Epic Games CEO Argues Marketplaces Don't Need the "Made With AI" Label

Although many have come to see the gen AI vs. humans debate as a confrontation between Game Developers and Digital Artists on one side and major AI companies like Midjourney or OpenAI on the other, neither side is homogeneous in their opinions, with each individual holding their own view, which at times clashes with the opinion shared by the majority of the faction they're representing.

Case in point, a recent tweet from Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, who argued that video game marketplaces don't need the "Made With AI" tag, like the one Steam has.

Replying to a post by Unreal Engine Developer and Cinematographer Matt Workman, who originally kicked off the discussion, Sweeney said that while the AI tag makes sense for art exhibits to disclose authorship and for digital content marketplaces where buyers need clarity on rights, he doesn't believe it should be required on video game stores – suggesting we probably won't see an AI generated content discosure on Epic Games Store anytime soon – since, in his view, "AI will be involved in nearly all future production."

Sharing his view are Matt himself, as well as Andrew "the Blender donut guy" Price, so while an argument could easily be made that Sweeney, as the highest-level corporate executive, doesn't speak for Digital Artists, Andrew is undeniably one of the most well-known figures in the digital art community, driving home the aforementioned point about there being no cookie-cutter opinions.

That said, aside from Workman and Price, the vast majority of the community didn't find the idea of concealing the use of generative AI all that enticing, viewing it as nothing but a way for AI-slop pushers to obscure its use from consumers, be it a gamer buying a game or an artist purchasing an asset. If one were to summarize the common sentiment in a single sentence, it would be: "The fact you're trying to hide it speaks volumes in itself."

So, while one could hop on the hatewagon and fling a few strong obscenities at Sweeney, there's another, perhaps wiser, takeaway we can have from this whole kerfuffle and what came before it – the issue of AI is becoming less black-and-white, showing flecks of gray here and there and growing more nuanced every day.

Sure, most people detest generative AI, criticize big-tech moguls for shoving it into every product, and roll their eyes at game trailers with generated visuals, but at the same time, much of the same community seems to be perfectly cool with AI-powered retopology tools or, for instance, Cascadeur's Inbetweening keyframe animation tool, and mocks overzealous reviewers who dock a game's score over a tiny percentage of its voice lines having been made with TTS.

Thesis and antithesis are finally colliding into a synthesis of some kind right before our eyes, and if that's not a silver lining here, I don't know what is.

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