LogIn"AI is going to become more and more difficult to detect."
Epic Games
Generative AI is everywhere, even in big companies' products, so naturally, simple players who don't have the money to hire professional artists are going to use it for things like thumbnails in Fortnite Discovery.
If you were hoping Epic Games would remove them, you're in for a disappointment. During a recent stream on YouTube, product management director Dan Walsh and executive vice president Saxs Persson discussed the matter and explained that Epic won't be getting rid of them.
"From our perspective, for moderation, thumbnails… we don't really care what tool you use to make your thumbnails. All we care about is whether or not it's compliant with our rules," Walsh said (via PC Gamer).
Generative AI is getting more popular and advanced, so finding it will become more difficult in the future and take too much effort.
"I think to some degree AI is going to become more and more difficult to detect," he added. "It's not going to stand out as a unique thing, it's just going to be another tool that people are using to create things. So trying to look for that specifically is going to become increasingly difficult to the point that it's probably going to become unenforceable."
Long story short, Epic is more interested in players not violating Fortnite rules than creating original thumbnails. Moreover, Walsh believes that clearly AI-made images make it easier to spot thumbnails created by humans.
"When you look at people who are putting in the effort and investing in creating the best possible version of a thumbnail, I think they're standing out from the crowd."
Persson agreed, saying that if you can detect an AI thumbnail, it means it has a particular look that, "if you can stand apart with a particular artist that has a distinct style, you're still standing out against what is, in truth, a lot of very generic-looking AI-generated art."
He added that Epic doesn't feel it needs to start making Fortnite outfits using AI models. It uses AI, just not generative, in its products, like MetaHuman, and "it's revolutionising a lot of workflows to make them incredibly powerful."
The company believes this approach "embraces technology but puts humans in the centre of it still, because that's how you get the best results."
So, you will keep seeing AI-made thumbnails, but hopefully, Epic itself won't stoop to such measures.
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