'Ethical Use of AI Technology Is Very Important to Us.' Director of Highly Acclaimed Space Strategy Defends Use of AI in Games, Maintaining Rigor With Stellaris
The director of Stellaris: The Machine Age responded to players' concerns about the use of artificial intelligence. He pointed out that no AI-generated graphics or texts made it into the game, but it will include the voices of actors who gave their consent.
The director of Stellaris, a science fiction strategy game, recently visited Reddit to respond to players' concerns about the use of AI in the creation of the latest expansion to this game - The Machine Age.
What was AI used for?
Stephen "Eladrin" Muray clearly stated that the devs didn't use any graphics generated by AI in the game. However, he confirmed that a few of them could have been found on developers' desks as part of the creative process.
Personally, I use image generation tools to make basic sketches of things the System Designers and I are thinking of. [...] The artists then take our ideas and might or might not use them as inspiration to make final assets.
The situation is identical to the text, which, according to the director, was generated only to "break the writer's block."
The inclusion of two voices in the game, which were created by artificial intelligence, may cause greater controversy. However, Muray claims that the dubbing actors, whose voice samples were used for this, agreed to it and received appropriate remuneration.
Ethical use of AI technology is very important to us - we're pretty good at exploring dystopian sci-fi and don't want to end up there ourselves.
It's worth noting that Stellaris isn't the first game to use artificial intelligence. You definitely recall the instance of the synthesized voice of the late actor in the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077, and that's just scratching the surface.
Despite this, this technology still evokes mixed feelings and has both its supporters and opponents. This can also be seen in the reviews of Stellaris: The Machine Age on Steam. Although their overall tone is "very positive," it's not difficult to come across opinions expressing dissatisfaction with the use of AI.
