Builders are apprehensive about generative technology

“I’m fully aware that I could wake up tomorrow and lose my job,” says Jess Hyland.

The video game artist says the industry he has spent nearly 15 years working in is in a “shaky” state at the moment.

The surge in players and profits during the pandemic led to a flood of investments, expansions and acquisitions that now seem short-sighted.

Gaming remains profitable, but thousands of workers around the world have lost their jobs, and successful studios have closed over the past two years.

There is a possibility of more closures and cuts.

“Everyone knows someone who’s been laid off. There’s a lot of anxiety about the future,” says Jess.

Some bosses are talking up generic AI – the technology behind tools like ChatGPT – as a potential savior.

Tech giant Nvidia has shown off impressive development tool prototypes, and gaming industry giants like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are investing in the tech.

It has been claimed that AI tools can do this Save development time, free up workers to focus on creativity Provide a more personalized user experience.

With budgets rising as well as audience expectations rising at the blockbuster end of the industry, this seems like an ideal solution.

But not everyone.

“The people who are most excited about AI enabled creativity are not creatives,” says Jess, a member of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain’s branch of Game Workers. She sits on its artificial intelligence working group.

Against the backdrop of widespread layoffs, Jess says the skepticism among workers is that bosses see AI as a path to cost-cutting while labor is their biggest expense.

Jess says she knows someone who lost his job because of AI, and she’s heard of the same happening to others.

There are also dozens of online accounts suggesting that jobs in concept art and other traditional entry-level roles have been affected.

Most companies creating AI tools stress that they are not designed to replace humans, and there is widespread agreement that the technology is a long way from being able to do so.

Jess says the bigger concern is that “jobs will change, but not in a good way”.

Instead of creating their own content, artists are concerned that they can complement AI’s efforts, not the other way around, Jess says.

It’s an idea echoed by Chris Knowles, former senior engine developer at UK gaming firm Jagex, best known for its RuneScape titles.

“If you’re having to hire original human artists to fix the output, why not harness their creativity now and build an unused thing that unused gamers will interact with?” He says.

Chris, who now runs UK indie studio SideQuest Ninja, says that in his experience smaller developers generally aren’t excited about using generative AI.

One of his concerns is about clone games.

Online game stores – where indie developers make most of their sales – are filled with imitations of the original titles.

This is especially true for mobile games, Chris says, and studios have been set up “to produce complete clones”.

He says that it is not yet possible to break an entire game using AI, but copying assets like artwork can be done easily.

“The rest of that makes the industry type of clone studio even less expensive and makes the difficult task of working at a financially sustainable indie studio even more difficult,” says Chris.

He also points out requires huge amounts of electricity Running generative AI systems as a major concern.

Some people in the industry are more positive about AI.

Composer Borislav Slavov, who won a BAFTA Games Award for his work on Baldur’s Gate 3, told the BBC that he was “interested in what AI can bring to the desk for tracks within this year itself”.

Speaking at the recent Games Music Festival in London, he said he believed it would enable musicians to “find track instructions faster” and take them out of their comfort zone.

He said, “It can allow composers to focus more on the essence – being affected and composing deeply emotional and powerful themes.”

However, he agreed that AI “cannot replace the human soul and spirit”.

While Jess has serious personal reservations about using technology to “automate creativity”, Jess says she wouldn’t be against using it to take the burden off some of the more repetitive admin tasks that come along. A feature of most projects.