Gaming studios should be applauded when they are transparent about their use of AI in game creation, two of the UK’s leading AI experts have said — all the more so when they have adopted a “human-in the-loop” architecture to create or evolve their games.
Rohit Parmar-Mistry, founder of AI consultancy, Pattrn Data, says the criticism levelled at Embark Studios for using AI text-to-speech in Arc Raiders that was trained on human voice artists sets a dangerous precedent.
Doing so, he argues, penalises all-important transparency and will result in unethical AI practices in the industry.
He says: “When we punish disclosure, we don’t stop bad practice, we simply stop knowing about good practice. We drive the ethical companies into silence and leave the field open for the chancers who are happy to operate in the shadows.”
Parmar-Mistry adds that the gaming industry, like every other sector coming to terms with AI, is at a crossroads: “We can either have an industry where AI is a dirty secret, hidden behind NDAs and vague marketing speak, or we can have an industry where implementation is open, challenged and improved.”
Commercial suicide
AI consultant and author, Colette Mason, warned that being transparent around the use of AI can too often amount to “commercial suicide”.
She says: “Businesses want to say ‘we use human+AI collaboration to deliver better outcomes’ but most are too scared to say how and where it’s used.
“Why? Because the harsh world of online forums doesn’t judge intent or implementation. Naysayers cherry-pick the word ‘AI’, ignore everything else and go for the jugular.”
Parmar-Mistry, himself a gamer who spends a lot of his spare time on Star Citizen, says AI is here to stay and that we need to avoid slamming its use in the gaming industry.
Instead, the focus should be on ensuring it is used ethically and in a way that can deliver better outcomes for both the people playing games online and those creating them.
He says: “It is time to stop fearing the acronym and start judging the implementation.”
Photo by Javier Martínez on Unsplash
