that can be used over any virtual object to generate “geometry, animation, and materials together.” The third slide details how the results can look, which appear as simple as a bunch of other Roblox projects and other creative endeavors through Dreams visually. But the results will be good enough to impress most players.
And just before this post was planned to go live, I saw that Unity announced their own AI equivalent, fittingly dubbed “Unity AI.” Folks, what a trend.
It’s not hyperbole to believe that these tools could one day replace the developers whose jobs it is to make them, at least of the lower and mid-tier gaming project varieties. The pattern was laid out above: First comes the tools, then comes the usage of them to “save time” with employees polishing them, last comes the usage of AI tools so up to snuff that editors and polishers are no longer required for them. Said editors of the AI-generated text and development tools will be paid less, since content generation ostensibly won’t require as much work as writing or creating content from comparative scratch, respectively.
This is one reason why an intense ensuing fight is being waged for stronger labor protections across plenty of tech-adjacent industries. Those some workers have secured through unionization efforts are perhaps not strong enough to prevent AI from taking their jobs eventually, but it’s something good for now. It would be nice if the gaming audience was more concerned about the plights of developers and those in other industries, who could soon reckon with the quickly advancing efforts of AI. It only requires the slightest bit of empathy to spare thoughts for people whose jobs will shift to AI editing for less pay, before they vanish altogether.
I won’t lie and be optimistic for the sake of finding a bright spot here, because this all feels grim and hopeless. Corporations won’t hesitate to wholesale replace entire jobs with AI thanks to the perpetual desire to create more consumable content for less money. These all sound like scenarios that could come to pass in the distant future, but consider the strides that AI technology has made in such a short time. What was unthinkable only a year, or perhaps six months, ago could be reality sooner than many think, and workers in plenty of industries and those who wish to support them should spend time contemplating this.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
