Game Developers in Panic: AI’s Uncertain Future Threatens Industry

AI in game creation could make things run more smoothly, but creative people  are worried that they will lose their jobs and face new creative challenges as the industry changes.

Jess Hyland is a video game artist who says the field she’s worked in for almost 15 years is “shaky” right now.During the pandemic, there were a lot of new players and big gains. This led to a lot of investments, expansions, and purchases that, looking back, were not the best idea.

Gaming is still making money, but over the past two years, thousands of people around the world have lost their jobs and famous studios have shut down.

“Everyone knows someone who lost their job.” “People are very worried about the future,” says Jess Hyland.

Tech giant Nvidia has shown off impressive prototypes of development tools, and big names in the game industry like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are putting money into the tech. AI tools are said to cut down on development time, give workers more time to be creative, and give users a more tailored experience. It sounds like the perfect answer since budgets for blockbuster films are going up and up as people’s expectations rise.

“Artists aren’t the ones who are most excited about AI making creativity possible,” says Jess, a member of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain’s group for game workers. She is a member of its working group on artificial intelligence. Jess says she knows someone who lost their job because of AI and has heard of other people who have also lost their jobs.

Most companies that make AI tools say their products aren’t meant to replace people, and most people agree that the technology is still a long way from being able to do that. Publicly available AI picture generators, for instance, can quickly make results that look great from simple text commands, but they are notoriously bad at drawing hands. They may also have trouble sitting down.

Gaming is a huge business, but it’s also a form of art that brings together, among others, singers, writers, programmers, actors, and artists. People often worry that AI will make the work of creative people harder instead of easier.