LogInIts CEO Chris Cocks seems excited about the prospect of adding more AI-made stuff despite having to apologize for it before.
While the world is raging about AI stealing jobs, some companies are looking forward to using its cheap labor, which shouldn't be surprising, really. One of them is Hasbro, a famous giant behind Monopoly, Furby, Magic: The Gathering, and more, also owning Wizards of the Coast, the holder of the Dungeons & Dragons rights.
In an interview with VentureBeat, its CEO Chris Cocks talked about the future of its products, and the topic of AI couldn't be avoided. Cocks shared that Hasbro regularly experiments with AI and wants to use it more.
"We’re doing some stuff around AI that’s really interesting. As I said earlier, we’re trying to do a new AI product experiment once every two to three months. That’s tending to be more game-focused for us, a little more gamified. We’re trying to keep it toward older audiences, to make sure all the content is appropriate."
He seemed really excited about implementing the fruit of this research in games and promised to show more of how the company can integrate digital with physical gaming using AI.
While its research and development efforts continue, Cocks emphasized responsible use and respect for creators, which is admirable but sounds a little strange considering how Wizards of the Coast had to apologize for using AI in its D&D book and Magic: The Gathering promo (if you can call it an apology.)
Image credit: Wizards of the Coast
"The key there is the responsible use of it," said Cocks. "We have an even higher bar we need to hit because we serve audiences of all ages. We go from preschoolers on up to adulthood. I don’t think we can be very cavalier in how we think about AI. That said, it’s exciting. There’s a lot of potential for delighting audiences. We need to make sure that we do it in a way that respects the creators we work with, respects their works of art, respects their ownership of those works, and also creates a fun and safe environment for kids who might use it."
He is sure Hasbro can build interesting and compelling use cases for AI and useful tools for content makers. To him, AI serves as a helper, a co-creator: "It’s truly embracing a community mindset to a brand being owned by more than just a company, but by hundreds of thousands of fans who care as passionately about it as you do."
Cocks uses AI in his personal D&D campaigns as well and is very happy with its results:
"I play D&D three or four times a month with my friends. I’m horrible at art. I don’t commercialize anything I do. It doesn’t have anything to do with work. But what I’m able to accomplish with the Bing image creator, or talking to ChatGPT, it really delights my middle-aged friends when I do a Roll20 campaign or a D&D Beyond campaign and I put some PowerPoints together on a TV and call it an interactive map."
I'm not sure the "horrible at art" part will help this case, but at least he talked about respect for artists and responsibility, right?
Overall, Cocks sees AI as a great technology that will make games more engaging when we find the right way to use it.
"While there are definitely areas of concern that we have to be watchful for, and there are definitely elements to the chess game that we have to think about before we move, it’s a really cool technology that has a lot of playfulness associated with it. If we can figure out how to harness it the right way, it’ll end up being a boon for users."
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