Epic CEO Tim Sweeney considers AI labels pointless
Steam indicates whether AI was used in video game development. For Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, it's nonsense: Developers might as well state their shampoo brand.
(Image: DANIEL CONSTANTE / Shutterstock.com)
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is not a fan of AI labeling in video game stores. In a post on X, he writes that AI labels are important for art exhibitions and digital content marketplaces to clarify copyright situations. However, in video game stores, disclosing AI usage is pointless, as AI will be used in almost all future productions anyway.
Epic's own Epic Games Store has no labels or other indicators that inform about the use of AI in the development of a video game. This is different for competitor Steam: On the store page, there is a subsection called "Disclosure of AI-generated content," where developers must write a short text about whether and how AI was used for development.
(Image:Â X)
Questionable significance
The significance of these declarations is indeed mixed: "Our team uses generative AI tools to develop selected game elements," writes the team behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. "During the development process, we may use procedural and AI-powered tools to assist in content creation. In all these cases, however, the final product reflects the creativity and expressiveness of our development team," writes the team behind Arc Raiders.
Given the stance of CEO Tim Sweeney, it is unlikely that such AI acknowledgments will be seen in the Epic Games Store in the future. "Why stop at using AI? We could also be obliged to disclose which shampoo brand the developer uses. Customers have a right to know that," he scoffs in another post.
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Controversial AI
Discussions about the use of AI are keeping the video game industry on its toes. In recent months alone, there have been several cases where AI-generated texts or artworks have made their way into finished games. This happened, for example, with The Alters and Anno 117. In both cases, the developers removed the detected AI content with the explanation that it was an oversight. In other cases, developers use AI images relatively openly – including the team behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
In a study by the Game Developers Conference published earlier this year, 36 percent of the surveyed game developers stated that they are already using generative AI in their work. At the same time, a firm rejection is evident in many places: in the previous year's survey, 18 percent of respondents indicated that their companies were not interested in using generative AI. In the current study, this figure is 27 percent.
(dahe)
