Steam Has Clarified Its Rules on the Use of AI in Video Games

The last several weeks of the now-concluded 2025 were dominated by a heated debate over whether online video game storefronts should require developers to disclose the use of generative artificial intelligence in their games or not.

Although Tim Sweeney emerged as one of the most visible voices in the discussion – arguing that AI disclosure makes no sense – it was not Epic Games Store but rather Steam that became entangled in the controversy, by virtue of being far more relevant than EGS and of already having a mandatory – though lacklusterly enforced – AI disclosure, introduced in early 2024 and criticized by some for failing to reflect the nuances of the AI issues as they stand in 2025.

In what most certainly appears to be a response to this kerfuffle in particular, Steam has recently updated the Generative Artificial Intelligence form developers must complete when publishing their games, clarifying what should and should not be considered AI use and, by extension, shedding light on Valve's own position on the matter.

As spotted by GameDiscoverCo, the updated form now specifies that it applies only to content "consumed by players," with its scope including – but not limited to – artwork, audio, localization, narrative, marketing materials, what appears on a game's Steam page, and any Steam Community assets.

At the same time, the form clarifies that, as far as Steam and Valve are concerned, they have no interest in AI-powered tools embedded in the software used by developers, and will not require disclosure of any "efficiency gains" developers may obtain from using such tools.

TL;DR – if you're a game developer who, for example, used ChatGPT to sanity-check your code, employed an image generator to ideate on concept art, or simply employed a piece of software with AI capabilities without using those capabilities for any content players would interact with, you won't have to blemish your project's Steam page with a Black Spot that many gamers view AI disclosures as.

At the same time, it certainly may come across as a largely cosmetic change – let's face it, Valve probably was never enforcing the disclosure of strictly-for-development-workflolws AI usage for the thousands of games arriving on its platform every year – but at least it's now been put in writing that using Substance 3D tools doesn't require disclosure just because they have Firefly integrated.

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